Whenever a person is faced with signing a contract, they are always told to "read the fine print".  What most people don't know or consider when taking a cruise vacation, is that your ticket is also a contract, and it contains a large amount of "fine print" that a cruise passenger should read through.  It may mean the difference between recovering money for a devastating injury suffered on a cruise ship, or receiving nothing at all.

Most cruise ship passenger tickets have a "forum selection clause".  A forum selection clause requires any lawsuit that is brought against a particular cruise ship company be brought in a specific court.  For instance, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Norwegian Cruise Lines have prepared "forum selection clauses" which include Federal District Court in Miami as the location where the passenger is required to file suit.   If you suffer a cruise ship injury on one of these companies cruise ships, and you try to bring a lawsuit in a court other than in Miami, the cruise ship company will move to dismiss your claim.

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