By Jay Wasserman
South Florida is the cruise capital of the world. PortMiami, Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, and Port Canaveral near Orlando together send millions of passengers to sea every year, and the three largest cruise companies (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian) are all headquartered in Miami-Dade County. When passengers are hurt on those ships, the claims come here, whether the passenger lives in Boca Raton or Ohio.
They also come in on unfamiliar terms. A fall on a wet pool deck looks like a slip and fall at a Florida hotel, and families naturally assume Florida law, a Florida jury, and the two-year negligence deadline apply. Usually none of those assumptions holds. The injury is governed by federal general maritime law, the deadline is set by the passenger ticket contract, and the forum is set by a clause most passengers accepted with a checkbox during online booking.
The single most important fact in this article is the deadline. Most cruise tickets require written notice of the claim within six months and a lawsuit filed within one year of the injury. Federal law permits exactly that. A passenger who waits for the Florida two-year clock, or for the federal three-year maritime period, will find the claim barred long before either runs.
Federal maritime law governs what happens on board
An injury on a cruise ship on navigable waters is a maritime tort, and federal general maritime law supplies the rules even when the ship is docked in Miami or the case is filed in state court. Florida statutes that reshape ordinary negligence cases, including the 2023 tort reform, generally do not control the substance of a shipboard claim.
The core duty comes from Kermarec v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 358 U.S. 625 (1959): a shipowner owes its passengers reasonable care under the circumstances. That is not the heightened duty of a common carrier for most injuries, and it is not strict liability. It is ordinary negligence, applied to a floating resort.
Two consequences follow that matter to families from the start.
Comparative fault is pure. Under federal maritime law a passenger’s own negligence reduces the recovery proportionally but does not bar it, however large the passenger’s share. Florida’s 2023 change to modified comparative fault, which bars a plaintiff found more than 50 percent at fault in an ordinary negligence case, does not apply to a maritime claim. A passenger found 60 percent responsible for a fall still recovers 40 percent of the damages.
The ship’s flag usually does not matter. Most cruise ships sailing from Florida are registered in the Bahamas, Panama, Malta, or another foreign flag state. In a case filed in the United States by a passenger on a voyage from a U.S. port, courts ordinarily apply American general maritime law, and the ticket contract usually says so expressly.
The ticket contract, and what federal law lets it do
The passenger ticket is a contract, and every major cruise line writes it with care. It is available on the line’s website, it is incorporated into the booking, and courts will hold passengers to it if they had a reasonable opportunity to read it, whether or not they did.
46 U.S.C. § 30526 (formerly § 30508) governs what the ticket may do to the passenger’s time limits. For vessels carrying passengers between U.S. ports, or between a U.S. port and a foreign port, the owner may not require notice of a personal injury or death claim in less than six months after the injury, and may not require suit in less than one year. Cruise lines write their tickets to the statutory minimum, so the practical rule is:
- Written notice of the claim, in the form and to the address the ticket specifies, within six months of the injury; and
- A lawsuit filed within one year of the injury, in the court the ticket designates.
The statute contains limited protections for minors, for passengers who are mentally incompetent, and for death claims, and failure to give the six-month notice is excused in some circumstances, such as where the carrier knew of the injury and was not prejudiced. None of those exceptions should be relied on without counsel. The one-year filing deadline is enforced strictly, and it is the provision that ends the most cruise claims.
What the ticket cannot do is excuse the cruise line’s own negligence. 46 U.S.C. § 30527 (formerly § 30509) voids provisions that purport to limit the owner’s liability for personal injury or death caused by the negligence or fault of the owner or its employees, or that purport to limit the passenger’s right to a trial by a court of competent jurisdiction. Tickets still contain broad disclaimers, particularly for shore excursions and for the onboard medical staff. Some of them hold up; some of them do not; each is a legal question.
Why the case is filed in Miami
In Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute, 499 U.S. 585 (1991), the Supreme Court enforced a forum selection clause in a cruise ticket that required a Washington couple to sue in Florida. Every major line has relied on that decision since.
The typical clause requires suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, and only if that court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, in a state court in Miami-Dade County. A passenger from Texas who is hurt on a ship that sailed from Galveston is still generally required to sue in Miami. A case filed in the wrong court is dismissed, and by the time it is refiled the one-year period may have run.
