Legal challenges for travelers who have suffered devastating injuries while traveling on business or on vacation in the United States or abroad can be daunting. Pursuing a travel injury claim miles or an ocean away from home in a foreign system can be complex and overwhelming.
International personal injury lawyers
It is critical that you have counsel who are skilled in handling the challenges of international procedures and law. Our travel injuries attorneys achieve success for travelers by making the foreign familiar. We understand the unique issues presented by international personal injury claims, and we make those issues routine. We have relationships with law firms throughout the United States and abroad and we work closely with those firms to obtain results for our mutual clients.
Travelers confronted with the seemingly impossible challenge of bringing claims for catastrophic injuries suffered abroad have turned to us for our experience and skill to level the playing field.
Whether your travel injury involved a resort incident, motor coach or vehicle accident, boat, parasail, jet ski, cruise ship, airplane or helicopter accident, we can provide valuable guidance based upon our unique experience in this highly specialized area of the law.
What should you do when injured abroad or away from home?
Here are some essential steps to keep in mind:
- Get medical care – if necessary call 911 or at least ask for medical assistance. We all know that most people will just brush it off or even be embarrassed after a slip and fall. But you should not assume that everything will be okay. At a minimum, let a medical professional check you out and tell you that you will be fine. If you are injured, then listen to your doctors and follow their instructions. Collect your paperwork so that you may share that with your travel accident attorney later.
- Ask for the manager or security and make a report – Understand that hotels or resorts are not under any legal duty to make a report following any type of accident or incident. However in reality, nearly all motels, hotels and resorts will make a report once they are notified of any type of incident or accident especially where someone is claiming to be injured. Most insurance companies require the hotel or resort to have safety procedures as well as risk management policies which almost always include the taking of a report. So, insist on speaking with a manager or at least security and tell them that you want to make a report following your accident.
- When you make the incident report stick to the facts – The purpose of filing an incident report is to make a record of the fact that you were injured at the hotel or resort. It is not time for any admissions, excuses or explanations. Understand that any concessions or admissions that you make to a hotel manager or security might end up being used against you at some point later in the claim process or litigation and trial procedure. Therefore, it is extremely important that you report the incident or accident and what happened to you and where you are hurt. Any discussion of cause or fault or liability can take place at a later date.
- Ask for a copy of the incident report – Hotels and resorts are not required by law to provide you with a copy of an incident report. It doesn’t hurt to ask for a copy that you can provide it to your travel accident lawyer. If the hotel or resort manager refuses to give you a copy, make yourself a note of who you spoke with and when you asked for the report and what their response was.
- Locate and identify any potential witnesses – Perhaps the people you are with saw what happened. Maybe other guests or employees observed what happened to you. Anything you can do to identify potential witnesses may be of great value to your case at a later date. If you do identify potential witnesses, politely asked for their names and contact information so that your travel accident lawyer can contact them in the future. It could be as simple as exchanging text messages at the scene.
- Look for surveillance cameras – If you have the opportunity, look to see if there are any surveillance cameras in or around the area where you are injured. Hotels and resorts have surveillance cameras for a variety of uses including loss prevention, fraud and criminal act prevention.
- Photographs or video are valuable – Most of us have cell phones in our possession which can capture accurate photographs and videotape after a hotel or resort accident and injury. Friends and family may also be of assistance. It is always better to be safe and collect all the photographs and videotape that you can following your accident and injury abroad.
Contact Jared Muggeo for assistance with your international and travel law needs.
