Hickey Law Firm · Coral Gables, Florida
Jack Hickey
Trial lawyer and legal commentator on cruise ship, boating, and serious injury cases.
He spent the first half of his career defending corporations, including cruise lines. For the last 20 years he has represented only the injured.
Triple Board Certified
- Civil Trial Lawyer The Florida Bar
- Admiralty & Maritime Lawyer The Florida Bar
- Trial Lawyer National Board of Trial Advocacy
As seen on
- CNN
- NBC Nightly News
- MSNBC
- Good Morning America
- CBS Evening News
- Fox News
- NewsNation
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post
- USA Today
- Bloomberg
- The Guardian
- BBC
- Miami Herald
About Jack
He defended the cruise lines. Now he represents the injured.
Born and raised in Miami, Jack grew up boating, spearfishing, and camping in the Florida Keys. He studied at Florida State University, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and at Duke Law School.
He spent the first half of his career defending corporations, including cruise lines. His first trial for an injured client was a medical malpractice case against the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital, and he won. He is one of very few lawyers who are triple board certified.
“For 17 years Jack Hickey represented cruise lines. Then he switched sides.”
Headline, Corporate Crime Reporter, 2019
Called to testify
2007
United States Congress
House Subcommittee on Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation
Invited to testify on cruise line safety and the rights of passengers.
2023
State of Florida
The Florida Capitol, Tallahassee
Testified against a bill that would have allowed insurance companies to deny claims without consequence.
Read the official biography
Short
John H. "Jack" Hickey is a Miami trial lawyer, triple board certified in Civil Trial and Admiralty & Maritime Law. After 17 years defending cruise lines, he now represents people with life-changing injuries.
Medium
John H. "Jack" Hickey is the founder of Hickey Law Firm in Miami. He is triple board certified: by The Florida Bar in Civil Trial and Admiralty & Maritime Law, and nationally by the NBTA.
Hickey spent 17 years representing cruise lines and marine insurers. Today he represents injured passengers, crew, boaters, and crash victims nationwide. He was named Maritime Attorney of the Year by ALM’s Florida Legal Awards (2025) and chairs the Section Leaders Council of the American Association for Justice.
Long
John H. "Jack" Hickey is the founder of Hickey Law Firm, a Miami trial firm that handles catastrophic injury and wrongful-death cases on land and at sea. The Florida Bar has board certified him in Civil Trial Law and in Admiralty & Maritime Law, and the National Board of Trial Advocacy has certified him in Civil Trial. Fewer than 1% of Florida lawyers hold even one Florida Bar certification.
Hickey spent 17 years representing cruise lines and self-insured corporations, which gives him an insider’s view of how the industry handles incidents. He now represents injured passengers, crew members, boaters, and crash victims across Florida and the U.S. His firm has recovered more than $250 million for clients.
Hickey was named Maritime Attorney of the Year at the 2025 Florida Legal Awards (ALM). In 2026 he received AAJ’s Richard D. Hailey Award for Outstanding Service. He chairs AAJ’s Section Leaders Council and serves on its Board of Governors. He is a past President of the Miami-Dade County Bar. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and CBS, and has written more than 30 papers on trial technique and injury law.
Topics
What Jack can talk about
When one of these stories breaks, he can explain what happened, who may be responsible, and what comes next.
Cruise ship accidents & crimes
Injuries, assaults, people going overboard, illness outbreaks, and poor medical care at sea. Cruise cases follow special rules. Passengers usually have to sue in Miami, and often within 1 year.
- Who investigates a crime that happens in international waters?
- Can passengers sue, and where?
- What does the fine print on a cruise ticket actually say?
Former cruise line defense lawyer · testified before Congress on cruise safety
Boating & watercraft accidents
Boat crashes, jet ski and dive trip accidents, ferry incidents, and drownings. Accidents on the water are governed by maritime law, which works differently from the law on land.
- Who is responsible when a charter or tour boat crashes?
- How is a boating accident investigated?
- Why can a boat owner try to limit what they pay?
Board certified in Admiralty & Maritime Law · ALM Maritime Attorney of the Year, 2025
Serious injuries & wrongful death
Brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and deaths caused by someone else’s carelessness. He explains how these cases are valued and why some settle while others go to trial.
