Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
The FBI is investigating the death of a 12-year-old boy who plummeted to his death from an interior balcony aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
The boy died on Sept. 7 while traveling on Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas for a seven-night cruise in the Western Caribbean. The ship was on its way to dock in Galveston, Texas, when the incident occurred. The boy fell into the ship’s Central Park area which the company describes online as a “gathering place” for passengers showcasing an array of plant life.
Investigators have not released any official details on how the boy fell.
Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation shows that there have been at least four deaths aboard cruises since 2020.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners attorneys have built a strong reputation in cruise and maritime law litigation. From horrific premises liability cases to incidents of numerous, shocking medical malpractice cases at the hands of cruise ship doctors, Leesfield & Partners attorneys have used creative legal strategy and dogged persistence to ensure the best possible outcomes for clients and their loved ones. With over $37 million in verdicts and awards for clients, the tried and true diligence of attorneys at this firm is easy to see.
In a similar case to the devastating incident on Sept. 7, Leesfield & Partners represented the family of a young girl who died on a cruise ship. The child, an 8-year-old, was separated from her family while she was on the ship. When she leaned over an interior railing, she fell five stories to her death. The improperly designed railing made her lose her center of gravity, resulting in her death.
The firm has also secured millions in awards for clients who were injured as a result of slip and falls while on board ships. These incidents have occurred for a myriad of reasons ranging from crewmember negligence for not ensuring the safety of decks and other areas of ships to improper signage on cruise ship stairs.
In one case where a woman slipped and fell aboard a cruise ship, attorneys with the firm secured a $500,000 award for her injuries. In that case, the woman displaced her kneecap, requiring surgery and the installation of metal hardware. The fall happened as she walked across a cruise ship dance floor where another passenger had spilled a drink that had not been mopped up by crewmembers despite them being asked to do so. The dance floor was also poorly lit, compounding the dangers of the already slippery conditions. No signs were present in the area to warn the woman or other passengers about the spill.
In a recent slip and fall case that occurred on land, Partner and Trial Lawyer, Justin B. Shapiro, secured $1.8 million for a man injured at a Florida vacation rental. The man, who had been staying at the rental with his family, slipped and fell in the property’s primary bathroom shower, resulting in a horrific fracture that shattered his pelvis.
This case had been previously turned down by two separate law firms before Leesfield & Partners took on the man’s case. The vacation rental at the center of this case was being illegally rented, meaning that inspections that could have flagged the exceptionally slippery and smooth tiles used in the property’s primary bathroom shower never took place.
“We turned an enormously challenging case into a seven-figure recovery,” Mr. Shapiro said in a recent Daily Business Review article about the case. “I’m proud to say that I don’t know of any settlement or verdict in Florida larger than this for a fall in a shower.”
What do you do if you are injured in a fall on a cruise ship?
Seeking medical attention and finding help should you need it is the first step. Your health is paramount before any potential injury claim.
Following that step, the preservation of evidence is essential to ensure the best possible outcome for a claim later on. Your injury should be reported to the staff and crew immediately. Have your travel companion and or a crewmember photograph and document the place where you were injured as soon as possible to preserve the conditions of the environment where you fell. This must be done before any cleanup of spills or other hazards takes place. This will help attorneys identify the dangerous conditions of where you fell.
After you have received medical attention, make sure to request copies of all medical records from when you were being treated on board. These documents would include any X-rays, doctor’s notes and other documents that would detail the extent of your injuries immediately after the incident. Additionally, you should request surveillance footage from any cameras in the area that may have been recording at the time you fell to see if any of them captured your fall. This request should be submitted in writing.
When you have returned home, make an appointment to be seen by your primary doctor so that they can assess you immediately. It is also important to immediately reach out to the cruise line and notify them of your injuries. For most injuries in Florida, there is a statute of limitations of two years. Cruise lines, however, require notification of injury within six months of the incident date and a lawsuit should be filed within a year of the date of the accident. For minors who were injured, the statute of limitations is extended to three years of the incident date.