That concentration has one benefit for passengers: the Southern District of Florida has decided more cruise injury cases than any court in the country, and the law is correspondingly well developed. The federal judges in Miami know the notice doctrine, the medical malpractice rules, and the standard defense motions intimately. So do the defense firms, which is why a cruise case should be handled by lawyers who litigate there regularly.
Tickets also typically contain a class action waiver, which federal courts in Miami have enforced, and choice-of-law provisions selecting U.S. maritime law. Arbitration clauses are standard in crew employment contracts; passenger tickets vary by line and by year, and the current version should be read rather than assumed.
The notice problem, and the way around it
The defense that decides most shipboard slip-and-fall and trip-and-fall cases comes from Keefe v. Bahama Cruise Line, Inc., 867 F.2d 1318 (11th Cir. 1989). Under Keefe, when a passenger’s claim rests on a dangerous condition, the cruise line is liable only if it had actual or constructive notice of the risk-creating condition, unless it created the condition itself.
Proving notice on a ship is different from proving it in a supermarket. The useful evidence includes:
- Prior similar incidents. Falls in the same area, on the same flooring material, or under the same conditions on the same ship or sister ships. Cruise lines keep detailed incident databases, and courts in Miami routinely order production of prior incidents for a defined lookback period.
- Warning signs and cones. In Guevara v. NCL (Bahamas) Ltd., 920 F.3d 710 (11th Cir. 2019), the Eleventh Circuit held that a warning sign posted by the cruise line can itself be evidence that the line knew of the danger the sign described.
- Maintenance and cleaning records, deck logs, and the line’s own safety procedures, which often identify the very hazard at issue.
- Design and flooring specifications, including coefficient of friction testing of the surface where the passenger fell.
The more important development is the path around notice entirely. In Yusko v. NCL (Bahamas), Ltd., 4 F.4th 1164 (11th Cir. 2021), the Eleventh Circuit held that a passenger suing on a theory of vicarious liability for a crew member’s negligence does not have to prove that the cruise line had notice of a dangerous condition. If a crew member mopped a staircase and left it wet and unmarked, dropped a tray, pushed a cart into a passenger, or ran a dance class unsafely, the claim is that the employee was negligent and the employer is responsible for it. Pleading the case under both theories, and building the evidence for each, is now standard in any case where a crew member played a role.
Shipboard medical care
Cruise ships carry doctors and nurses, and passengers with heart attacks, strokes, falls, and infections depend on them at sea. For decades, cruise lines relied on a line of federal cases, led by Barbetta v. S/S Bermuda Star, 848 F.2d 1364 (5th Cir. 1988), holding that a shipowner was not vicariously liable for the negligence of the ship’s doctor, who was treated as an independent contractor.
The Eleventh Circuit, which governs the federal courts in Miami, rejected that rule in Franza v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., 772 F.3d 1225 (11th Cir. 2014). Under Franza, a passenger may pursue a cruise line for the negligence of its shipboard medical staff under actual agency and apparent agency theories, assessed under ordinary agency principles. The facts that mattered there, and that matter in most cases, include the medical staff’s uniforms and titles, the line’s control over the medical center, and how the line presented the medical staff to passengers.
Two related claims are independent of the medical staff’s negligence: the cruise line’s own negligence in hiring and retaining the medical staff, and its decisions about medical evacuation, including whether and when to divert the ship or call for a helicopter. Delay in getting a critically ill passenger off the ship is a recurring fact pattern.
Because the claim is maritime, Florida’s Chapter 766 medical malpractice pre-suit process, discussed in our guide to Florida medical malpractice claims, does not govern a claim against a cruise line for shipboard care. The ticket’s six-month and one-year limits do.
Assaults by crew and by other passengers
A cruise ship is a closed environment, and assaults, including sexual assaults, happen on board. The law treats them differently depending on who the attacker was.
Assault by a crew member. A carrier owes its passengers protection from its own employees. In Doe v. Celebrity Cruises, Inc., 394 F.3d 891 (11th Cir. 2004), the Eleventh Circuit recognized that a cruise line may be held strictly liable for a crew member’s assault on a passenger, without proof that the line was negligent in hiring or supervising the crew member.