- How do juries put a value on pain and suffering?
- What can a family recover after a wrongful death?
Top 25 National Brain Injury Trial Lawyers
Car, truck & rideshare crashes
Serious crashes involving cars, commercial trucks, Uber and Lyft, motorcycles, and pedestrians, and what Florida law means for the people involved.
- Who pays when a rideshare driver causes a crash?
- What makes truck crashes different?
Past Chair, AAJ Motor Vehicle, Highway Safety & Premises Liability Section
Unsafe property & security
Slip-and-falls, building safety failures, and assaults at hotels, apartments, stores, and venues. When is a property owner responsible for what happens there?
- When is a hotel or landlord responsible for a crime on its property?
- What are the most common slip-and-fall myths?
Past Chair, AAJ Premises Liability Section
Media
See Jack on air
Over 150 television, radio, and print appearances since 2005, from CNN and NBC Nightly News to The New York Times.
Browse the full media list
Television
- 2025 NewsNation Mystery at sea: what happens when a murder scene sets sail?
- 2025 WFTV 9 Cruise ship teen homicide: the investigation continues
- 2025 NBC South Florida How a barge crashed into a sailboat in Miami Beach
- 2024 NBC News Families sue as reports of sexual assaults at sea rise
- 2020 CNBC Coronavirus aboard the Diamond Princess
- 2014 CNN Newsroom The Korean ferry disaster
- 2013 NBC Nightly News The Carnival Triumph fire
- 2012 CNN · Anderson Cooper 360 Costa Concordia
- 2012 ABC · Good Morning America Costa Concordia
- 2010 CBS Evening News The Carnival Splendor fire
- 2005 Fox News · Hannity & Colmes The George Smith honeymooner disappearance
- 2005 MSNBC · The Abrams Report The George Smith honeymooner disappearance
Print & online
- 2025 Miami Herald A Miami judge rules Carnival Corp. was negligent in a passenger’s fall
- 2024 USA Today How safe are cruise stops? Travel advisories are only one marker
- 2024 Fox News Warning for cruise passengers as sexual assaults hit a new high
- 2020 Bloomberg News Legal jargon on cruise tickets may foil class-action suits
- 2020 The Guardian Cruise companies accused of refusing to let stranded crew disembark
- 2020 The Washington Post The Fisher Island ferry tragedy
- 2019 The New York Times Two small planes crashed in Alaska. Here’s why few experts were surprised
- 2019 Corporate Crime Reporter For 17 years Jack Hickey represented cruise lines. Then he switched sides
- 2013 ABA Journal Cruising toward calamity
Radio
- 2019 KABC 790 Los Angeles Cruise ship death of a toddler
- 2014 610 WIOD Miami The Brooks Robinson case
- 2013 KABC Los Angeles The Carnival Triumph fire
- 2013 KPAM Portland Cruise passenger rights
- 2007 BBC Radio 4 Crimes on cruise ships: prevention and reporting
Authored
- 2021 Trial Magazine (AAJ) Beneath the Surface
- 2016 Trial Magazine (AAJ) Charting Your Liability Course
- 2015 NYSBA Senior Lawyer Cruise Ship Accidents: What Are the Rights of the Passenger? An Update
- 2012 Trial Magazine (AAJ) Injuries on Deck
- 2001 Trial Magazine Slip and Falls: Alternative Theories of Liability
- 1990 The Florida Bar Journal Credit Agreements Required in Writing: the New Statute of Frauds in Florida
Speaking
For conferences, CLE programs & law schools
Over 100 programs for groups including the American Association for Justice, The Florida Bar, and the Southern Trial Lawyers Association.
Jack’s favorite topics
Corporate representative depositions under Rule 30(b)(6)
The most neglected witness in the case. What the rule requires, and why these depositions can be so valuable.
Contradictions, gaps, and incomplete stories in the medical records
Medical records are written by different people, asking different questions, at different times, for different reasons. How to handle the inconsistencies that follow.
Slip and falls: common defenses, damages issues, and solutions
The defenses that come up again and again in premises cases, and how to answer them.
Finding the hook in the damages
How to set your case apart from all the others without accepting the defense’s description of it. A former defense lawyer’s view, including where AI can help.
