Looking to sue P&O? Small claims court is an option, and you may have others…
Need to sue a big cruise line like P&O? The only trouble is that many cruise lines have a clause in their contract explicitly preventing their customers from taking them to court over monetary or customer service disputes. However, these companies aren’t truly invincible.
You might still be able to pursue justice against P&O by suing them in small claims court.
Suing P&O in small claims court begins with actually figuring out whether your claim qualifies in the first place.
You see, small claims courts do have several regulations that oversee what kind of cases they’re allowed to take on. The details can vary from state to state, but in most cases:
Go over your claim and see whether your case qualifies. In the event that it does not look good, you still have a few options.
The National Arbitration and Mediation company is an organization explicitly used by many big cruise lines like P&O to handle disputes between them and their customers. They might be able to help if small claims court turns out to not be an option.
But if your claim does look like it’ll qualify, you can go ahead and begin writing a demand letter.
A demand letter is something you need to send to P&O before you can go ahead with a lawsuit. In a nutshell, it explains exactly what they did wrong and what they can do to solve things before you get the courts involved. It also doesn’t need to be very long or technically complex; just write out a few sentences if that’s more comfortable to you, but make sure everything is clear and can’t be disputed.
Then mail a physical copy of the letter to the following address:
People Services Department, Carnival UK
Carnival House
100 Harbour Parade
Southamton, SO15 1st
All you need to do is wait a few days until P&O has a chance to respond to your complaints. If they choose not to respond (and they likely will not), then you can move on to the next step.
Now it’s time to fill your court forms by heading down to your local small claims court office or by visiting their state website. Either way, you should be able to get your hands on the required forms for a small claims court lawsuit pretty easily. Don’t be afraid to ask one of the employees for assistance on this matter.
Be aware, however, that you’ll likely need to pay a small fee to fill out the forms. This might be waived if you can prove low income, though. Furthermore, it’s not uncommon for courts to require you to fill out all the forms in duplicate or triplicate so that everyone involved in the case has a copy for the records.
Then you’ll need to file your forms with the small claims court. This can normally only be done in person, as electronic filing isn’t supported in the majority of locations. When you go to file, make sure that you’ve filled everything out properly and file the right forms. Missing something as simple as a few checkboxes on one of your forms can get your case thrown out on your court date, which would be a disaster.
You’ll also need to serve P&O to let them know that you’re taking them to court. This can also be done at your small claims court office, but it’s a necessary step so they are aware of the court date and can prepare a defense.
You should then spend the time afterward preparing your own offense. Get your materials together and consider the best possible case you can bring against P&O as you wait for your court date to roll around. It’s also a good idea to have your materials ready to go the day of so you aren’t scrambling last minute.
However, try not to sweat it too much. Big companies like P&O might not even show up to a small claims court date, in which case you’ll be the only one presenting aside and have the case essentially in the bag. Good luck!
Ready to sue P&O Cruise lines in small claims court?
If this sounds too hard and expensive, try consumer arbitration instead…
The Ultimate Guide to Consumer Complaints
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