You’ve saved and waited for it since last year and, suddenly, you or a loved one is in the emergency room. Amusement park ride, campsite fire, general premises injury, pool injury, water ski or jet ski mishap, ski or snowboarding crash, transportation (airplane, boat, bus or go-kart) accident — the list goes on and on. Just because a company is all about having fun doesn’t mean we relax our guard or that they cease being liable.
Whether the injury results from falling down a ski slope or food poisoning during a cruise, you are owed compensation. The venue operator will try to low-ball you — offering you a free trip on a cruise ship you found was full of bedbugs, or something equally unappealing. Stand your ground, investigate and get full value for your inconvenience. Attorney David Morgan can make that happen.
Issues
To name a few: Cruise, bus and airlines are common carriers, the law holds them to high standards of care for the safety of passengers, but you need to show the common carrier was negligent. Many cruise ships are flagged or registered in foreign countries, so international maritime law will apply to your claim. Tickets are contracts (read the fine print on the back) and covered under federal contract law.
What Should You Do?
- Deal with all injuries/situations. Call 911 (this creates an official paper trail) and the management (who may conveniently lose paperwork) and tell them exactly what you think happened.
- Document Everything. Keep all receipts, records, prescriptions, bills and other records. Take names and contact information of witnesses or participants. If you have a camera or phone, take photographs. As soon as possible, sit down and write out what happened in as much detail as you can.
- Call a lawyer. Ideally, the same day or the next day, you need legal counsel. If you’re a Utah or Idaho resident, life will be easier. Many tourism companies hope you’ll go home (out of state) and just live with the bad experience. If you were injured or experienced other problems while visiting the Gem State or Beehive State, you are still entitled to compensation, and you need a local attorney because the locale where the incident occurred has jurisdiction. Contact the Morgan Law Firm, we’ll be in your corner until the final bell.
- Continue treatment. If you don’t follow your doctors’ orders and you find yourself in court, the defendant can claim it wasn’t a serious problem.
This is absolutely not a do-it-yourself situation!
