A U.S. Coast Guard Veteran, Jose Martinez, was wrongfully detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in the early morning of Monday, January 5th 2026. Martinez was celebrating his 50th birthday with his wife, Tamara Verhas, on a Carnival Cruise when the incident took place.
A 69-year-old grandmother spent several days in the infamous Bahamian Fox Hill Prison after she was arrested for bringing a gun on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
On December 2, Mary Robinson forgot to leave her pistol in her car before she went through security in Port Everglades. Troublingly, port security did not detect the
A Royal Caribbean passenger, Connie Aguilar, is suing the cruise line on behalf of her fiancé who died after he was over served alcohol, and then pepper-sprayed, restrained by security, and injected with a sedative.
The incident occurred on December 13th, 2024, on the first day of a weekend cruise aboard the Navigator of the
The Florida Director of Field Operations (DFO Florida) for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Port Canaveral has continued a series of deportations involving cruise ship crew members, this time following a targeted Child Sexually Exploitative Material (CSEM) “enforcement operation.” CSEM is typically called Child Sexual Abuse Material (“CSAM”). DFO Florida recently announced that an
A minor may face charges in connection with the death of Anna Kepner according to a court filing obtained by ABC News. The report states that one of Anna’s step-siblings may be charged with a crime and that her stepmother, Shauntel Hudson, has been in contact with the FBI.
Mrs. Hudson was on the
A federal court in Miami, Florida recently awarded pre-judgment interest in the amount of $2,134,229.90 (calculated at $1,157.93 per day) on a jury verdict awarded to a woman raped on a Carnival cruise ship. The federal court jury awarded $10,200,000 awarded two years ago (on July 18
The Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity have been arrested late Friday night, February 4th, according to crew members on the ships.
Both Crystal cruise ships are in waters near the port in Freeport, Bahamas.
According to crew members on @crystalcruises Crystal Symphony & Crystal Serenity, both #cruise ships are now arrested in Freeport, Bahamas due to non-payment of fuel expenses. pic.twitter.com/yg4KGFK2bM
— James (Jim) Walker (@CruiseLaw) February 5, 2022
Earlier yesterday, we were notified that crew wages were current as of January. However, other Crystal crew members insist that
Last week, a federal district court (Judge Darrin P. Gayles) in Miami issued an arrest warrant for the Crystal Symphony because the luxury cruise ship is millions of dollars in arrears in unpaid fuel bills.
Judge Gayles signed the order of seizure which directs U.S. marshals to “arrest the defendant vessel, her boats, tackle, apparel
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Today, a German Court sentenced a nurse, who had worked aboard a cruise ship as a doctor, to three years in jail.
News agency dpa reported that the Berlin state court convicted the nurse of "bodily harm, fraud, abuse of titles and deprivation of liberty." The latter charge referred to the fact that he put
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First Site Guide just announced the Best Law Blogs to Follow. It names 23 law blogs to follow and ranks them on three criteria: Alexa rankings, social media followers (total number of followers combined from the blog’s social media profiles including Facebook and Twitter), and SemRush Rank (ranked by organic traffic coming from Google’s top
A retired Supreme Court justice is suggesting that all Bahamas-flagged cruise ships require that passenger disputes (including claims involving personal injury) be arbitrated in the Bahamas, according to the Tribune newspaper.
The Bahamian newspaper reports that former justice Rubie Nottage told a group of arbitrators yesterday that arbitrating cruise passenger disputes would generate a
I’ve written thousands of articles here on Cruise Law News about all type of issues – cruise ship air pollution, cruise waste discharge, mistreatment of crew employees and the cruise industry’s exploitation of the Caribbean ports of call all the while cruise executives pocket obscene amounts of money.
But one of the issues that I rarely write
Today the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal published an opinion which recognizes the right of cruise ship passengers who become victims of medical malpractice to hold cruise lines vicariously liable for the negligence of the shipboard doctors and nurses.
The case is PATRICIA FRANZA, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Pasquale F. Vaglio versus ROYAL
The U.S. Coast Guard made a remarkable statement during the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conference in March regarding passenger safety aboard cruise ships.
It said that it targets cruise ships with a history of safety problems. That’s a good idea, of course. But the NTSB failed to ask the Coast Guard a simple follow-up
Today, a jury here in Miami, Florida returned a verdict over $6,200,000 on behalf of a seriously injured crew member.
The crew members is from Haiti and worked as a cleaner on the Jewel of the Seas.
He sustained a serious back injury due to the repetitive nature of his work and the long
A new "super-fast" cruise ferry service between Miami and Bimini, the Bahamas started off on the wrong foot when the ship flunked U.S. Coast Guard requirements. The Resorts World’s Bimini SuperFast was suppose to sail passengers from Miami over to a new gambling resort in Bimini.
On June 28th the wife of the Bahamian Prime Minister
The long tortuous tow back to Mobile ended last night with smiles of relief on the faces of the over-3,000-passengers as they straggled off the stinking stricken Triumph. It was a happy sight to me. Yes, there were people still upset, understandably so, but the sentiment seems to be that they had all encountered a
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The Royal Gazette newspaper in Bermuda reports today on what has become a routine activity when a U.S. based cruise ships arrives in port – Bermuda Customs officials taking sniffer dogs aboard U.S. based cruise ships and arresting cruise passengers for a small quantity of drugs.
This week Bermuda Customs officers boarded the Royal Caribbean Explorer
