We began reporting on the Costa Concordia as soon as the tragedy occurred on Friday, January 13th, 2012. That night, thousands of passengers lived through a collective nightmare which ended in the most blatant mishandling of an emergency aboard a large cruise ship since the Titanic. Every single passenger aboard…
Articles Posted in Cruise Ship Litigation
10 things you must know before boarding a cruise ship
Cruise lines sell tickets by promising dream vacation while sailing on floating cities around the world. Wanting the best vacation is the common denominator of each and every cruise passenger before they board a cruise ship. Sadly, for a lot of cruise passengers, their experience will be remembered for the…
Costa Cruise Lines’ lack of safety practice leads to the hiring of unfit Captain
Since the tragedy of the Costa Concordia occurred last January off of the coast of “Isola del Giglio”, Costa Cruise Lines has been in a public relations storm that seems never-ending. Captain Francesco Schettino, the ultimate responsible person aboard the sinking ship, was arrested the day following the events. This…
New cruise safety policies fail to address the lessons learned from Costa Concordia tragedy
One hundred days have passed since the tragic events of the Costa Concordia which saw the confirmed death of 30 cruise passengers and the disappearance of 2 additional passengers whose bodies have yet to be found. It took more than 100 days for the cruise industry to agree on three…
Cruise Passenger Dies after Slip and Fall on Cruise Ship
In the early morning hours of the day on Monday, Barbara Wood, a 47-year-old cruise passenger from Middleborough, Massachusetts, hit her head while falling down the stairs aboard the Liberty of the Seas, Royal Caribbean Cruises. The investigation is still ongoing at this time, but some details have already come…
Delayed Evacuation Caused Costa Concordia Cruise Passenger Fatalities
In a previous article, we have listed the reasons why the Costa Concordia cruise passengers will have a strong legal argument to lift the cruise company’s limits of liability under the Athens Convention. The language contained in the Convention allow the cruise liner to limit is financial liability to a…
What are Costa Concordia Cruise Passengers’ Rights under the Athens Convention?
The Athens Convention establishes a comprehensive integrated system to govern the liability of cruise ship operators for personal injuries and property damage sustained by its passengers. It contains standards for establishing liability and permissible defenses as well as its own statute of limitations and venue provisions. The Convention was primarily…
Communication with Port Authority Confirms Costa Concordia’s Captain Abandoned Ship
A newly released audio exchange between Port Authority and Costa Concordia Captain Fransesco Schettino was released today. Below is the transcript of the exchange: Captain Schettino: It’s Capt. Schettino. Port Authority: Schettino, listen to me, there are people trapped onboard, now you go back, you will go with your rescue…
Leesfield & Partners leads the way in Protecting the Rights of Cruise Ship Passengers
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Johnson v. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., invalidating releases for activities on cruise ships, which was participated in by Leesfield & Partners‘ Robert Peltz as amicus curiae on behalf of the Florida Admiralty Trial Lawyers Association, is an important decision protecting the…
Grounding of Cruise Ship in the Bahamas forcing evacuation of passengers
The disaster that shook the passengers of the Costa Concordia when the ship ran aground and capsized near the Island of Giglio, Italy, while probably the most tragic in recent memory, was not the first tragedy of its kind. In 1998, the Monarch of the Seas had an eerily similar…