Cruise Injury Blog

Many people are often surprised to learn that injuries, crimes, and wrongful deaths that occur on cruise ships are not governed by the traditional laws of the US legal system. Instead, they are governed by a unique area of the law known as maritime law.

Maritime law—otherwise known as admiralty law—is a body of laws, conventions, and treaties governing international private businesses and matters that involve ships and crimes that occur on the open water.

Maritime and admiralty law is a highly specialized area of the law, and personal injury cases that fall under maritime law can be particularly complex. Because of this, the vast majority of personal injury claims must be handled by qualified maritime attorneys experienced with the ins and outs of this unique area of the law.

How do you know if your personal injury case falls under maritime law? Typically,

While Cuba lays a mere 90 miles off the Florida coastline, it remains a mysterious far-off land for the majority of the state’s residents.  Travel to Cuba has been restricted since the US issued a trade embargo generations ago, making it nearly impossible for the average American to visit this island. For many travelers, vacationers, and cruise-goers, these travel restrictions came as somewhat of a disappointment as they barred access to an experience promising pristine beaches, vibrant cities, and colorful culture.

 

That all might be about to change.

 

This December, President Obama announced government plans to normalize relations with Cuba. If congress agrees to lift the trade embargo, this could remove the travel restrictions preventing Americans from visiting the island.

 

 25 percent of which would travel by cruise.

 

What this Means for the Cruise Industry

 

The cruise industry was

For far too long, cruise lines have been able to dodge their medical responsibilities. With all the technicalities surrounding maritime law and the different legal systems that cruise ships operate under, cruises have been shielded from certain medical obligations that would apply to any typical American vacation facility. Now, things are finally changing.

 

Unfortunately, it took the tragic death of a cruise passenger for these changes to come about. According to the Huffington Post, the passenger reportedly fell onboard a Royal Caribbean ship while it was docked. While receiving care in the ship’s medical facilities, he fell into a coma and later died as a result of negligent care. The victim’s daughter brought the matter to court, and after one court initially dismissed the lawsuit, an appellate court determined to hold the cruise line “vicariously liable” for the death.

 

Medical Malpractice in

Undoubtedly, one of the best parts of cruise vacations is the freedom to relax in the lap of cruise ship luxury. Cruise ship getaways are like vacations inside vacations—not only do you have the exciting shore excursions to look forward to, but the boat itself is a hub of entertainment, comfort, and glamour. And while almost any cruise ship out there is great for this, it’s no secret that the newer the ship, the better it is. A newer ship usually means more amenities, and more amenities—provided they’re done right—mean more luxury.

 

Lucky for anyone planning upcoming cruise vacations, a list of new cruise ships of 2015 was recently released. These new ships are worth keeping an eye on and may offer some of the best features on the sea today.

 

2015’s New Ships

 

Many different cruise lines will be introducing

 

If you’re a frequent cruise traveler, you may have found that one of the biggest hassles of planning a cruise vacation can be the uncertainty. With all the jumbled up laws concerning maritime law and the fact that cruise lines have long been allowed to conceal certain information from the public, booking a cruise can sometimes feel like making a leap of faith.

 

Luckily, recent years have seen some large-scale campaigns to change this and make cruise line information more available and visible to the public. One of the most recent examples of this is the Cruise Lines International Association’s (CLIA) Cruise Forward program.

 

What Is Cruise Forward?

 

Launched in 2012, the CLIA’s Cruise Forward program is designed to educate the public about the practices of the world’s leading cruise lines. According to its website, Cruise Forward is “an information

For as long as cruise lines have been in operation, they have been allowed to keep their crime statistics private. This has always been one of the main drawbacks to planning your cruise vacation—the fact that you never quite know the whole story behind the company in which you’re temporarily placing so much trust.

 

Up until now, cruise lines were required only to reveal information about crimes that the FBI investigated and closed, and they were under no obligation at all to reveal any additional crime information. For vacationers, this meant that no matter how much planning and research they did, they never quite had all the information.

 

However, with the new law that was signed into effect in December of 2014, the game has changed. As NBC reported, cruise lines are now required to disclose all their crime statistics to the

If you embark and disembark on a cruise ship in Miami—or anywhere else in the United States—it makes sense that you might think that the ship is an American vessel. However, this is usually not the case.

 

Currently, only one major cruise ship is registered in America—NCL America’s Pride of America. All other cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Princess, are registered in foreign countries. This practice of registering ships in foreign countries is referred to as “sailing under ‘flags of convenience’” and while it may be a convenient practice for owners of the cruise lines, it can be critically dangerous for passengers.

 

What are Flags of Convenience?

 

To find out which flag your cruise ship sails under, look at the flag being flown aboard the ship. While that flag may seem like nothing more than a simple aesthetic