Assault by another passenger. Here the claim is negligence: whether the cruise line knew or should have known of the risk and failed to take reasonable measures, including adequate security staffing, surveillance, alcohol service practices, and response.
The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010, codified at 46 U.S.C. § 3507, imposes specific requirements on cruise ships embarking or disembarking passengers in the United States. They include rails at least 42 inches above the cabin deck, peepholes and security latches on passenger cabin doors, video surveillance, a supply of sexual assault examination materials and staff trained to use them, and reporting of serious crimes, including sexual assaults and missing passengers, to the FBI. A violation of those requirements is significant evidence in a negligence case. The Act also requires the line to maintain a log of reported crimes, which becomes relevant to notice.
A passenger who has been assaulted should report it to ship security and the FBI, request a medical examination on board or at the next port, and keep the clothing and any physical evidence. The deadlines in the ticket still apply.
Shore excursions
Cruise lines sell excursions (zip lines, snorkeling trips, ATV tours, catamaran cruises, and bus tours) that are usually run by independent operators in the port. Tickets and excursion terms disclaim liability for those operators in strong language.
Those disclaimers do not end the analysis. A cruise line that sells an excursion may still be liable for:
- Negligent selection or retention of an operator it knew or should have known was unsafe, including one with a history of prior incidents;
- Apparent agency, where the line’s marketing, branding, and sales practices led passengers reasonably to believe the operator was the line’s agent;
- Failure to warn of dangers the line knew of. In Chaparro v. Carnival Corp., 693 F.3d 1333 (11th Cir. 2012), the Eleventh Circuit held that a cruise line’s duty of reasonable care includes a duty to warn passengers of known dangers at places where it invites or reasonably expects passengers to go, including a port of call; and
- In some cases, breach of contract or the line’s own representations about the excursion’s safety.
Claims against the foreign operator itself raise questions of personal jurisdiction and collectibility that differ in every port. Excursions booked directly with a local operator rather than through the cruise line are a different case entirely.
Deaths at sea and the Death on the High Seas Act
When a passenger dies aboard a cruise ship, the governing law often depends on where the ship was. The Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C. §§ 30301-30308, applies to deaths caused by wrongful acts occurring on the high seas beyond three nautical miles from the shore of the United States. Most cruise deaths occur beyond that line.
DOHSA limits recovery to pecuniary losses sustained by the decedent’s spouse, parents, children, or dependent relatives: primarily lost financial support, lost services, and funeral expenses. It does not permit recovery for the survivors’ grief or loss of companionship, or for the decedent’s own pain and suffering before death. For a retiree or a child, whose deaths involve little lost income, that limitation can reduce the value of a death claim to a small fraction of what Florida’s Wrongful Death Act would allow. Our guide to Florida wrongful death claims describes the state framework that applies when DOHSA does not.
Whether DOHSA applies depends on the precise location of the conduct that caused the death, which is a question for the ship’s navigation records. Where the death results from conduct in port or within state territorial waters, general maritime law, and in some circumstances state wrongful death law, may supply broader remedies.
Injuries at the terminal and in port
Not every cruise injury happens at sea. Passengers are hurt on gangways, in terminal buildings, on shuttle buses, and in parking garages. Those claims can involve a different set of defendants and a different set of rules.
Gangway injuries during embarkation and disembarkation are generally maritime and generally the cruise line’s responsibility, and the ticket deadlines generally apply.
Terminal and port property is another matter. PortMiami is owned and operated by Miami-Dade County, Port Everglades is a department of Broward County, and Port Canaveral is run by an independent special district. A claim against a governmental port authority is subject to the sovereign immunity statute, Fla. Stat. § 768.28, including its pre-suit written notice requirements and its caps on recovery. Terminal operators, stevedoring companies, and security and shuttle contractors may be private parties subject to ordinary Florida premises liability rules, discussed in our guide to Florida slip and fall claims.
Figuring out which entity controlled the specific location of an injury, and which body of law governs it, is often the first real task in a terminal case.
The evidence that disappears when the ship sails
A cruise ship is back at sea with new passengers within hours of the old ones leaving it. The scene of the injury is cleaned, repaired, or altered before the passenger gets home.
