You’re sailing aboard a beautiful Cruise Ship in the middle of the ocean at least a day or perhaps two from the nearest port of call. The closest port is most likely a quant island in the Caribbean or country in Central or South America. You don’t mind the geographic remoteness because you are surrounded by every modern convenience aboard your luxury cruise ship and, as a consequence, you feel completely safe. What you are completely unaware of, however, is that if you become seriously sick or injured aboard the cruise ship and ship’s doctor commits medical malpractice, or even kills a loved one, more likely than not you have no claim against the cruise line. To make matters worse, a law suit brought against the ship’s doctor in a U.S. Court will very likely be dismissed because of the court’s inability to exercise personal jurisdiction over the almost always foreign ship’s doctor.
Imagine a situation where you are hurt in a boating accident. After spending time in the hospital, you receive a letter enclosing a “Petition for Exoneration or Limitation of Liability” from a lawyer representing the owner of the boat that caused the accident. The letter states that you are required to file a claim in Federal Admiralty Court within a certain time or your claim will be abandoned. This happens to many injured boaters each year.
An interesting situation arises in maritime law when a commercial fisherman finishes the voyage, is paid and then injured when he returns to the boat to collect his belongings. The question often arises is whether the commercial fisherman is protected by the Jones Act and entitled to medical treatment under the ship owner’s maintenance and cure obligation. The answer is Yes!
Maritime law is a very complicated area of law. So much so that in 1995 the Florida Supreme Court approved a maritime law board certification program for qualified lawyers. This program is designed to help the public make an informed decision when seeking and selecting a lawyer.
In nearly every case where we represent a recreational yacht / boat owner wherein the owner lost use of the yacht for a period of time, one of the first questions asked is whether they could recover loss of use damages. The answer is perhaps.
