A twenty-six year old crew member reportedly fell off of the side of the Vision of the Seas while performing maintenance work this morning, according to an Italian news source.
The news source states that the crew member died and that divers subsequently located his body.
The cruise line was not following “work aloft” procedures
Hasan Minjah of Netflix’s Patriot Act takes a hard look at the popular cruise industry. He touches upon many issues which should make even the hardest core cruise fan feel uneasy: polluted air and water, garbage mixed with plastic items and dumped into Bahamian waters, abuse of crew members, and cruise lines like Carnival, NCL
Today, the Miami Daily Business Review (DBR) reported on an arbitration award entered against Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) on behalf of a seriously injured crew member.
The DBR article, titled “Miami Attorney Helps Secure $3.3M for Man Whose Arm Was Amputated After Seeking Care for Flu-Like Symptoms,” explains that the case involved a
Former Norwegian Cruise Line ("NCL") CEO Colin Veitch’s trial against his successor, Kevin Sheehan, and their old cruise line, NCL, for defamation and breach of contract has been underway in the Miami-Dade County courthouse, here in Miami, Florida this past week.
Veitch worked at the helm of NCL from 2000 to 2008. According to Travel
Yesterday, investigative journalist Lizzie Presser’s article about the plight of crew members from the Philippines working on cruise ships was published. Titled Below Deck – Filipinos make up nearly a third of all cruise ship workers. It’s a good job. Until it isn’t, the article follows the lives of several young Filipino men who
Investigative journalist Karen Foshay of KCRW published a muli-media presentation this week, chronicling the plight of seafarers who work long hours, away from their families and far from home, for a pittance.
When the crew members become injured, these "foreign" (i., e., non-U.S.) ship employees are barred from filing suit in the U.S. against their
Yesterday was the "Day of the Seafarer," which is sponsored by the International Maritime Organization ("IMO") on June 25th every year. It was interesting to watch the cruise industry’s trade organization, the Cruise Line International Association ("CLIA"), promote the day on it’s social media pages like Twitter and Facebook.
Crew members on cruise
The Manila Bulletin reports that Royal Caribbean announced yesterday that it is "hiring a total of 30,000 Filipino crew members over the next five years" as the company "expands its fleet and routes to Asia."
The newspaper also states that the cruise line currently employees around 11,000 Filipinos as crew members.
Filipinos seafarers have a proud
This week several people died during cruises on ships owned by Carnival Corporation. A young seafarer died on the Carnival-owned Cunard Queen Victoria cruise ship. A crew member from the Carnival Conquest was crushed to death at the port of New Orleans. And most tragically, a 6 year-old boy needlessly drowned on the Carnival
Several years ago, U.S. based cruise lines began insisting that injured crew members seeking compensation for their injuries must pursue their claims through arbitration in foreign countries.
Companies like Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean started moving to dismiss lawsuits filed here in Miami, arguing that seriously injured crew members are not entitled to jury trials
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A year ago. Cruise Law News was the first one in the U.S. to report that a Royal Caribbean crew member, Fabian Zanzi, claimed that movie celebrity John Travolta sexually harassed and assaulted him during a cruise. We had first heard of the alleged incident several years ago from a crew member client who worked
Courthouse News Service reports on a case involving a crew member from Canada who was employed aboard a Holland America Line (HAL) cruise ship.
The Canadian crew member, employed on the Oosterdam cruise ship as a dancer, suffered a serious career-ending injury, but is being denied the right to take his case before a jury.
The Daily Business Review released "Top Verdicts & Settlements" for last year. You can click on the digital version here.
We obtained the highest award in an admiralty / maritime case in Florida in 2011. The case involved an injured crew member from Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas who the cruise line sent
In the past month, I have written about the progression of federal court cases which have chipped away at the rights of foreign crewmembers, who are the backbone of the U.S. based cruise industry.
The cases of Lindo v. NCL (Bahamas) Ltd. and Henriquez v. NCL showed that the Eleventh Circuit would not hesitate to affirm the dismissal of the claims filed on behalf of NCL crewmembers
Last week we reported on the case of Lindo v. NCL (Bahamas) Ltd. where the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal of a case filed on behalf of a seriously injured NCL crewmember from a U.S. court, leaving him to seek compensation in Nicaragua.
Today the same court entered a similar order in the case
Yesterday, in the case of Lindo v. NCL, a federal appellate court entered a decision which further stripped the legal rights away from seriously injured cruise employees.
The Lindo case is the latest decision which reflects that our judiciary has little concern for the rights of cruise employees outside of the U.S.
Eight years ago the
An arbitrator in California recently awarded substantial compensation on behalf of a seriously injured Carnival crewmember.
California attorney Stephen Estey issued a press release which stated that he obtained an arbitration award for a crewmember working aboard the Carnival cruise ship Imagination in the amount of $800,000 for injuries sustained in June 2008. The press release states that Polish citizen Marcin Sokolowski was employed by Carnival as
In the last few years, the major cruise lines have been trying to enforce arbitration provisions which they inserted into the crew member’s employment agreements.
Many of our crew clients around the world ask us "what is arbitration?" and was is the difference between an "arbitration" and a "trial."
Arbitration is a process where disputes between parties are decided
