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Florida Cruise Ship Injury Lawyer
Maritime injury and wrongful death representation for passengers and crew injured at sea.
IN THIS ARTICLE
- Quick Answer
- Why Cruise Cases Are Different
- Maritime Law Snapshot
- How Cruise Lines Are Held Liable
- Common Cruise Injuries
- A Day That Changes Everything
- What You Can Recover
- Our Six-Step Process
- What NOT To Do
- Florida Cruise Ports We Serve
- Service Area
- Why Choose Kaiser Romanello
- Meet Your Attorneys
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Speak With a Maritime Lawyer
- Legal Disclaimer
Hurt on a cruise? Cruise injury claims are governed by federal maritime law, not Florida personal injury law. Most major cruise contracts give you only one year to file a federal lawsuit and six months to send written notice — far shorter than Florida's two-year general PI deadline. Cases must usually be filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. Kaiser Romanello is a Florida firm admitted in that court, and we represent injured passengers against Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, Disney, and other lines on a contingency basis. Call (844) 877-8679 for a free, confidential review.
- 1 yrFederal Maritime Filing Deadline
- 6 moWritten Notice Requirement
- 15+Florida Cruise Terminals We Cover
- $0Up-Front Fees — Contingency Only
Why Cruise Cases Are Not Like Other Personal Injury Cases
If you have ever handled a Florida car wreck claim, throw the playbook out. Cruise injury cases are governed by federal maritime and admiralty law, with overlays from international conventions and the cruise line's own ticket contract. The deadlines are dramatically shorter, the courts are different, the rules of evidence are different, and the defendants are sophisticated multinational corporations with in-house maritime defense teams on retainer.
The most dangerous trap is the timeline. A passenger who breaks a hip on a Royal Caribbean ship in March cannot wait until the next March to "see how things heal" before calling a lawyer. By then, the six-month notice deadline is already gone, and the one-year filing deadline is right behind it. Generalist personal injury firms handling a cruise case as a one-off frequently miss those deadlines because they apply Florida's familiar two-year rule by mistake. We do not.
The second trap is venue. The cruise contract printed in microscopic type buried in your booking confirmation almost always contains a forum selection clause requiring suit in a specific federal court — usually the Southern District of Florida in Miami. The U.S. Supreme Court has generally upheld these clauses even when the passenger never read them. Trying to sue Carnival in your home state will almost always result in dismissal or transfer. We file in the right court from day one.
Maritime Law Snapshot
Five legal concepts drive nearly every cruise injury case. If your attorney is not fluent in all five, your case is in trouble.
One-Year Filing Deadline
Federal maritime law and most cruise contracts impose a one-year statute of limitations to file suit, codified at 46 U.S.C. § 30106. Florida's two-year general PI deadline does not apply.
Six-Month Written Notice
Most cruise tickets require written notice of the claim within six months of the injury. Miss this and the case can be dismissed even if the lawsuit itself was filed within the year.
Federal Forum Selection
Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and MSC contracts funnel suits into the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. We are admitted in that court.
Reasonable Care Under the Circumstances
Cruise lines are common carriers and owe passengers a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances of the voyage — a standard interpreted by federal admiralty courts, not Florida juries.
Pure Comparative Fault
Federal maritime law uses pure comparative fault. Even a passenger 70 percent at fault can still recover the remaining 30 percent — unlike Florida's modified 50 percent bar under HB 837.
Death on the High Seas Act
If a passenger dies more than three nautical miles offshore, DOHSA limits recovery to pecuniary losses. Pain and suffering and loss of companionship are generally not available for adult deaths.
Your one-year clock started the day you left the ship.
Talk to a Florida maritime attorney today — no fee unless we recover.
Call (844) 877-8679How Cruise Lines Are Held Liable
"Reasonable care under the circumstances" sounds modest until you see how federal courts apply it. A Florida cruise ship injury lawyer building a passenger case typically pursues one or more of the following theories:
- Negligent maintenance. Wet pool decks left without warning cones, threadbare carpet on staircases, broken handrails, missing non-skid strips, or burned-out lighting in passageways the crew has known about for weeks.
- Negligent design. Trip-edges between thresholds, water-slide angles that exceed industry standards, glass shower doors without safety film, and bunk-bed ladders that fold or shift under weight.
- Failure to warn. No signage on a slick teak deck after rain, no warning about violent crime in a port-of-call neighborhood, no warning of the strong currents at a beach a shore excursion lands on.
