Every year millions of people go to different countries either for business or pleasure. Unfortunately, accidents and injuries can happen anywhere and to anyone. These accidents can range from serious injury sustained in a car accident to a simple slip and fall in a shopping mall. If you are injured in another country, you may feel helpless and afraid since this place is a completely different region with unfamiliar laws.
What are your legal options when it comes to getting compensated for your injuries in another country? Do you have the same rights? In what country would you file your claim for these injuries?
The Jurisdiction
One of the main questions one may ask when they get injured in another country is: Can I file my claim in the United States? Legally speaking, the court that you are filing a claim in must have jurisdiction over the case to hear the claim and to render a judgment for compensation to the defendant. In other words, the court must have personal jurisdiction to hear the case.
For a U.S. court to have personal jurisdiction over the defendant and to hear the plaintiff’s case, the plaintiff must show:
- The defendant is physically present in the jurisdiction the claim is being brought in
- The defendant lives and/or does the business within the jurisdiction
- The defendant consents to the personal jurisdiction
- Minimum contact is maintained with the jurisdiction
The question remains is how does an American court convince a foreign government that the United States has the right to hear the case? Generally, travelers injured in another country may bring a lawsuit in a United States court against a cruise line, foreign hotel, tour Bus Company, and other ground operators. In response, the defendant of the foreign company can seek to dismiss the lawsuit in the United States by claiming that coming all the way to the U.S to defend a lawsuit in inconvenient.
Sometimes, the plaintiff(s) will lose these types of cases if there is a special clause in their cruise passenger ticket, hotel registration form, or tour participant contract that states all lawsuits must be brought in a specific forum or court. Therefore, the single-most important issue when dealing with injury taking place outside the United States is establishing jurisdiction in a U.S court. If the cruise ship, hotel, or vacation company advertised or offered to take customers abroad, then the company has willfully maintained “minimum contact” with the United States and the company could be compelled to appear in an American court.
How the courts decides these issue often depends on how they view the relationship between the traveler, the travel agent, or similar party, and the party responsible for the injury and whether they should have known that there is a possibility of tourist being injured in their country.
Authored by Ki Akhbari, LegalMatch Legal Writer
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