This Thanksgiving, my family is back in my hometown of El Dorado Arkansas visiting my parents and our cousins. Thanksgiving at the family homestead in Arkansas is the perfect place to be this time of year.
My family has a lot to be thankful for this year. My Dad, age 81, made it to another Thanksgiving despite a series of
This was another interesting week in the strange world of cruise law news.
The week ended with a Miami jury awarding $2,900,000 in compensation for an injured Royal Caribbean crew member whose knee was butchered by a doctor in Nicaragua, which I mentioned in yesterday’s blog. The trial highlighted the cruise line’s practice of keeping
Throughout the last decade, Royal Caribbean’s reputation would embarrass most executives. Compared to other cruise lines, the cruise line was served with the most lawsuits, paid the highest settlements, and incurred the highest defense attorney fees.
In 2008, Royal Caribbean tried to reign in its out-of-control risk management department by what can only be described as cut throat measures. It terminated its vice president of risk management, an associate general
In July, President Obama signed the Cruise Vessel Security & Safety Act. On the President’s right side in the Oval Office was Sacramento resident and my friend, Laurie Dishman. On his left side, Laurie’s Congresswoman, Doris Matsui.
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The new cruise law involves a remarkable story about the bravery of Laurie Dishman. Laurie went on a Royal Caribbean cruise in February 2006 to celebrate her 35th birthday and
Earlier this year, I first learned of Avvo’s "Top Legal Blogs" while reading a solo blogger lamenting that his law blog fell out of Avvo’s top 10 law blog list. I was intrigued by the rankings and began to read the top blogs to try and figure out why they were so popular.
Some of the
On September 7, 2009, I launched my blog, Cruise Law News (CLN). My goal was to be a leading source of news and legal commentary regarding the cruise industry.
Well, here we are, September 7, 2010, one year later. What a year!
My little blog is far more successful than I ever thought. Yes, it has taken a lot of
MSNBC published an article yesterday about cruise passenger tickets entilted "Seven Clauses to Be Aware Of In Your Cruise Contract." There is a lot of "fine print’ designed to take away or limit passenger rights drafted in the ticket by the cruise lines.
Compared to the one page ticket issued to passengers on the Titanic 100 years
This morning the Walker – O’Neill family arrived back in Miami at 7:30 a.m. after taking the “red eye” from Seattle. We spent two weeks enjoying British Columbia for a great vacation.
My family voted before our vacation that there would be no blogging. Out voted 3-1, I didn’t even take my lap top with
The lawyers at Cruise Law are going on vacation for a few days. So you will not see the usual daily blogs about all of the cruise ship monkey business.
And, no, we are not going on a cruise.
But feel free to email me – yes I still work even on vacations: jwalker@cruiselaw.com
Yesterday evening, the International Cruise Victims (ICV) organization hosted a reception in Washington D.C. to celebrate the passing of the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act.
The reception was held in the Capital building and was well attended by Congressional leaders and their staff, members of the ICV, members of victim and rape crisis non-profit
OK time to brag a bit. Today my blog was added to Avvo’s "Top Legal Blogs." Cruise Law News is currently the 55th most popular law blog in the United States. The blog has been the highest climbing law blog this year.
For bloggers like me, that’s exciting news. Blogs are vehicles for education and ultimately social and political change. The higher
Last night, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a safety bill for cruise passengers which will require cruise ships to reports crimes on the high seas to the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard.
The bill will require the cruise industry to comply with a number of security provisions including specific rail heights, peep holes, warning devices, and cabin security measures. The requirment that cruise
Local Miami news station WSVN – 7 News ran a story that a record 52,000 cruise passengers sailed to or from from Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) on nine cruise ships today.
The news station reported that "travelers from around the globe arrived at the port to set sail and help break a world record."
The story reminded
Miami is called the Cruise Ship Capital of the World.
Most of the major cruise lines are based in South Florida. Azimara, Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, MSC Cruises, Norwegian, Oceania, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, SeaDream, Silversea, and Star Clippers all call Miami or Fort Lauderdale their headquarters.
And if you are injured on one of these cruise
I come from a family of prolific readers. My Dad has read every Louis L’Amour book ever written. My Mom started my brother, sister and me out on the Hobbitt when we were little kids. She bought me J.R.R. Tolkin’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy when I was 9 years old (its still sitting in my home office, mostly unread).
My Mom
The success of the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2009 (HR 3360) can be traced directly to Congresswoman Doris Matsui of Sacramento California.
Congresswoman Matsui’s constituent, Laurie Dishman, called upon her three and one-half years ago after Ms. Dishman was a victim of a crime on a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises.
We have discussed
The House of Representatives passed the Cruise Vessel Security & Safety Act (HR 3360) today. This cruise bill was previously part of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2009, but was voted on today as a ‘stand alone" bill to speed up its enactment.
Congress approved the bill by a resounding vote of 416 to 4.
A number of "All Star"
I first became intrigued with Twitter when I watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech in February of this year. The galley was filled with people twittering away on their Blackberries and iphones, sending out their own spin on the President’s speech. CNN covered the story and added their own perspective via @CNN.