- Negligent training and supervision. Crew untrained in CPR, security officers who never investigate guest complaints, lifeguards absent from the children's pool.
- Apparent agency. When the cruise line marketed, ticketed, vetted, and supervised a shore excursion, it cannot hide behind an "independent contractor" disclaimer printed on the back of the ticket.
- Negligent medical care. Onboard physicians who miss obvious heart attacks, fail to evacuate, or release passengers back to their cabins to die.
- Crew assault. A cruise line that knew or should have known a crew member had a history of misconduct and put that person near passengers anyway.
Common Cruise Ship Injuries We Handle
Cruise ships are floating cities. The same hazards that injure people on land are amplified by wet decks, moving walkways, and round-the-clock alcohol service. We represent passengers and crew injured by:
- Slip-and-fall and trip-and-fall accidents on wet pool decks, staircases, dance floors, polished hallways, and unmarked thresholds
- Food poisoning and norovirus outbreaks linked to contaminated buffets or unsanitary preparation areas
- Water slide, FlowRider, and pool injuries, including spinal injuries from poorly designed slides
- Shore excursion injuries on snorkeling tours, ziplines, jet ski rentals, parasailing, scuba dives, and shuttle transportation
- Onboard medical malpractice, including missed diagnoses, delayed shoreside evacuation, and negligent emergency care
- Sexual assault and battery by crew members or other passengers, plus failure to investigate or preserve evidence
- Drowning and near-drowning in pools, hot tubs, and aboard tenders
- Elevator, escalator, and automatic door injuries
- Sports and recreational injuries on basketball courts, ice rinks, ropes courses, climbing walls, and surf simulators
- Falls overboard and man-overboard incidents, including failure to detect, report, or respond
- Fires, explosions, and engine room incidents
- Crew member injuries pursued under the Jones Act for ship employees hurt in the course of duty
- Wrongful death claims, including deaths in U.S. territorial waters and deaths beyond three nautical miles offshore under DOHSA
A Day That Changes Everything
Day three of an eight-night Caribbean sailing. The seas are calm. A retired teacher is walking back from breakfast on the lido deck when a wave of seawater sloshes from the pool deck above onto the polished marble walkway. There is no warning cone. There is no crew member in sight. Her right foot goes out from under her and she lands on her left hip. By the time the ship docks in Miami six days later, she is in a wheelchair, terrified to fly home, and a young man from "guest relations" has already asked her three times to sign something he will not let her photograph. She does not know that her notice deadline has already started running, that her one-year deadline has already started running, and that the cruise line's preserved video of the spill area — if any — will be overwritten in 30 days.
That is the case we want her to call us about before she signs anything.
What You Can Recover
Damages in a cruise injury case fall into two broad categories. Federal maritime law and any applicable cruise-contract limitations control which categories are available and how they are proven.
Economic Damages
- Past medical bills, including onboard medical center charges
- Future medical care, surgery, rehabilitation, and assistive devices
- Lost wages from time away from work
- Diminished future earning capacity for permanent injuries
- Out-of-pocket costs (medications, transportation, home modifications)
- For wrongful death cases, pecuniary losses to surviving family
Non-Economic Damages
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional distress and mental anguish
- Loss of enjoyment of life and inability to participate in activities
- Disfigurement and scarring
- Loss of consortium for spouses, in many cases
- Note: DOHSA generally bars these damages for adult deaths beyond three nautical miles offshore
We do not list dollar figures on our website because every case is different. What we will tell you, in the first conversation, is what categories of damages your facts realistically support and what proof we will need to maximize each one.
Our Six-Step Maritime Case Process
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Free Consultation
Call us at (844) 877-8679 or use our online form. An attorney — not just an intake clerk — reviews your facts, your booking, and your contract of carriage.
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Notice and Evidence Preservation
If you are within the six-month window, we send formal written notice to the cruise line within days, then issue litigation-hold demands so the line does not "lose" CCTV footage, incident reports, or medical center records.
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Investigation
We obtain medical records, photograph any preserved evidence, locate witnesses (including crew members already rotated off the ship), and consult maritime engineering experts when ship design is at issue.
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Federal Court Filing
We file in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami (or the contractually required forum), well within the one-year deadline. You do not need to fly to Florida to start your case.
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Discovery and Negotiation
Depositions, document discovery, expert reports, and mediation. Most cruise cases resolve in this phase — on terms that reflect how trial-ready the file looks.
