Every year, residents and visitors to the state of Louisiana head to port in order to embark on cruises. While many people enjoy their vacations without incident, there are others who suffer injuries while aboard cruise ships. These individuals likely have a lot of questions about who can be held responsible for their losses. An experienced maritime law attorney would be able to answer such questions.
Personal injury cases that involve cruise ships or other common carriers are not handled the same as, say, car accident cases. Maritime law is a specialized area of the law and quite different from tort law. Nevertheless, a cruise ship operator may be held accountable for passenger injury caused by willful actions or negligence.
Those who wish to file personal injury claims against cruise ship operators must do so within a specific time frame. Statutes of limitations do apply in these cases. In order for such claims to be successful, one will have to prove carrier negligence contributed to one’s losses. Information about how one can take legal action can actually be found on the back of his or her cruise ship ticket.
Those individuals who wish to pursue compensation for cruise ship injuries may have a long legal battle in front of them. Establishing negligence can take time and cruise operators will likely have strong legal teams on their side working to squash injury claims. This does not mean such cases are impossible to win. A Louisiana-based attorney with experience handling maritime law cases will know what questions to ask and how to investigate the matter before seeking to settle a case or taking the matter to court.