- Report the injury on board and ask for a copy of the incident report. The line will prepare one regardless; the passenger’s own account should be in it. Keep the written statement short and factual.
- Photograph everything before leaving the area if possible: the floor, the liquid, the step, the lighting, the absence of warning signs, the shoes, and the injury.
- Get names and cabin numbers of witnesses, including other passengers. They disperse across the country at disembarkation.
- Ask for the medical records from the ship’s medical center before disembarking. The line will have them; the passenger should too.
- Demand preservation of CCTV footage in writing, immediately. Modern ships are covered by hundreds of cameras, and the footage is routinely overwritten on a short cycle unless it is preserved.
- Keep the ticket, the booking confirmation, the SeaPass card, and receipts for medical care in port and after the voyage.
- Calendar the six-month notice date and the one-year suit date the day you get home.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to file a claim for a cruise ship injury? Check the ticket, but assume six months to give written notice and one year to file suit. Federal law, 46 U.S.C. § 30526, allows cruise lines to impose those limits, and every major line does. Florida’s two-year negligence deadline and the three-year federal maritime period do not help a passenger whose ticket contains these provisions.
Where do I have to file my lawsuit? For Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian, and most other major lines, the ticket requires suit in the federal court in Miami, or in state court in Miami-Dade County if the federal court lacks jurisdiction. The Supreme Court upheld this kind of clause in Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute. It applies even if you live elsewhere and your cruise departed from another state.
I slipped on a wet deck. Is the cruise line automatically responsible? No. You must prove the cruise line was negligent. If the claim is about a dangerous condition, you generally must show that the line knew or should have known of it, typically through prior incidents, warning signs, or its own procedures. If a crew member created the hazard or was negligent in some other way, you may be able to proceed on vicarious liability without proving notice.
Can I sue the cruise line for mistakes made by the ship’s doctor? In the federal courts in Miami, yes, potentially. Since Franza v. Royal Caribbean in 2014, passengers may pursue cruise lines for shipboard medical negligence on agency theories. You may also have claims for the line’s negligent hiring of the medical staff or delayed medical evacuation.
Does it matter that I was partly at fault? It reduces your recovery but does not bar it. Maritime law uses pure comparative fault, so a passenger found partly at fault, even more than half, recovers the remaining percentage of damages. Florida’s 2023 modified comparative fault rule does not apply to maritime claims.
I was hurt on a shore excursion I booked through the cruise line. Who is responsible? The excursion operator, and possibly the cruise line. Despite disclaimers in the ticket, a line can be liable for negligently selecting an operator, for failing to warn of dangers it knew of, and in some cases under apparent agency. The answer depends on the specific facts and on what the line represented when it sold the excursion.
My family member died on a cruise. What can we recover? It depends on where the ship was. If the death was caused by conduct more than three nautical miles from U.S. shore, the Death on the High Seas Act likely applies and limits recovery to financial losses such as lost support and funeral expenses. Different rules may apply to deaths in port or in territorial waters. Either way, the ticket deadlines still apply.
Should I sign anything the cruise line gives me after an injury? Read it first. Incident reports and medical consent forms are routine. Releases, settlement offers, and onboard credits tied to a waiver of claims are not, and they should not be signed without legal advice.
Talk to a Florida cruise injury attorney
Cruise injury cases are won or lost on the calendar and on the evidence gathered in the first weeks: the six-month notice properly given, the CCTV preserved before it is overwritten, the prior incident history obtained, the case pleaded under both direct and vicarious liability, and the suit filed in the right court within one year. Families who treat a cruise injury like an ordinary Florida negligence case often discover the difference only after a deadline has passed.
KWBR’s personal injury, premises liability, medical malpractice, and wrongful death practices represent injured passengers and their families in cruise ship claims filed in Miami, from our Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando offices. For injuries on private boats and personal watercraft, see our guide to Florida boating accidents. If you or a family member was hurt on a cruise, contact us promptly, before the six-month notice deadline in your ticket runs.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. Maritime law, ticket terms, and the facts of every voyage differ, and every case turns on its own circumstances; consult a qualified attorney about your situation.