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Trial or Settlement
If the cruise line refuses to make a fair offer, we try the case to a federal jury. Either way, we do not get paid unless you do.
What NOT To Do After a Cruise Injury
- Do not give a recorded statement to the cruise line, its claims adjuster, or its lawyers. Politely decline.
- Do not sign anything the cruise line offers you onboard or after — including waivers, releases, or "courtesy" credit forms.
- Do not wait to seek medical care. Onboard medical records, even brief ones, anchor your timeline.
- Do not post about the incident on social media. Anything you write can and will be used against you.
- Do not assume Florida's two-year statute applies. It almost certainly does not. Your real deadline is much shorter.
- Do not throw away clothing, footwear, or equipment from the incident. Preserve everything until an attorney has photographed it.
Florida Cruise Ports We Serve
Florida is home to the busiest cruise ports in the world. We represent injured passengers from sailings out of any of them, plus port-of-call incidents on Florida soil:
PortMiami
The busiest cruise port in the world. Homeport for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, and Virgin Voyages.
Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale)
Top-three U.S. cruise port. Princess, Holland America, Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean sailings to the Caribbean.
Port Canaveral
Primary U.S. homeport for Disney Cruise Line, plus major Carnival and Royal Caribbean operations near Orlando.
Port of Tampa
Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Holland America Western Caribbean itineraries from Florida's Gulf coast.
Port of Key West
Frequent port-of-call for Caribbean itineraries; common location for shore excursion and slip-and-fall incidents.
JAXPORT (Jacksonville)
Regional homeport for Carnival sailings from Northeast Florida and a hub for First Coast passengers.
Service Area
Kaiser Romanello, P.A. is a Florida personal injury and maritime injury firm with offices in Parkland (Broward County) and a statewide practice. We represent injured cruise passengers and crew from anywhere in the United States — you do not have to live in Florida to hire us. Because cruise contracts almost always require suit in federal court in Miami, our location is the location of your case.
We regularly handle matters arising from sailings out of PortMiami, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral, the Port of Tampa, the Port of Key West, and JAXPORT, as well as port-of-call incidents on excursions tied to Florida-based itineraries. If you are not sure whether your case has a Florida connection, call us; the connection is almost always there.
Why Choose Kaiser Romanello
Florida-Based, Federal-Court Admitted
Our attorneys practice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida — where most cruise cases are decided.
Contingency Fees Only
No retainer, no hourly billing, no fee unless we recover. The cruise line pays our fee out of the recovery.
Direct Attorney Access
You get an attorney's cell phone, not a queue. Calls and texts answered the same day — including evenings and weekends.
Bilingual Staff
Spanish-speaking attorneys and staff for clients and witnesses across South Florida and Latin America.
Deadline-Driven
We treat the six-month notice and one-year filing deadlines as sacred. We have never missed one, and we never will.
Trial Preparation in Every Case
Every file is built like it is going to trial. Cruise lines settle the cases that look most dangerous to try.
Meet Your Attorneys
Lorne Adam Kaiser
Lorne Kaiser is a founding partner of Kaiser Romanello, P.A. and a Florida-licensed trial attorney with decades of personal injury experience. He has handled complex injury and wrongful death matters across Florida, including cases involving catastrophic injuries, federal court litigation, and corporate defendants. His approach is direct: prepare every case as if it will be tried, and the resolution that follows is on the client's terms.
Steve Romanello
Steve Romanello is a founding partner of Kaiser Romanello, P.A. whose practice focuses on serious injury and wrongful death claims. He brings a meticulous, detail-driven approach to discovery and motion practice — the kind of work that wins cruise cases long before trial. He has represented injured passengers and family members against major corporate defendants in state and federal courts.
Both attorneys are admitted to practice in Florida federal court, which is where most cruise cases against Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, and other Florida-headquartered lines must be filed. Kaiser Romanello combines that federal-court access with the day-to-day Florida presence that out-of-state firms cannot match.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to file a claim after a cruise ship injury?
For most major cruise lines, you have one year from the date of injury to file a federal lawsuit and only six months to provide written notice of the claim. These deadlines are set by federal maritime law and the cruise contract, and they are dramatically shorter than Florida's standard two-year personal injury statute under HB 837. Do not wait to talk to a lawyer.
Do I have to fly to Florida to file the lawsuit?
No. Because we are already in Florida and admitted in Florida federal court, you do not need to travel here just to file or pursue your case. We handle the Florida court appearances, depositions can often be done remotely or in your home city, and you only need to come to Florida for trial if your case actually goes to trial — and most do not.