Experts in motor vehicle cases
Which experts you need and how to find them, including where AI can help.
- Cross-examining the defense medical expert
- Cross-examining the defense liability expert
- Deciding which depositions to take, and which not to
- Cross-examining your own witness in deposition
- Settlement negotiations
- Civil remedy notices and bad faith
- How not to lose the winning witness
- Deposing a difficult party, corporate representative, or expert
- Hickey’s principles of good lawyering
- Questions for every defendant’s deposition
- Preparing clients for deposition
- Chronic pain, PTSD, and TBI: the neuroscience
- Impeachment evidence
- Authenticating electronic data
- Preparing for the defense deposition of a treating physician
- Analyzing defense video in slip and fall cases
- Making the treater your Daubert-proof expert
- 5 rules for inspections
- Liable entities in car crash cases
- Spoliation of evidence
- Keys to success as a plaintiff
Recent engagements
- Jul 2026 Life of a Claim: Civil Litigation Before Trial Miami Dade College Law Center
- Feb 2026 Using Voluntary Standards as a Weapon in Your Premises Case AAJ Winter Convention · San Diego, CA
- Feb 2026 Effectively Theming the Premises Liability Case Southern Trial Lawyers Association · New Orleans, LA
- Nov 2025 Chronic Pain, PTSD & TBI in Litigation: Leveraging Neuroscience & Trial Strategy Trial Guides webinar
- Jul 2025 Limitation of Liability Act & Small Vessel Exceptions AAJ Annual Convention · San Francisco, CA
- Jun 2025 Experts: Depositions, Preparation and Disqualification The Florida Bar Convention · Boca Raton, FL
- May 2025 Defeating Summary Judgment in a Trip or Slip and Fall Case NAPLA Conference · Atlanta, GA
- Feb 2025 Screening the Sexual Assault Case: Red Flags to Look For AAJ Winter Convention · Miami, FL
- Jul 2024 Proving Notice in Premises Cases AAJ Annual Convention · Nashville, TN
- Jul 2023 Cross-Examination of Defendant’s Expert AAJ Annual Convention · Philadelphia, PA
- Feb 2022 Developments in Maritime & Cruise Line Law Bench and Bar Conference · Miami, FL
- Feb 2017 The Corporate Representative / Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition National Trial Lawyers Summit · Miami, FL
Recognition
Awards & honors
- Richard D. Hailey Distinguished Service Award American Association for Justice · 2025, 2026
- Maritime Attorney of the Year Florida Legal Awards, ALM · 2025
- Outstanding Achievement Commendation AAJ Board of Governors · 2025
- Circle of Excellence Award Miami-Dade Bar, Transportation & Maritime · 2024, 2025
- Bronze Eagle Award and FJA Fellow Florida Justice Association · 2024
- Ervin Gonzalez Memorial Award (inaugural) For excellence as a trial lawyer, teacher, and bar leader · 2017
- Big Money Wins: #6 nationally, #1 in Florida National Law Journal · 2015
Peer ratings
- Best Lawyers in America, top tier Admiralty & Maritime · Personal Injury · Medical Malpractice
- AV Preeminent Martindale-Hubbell, a rating achieved by about 5% of attorneys
- Super Lawyers Top 100, Florida Personal Injury · 2006 to present
- Florida Trend Legal Elite 2006 to present
- National Trial Lawyers Top 100 and Top 25 National Brain Injury Trial Lawyers
- American Board of Trial Advocates Member and Foundation Life Fellow
Leadership
- Board of Governors American Association for Justice · 2021 to present
- Section Leaders Group Coordinating Committee AAJ · 2026 to 2029
- Chair, Section Leaders Council AAJ · 2025 to 2026
- Board of Directors Florida Justice Association · 2017 to present
- Board of Governors The Florida Bar · 2008 to 2020
- Past President Dade County Bar Association
- Past Chair AAJ Premises Liability, Motor Vehicle, and Admiralty Sections
Requests
Invite Jack to your program
Our office replies promptly. For breaking news, Jack can often be available the same day.
- Formats In studio, live remote, phone, podcast, in person
- Based in Miami, Florida · travels nationally
- Office Douglas Entrance Office Parc, Executive Tower
804 South Douglas Road, Suite 373
Coral Gables, FL 33134