What if my cruise injury happened in international waters?
You can still bring a claim, but the law that applies depends on where the injury occurred and the nationality of the vessel. U.S. courts regularly handle injuries that occurred in international waters. If a passenger died beyond three nautical miles offshore, however, the Death on the High Seas Act may limit recoverable damages to economic, "pecuniary" losses. A Florida cruise injury lawyer can walk you through which body of law applies.
Can I still sue if the cruise contract requires me to sue in Miami?
Yes. The forum selection clause does not stop you from suing — it just controls where you file. For Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and MSC, the contract requires the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. Kaiser Romanello practices in that court, so you do not have to find a separate Miami attorney.
What if the cruise was partly my fault?
Federal maritime law applies pure comparative fault. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of responsibility, but partial fault does not bar your claim — even at 70 or 80 percent fault, you can still recover the remaining share. This is more favorable than Florida's modified 50 percent rule under HB 837, which bars recovery if a state-court PI plaintiff is more than 50 percent at fault.
Are shore excursion injuries covered?
Often, yes. Cruise lines fight excursion claims hard, usually arguing the tour operator is an "independent contractor" and pointing to a disclaimer in the ticket. Whether that defense actually holds up depends on how the excursion was marketed, sold, supervised, and represented to passengers. Many shore excursion cases settle once the cruise line's involvement is fully documented in discovery.
What types of injuries are commonly seen on cruise ships?
The most common cruise injuries involve slip-and-fall accidents on wet decks and stairs, food poisoning and norovirus outbreaks, water slide and pool injuries, shore excursion accidents, onboard medical malpractice, falls from bunk beds and balconies, sexual assaults, and elevator injuries. Wrongful death claims arise most often from drowning, falls overboard, and untreated medical emergencies.
What evidence should I preserve?
Photos and video of the scene and your injuries, the cruise line's incident report, all medical records (onboard and onshore), your booking confirmation and ticket, names and contact information for witnesses, the clothing and footwear you were wearing, and any communications you receive from the cruise line, including emails, claim numbers, and adjuster names. The earlier we are involved, the more we can do to preserve evidence on the ship itself before it disappears.
How much does it cost to hire Kaiser Romanello?
Nothing up front. We work on a contingency-fee basis, which means our fee comes out of the recovery only if we obtain one for you. If we do not recover, you pay no attorney's fee. The free consultation is genuinely free, with no obligation to hire us afterward.
Speak With a Florida Cruise Ship Injury Lawyer Today
Cruise injury cases reward early action and punish delay. The cruise line already has lawyers, investigators, and a claims team working against you. You deserve a Florida firm with the same level of intensity working for you. Call now or request a free, confidential case review online — no fee unless we recover.
Call (844) 877-8679 Free Case ReviewLegal Disclaimer. The information on this page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different; outcomes depend on specific facts and applicable law. Maritime and admiralty law is complex and subject to short statutes of limitations and contractual notice requirements; if you believe you have a cruise injury claim, contact a qualified maritime attorney immediately. Reading this page or contacting Kaiser Romanello, P.A. through this website does not, by itself, establish an attorney-client relationship; that relationship is formed only by a written engagement agreement signed by both the client and the firm. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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“Kaiser Romanello changed my life. They are The Dream Team! Could not recommend them anymore! If you want to get the most money for your personal injury claim call Kaiser Romanello today!”
-Lu R
Former client
“l just got off the phone with Mr. Loren Kaiser for a free consultation and he was absolutely amazing. He was extremely helpful, detail oriented and did not add any “rushed” feeling to the phone call. If I have anything substantial to move forward with, I will proudly utilize this law office. Thank you, Mr. Kaiser, for your help, input and advice! It is greatly appreciated.”
-Trina R
Former client
“Steve and his partner are just very knowledgeable, amazing client service, Steve it is the kind of persons who loves what he is doing, he went about and beyond his lawyer responsibilities in my case, they care about you, If you are looking for professionals at the highest levels, use their services. Not only you will be represented by top lawyers, but you feel like part of the family. Thanks for everything, God bless you.”
-Carlos V
Former client
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Lorne A. Kaiser Partner & Co-Founder | Kaiser Romanello Accident and Injury Attorneys
A veteran Florida trial lawyer and co-founder of Kaiser Romanello. With two decades of experience fighting insurance companies, Lorne is dedicated to securing maximum compensation for accident victims across the state.