Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
In the latest data for 2023, a year that saw “unprecedented” levels of tourists, nearly 140.6 million visitors were recorded visiting the state, breaking previous years’ records and displaying a 2.3% increase from 2022.
With that many visitors in Florida to take advantage of its year-round summers, long stretches of sunny days on the beach and the natural beauty of the state, comes an increase in hotel and short-term vacation rental usage.
With more people booking these accommodations than ever before, hotels and rental companies are watching their businesses boom and are likely overcome by the money coming in. Any good businessperson would see this as an opportunity to expand to bring in more revenue. If done incorrectly, however, this expansion and the fallout of a larger space may come to the detriment of the very people these companies aim to please.
A legislative proposal that was passed by the Florida State Senate in 2024 aims to give authorities more power over the short-term rental market including online platforms such as Airbnb. The bill would implement statewide regulations such as limiting the number of guests allowed to stay per bedroom and other rules that would require the rental owner to register with local governmental authorities. Failing to do so could result in a $500 fine.
What is Negligent Security?
Negligent security is an area of personal injury practice that refers to a property owner’s and or management company’s duty to prevent foreseeable danger such as assaults, rapes, robberies and other attacks from happening. While it is commonly accepted that these entities cannot prevent or control all criminal acts from taking place, they do have the responsibility to take certain measures to mitigate them from happening and protect their customers. Examples of such preventions could include hiring security and installing security cameras on the property.
Leesfield & Partners attorneys have made it among one of the top negligent security law firms in the country with creative legal strategy and dogged litigation techniques to achieve the best possible outcome for clients. In its 48 years, the firm has handled a case involving a good Samaritan trying to intervene when a thief stole a woman’s purse and was shot in the chest, incurring significant injuries, and the case of a college student who became a paraplegic after he tried to stop three men from stealing his car in the campus parking lot.
Attorneys with the firm secured a $125,000 settlement with the landlord and a verdict of $1,510,000 against the supermarket in the first case and a $3,200,000 settlement on behalf of the young student.
Leesfield & Partners A History Representing Clients Injured on Cruise Ships
Florida is the home base for three cruise ports including Port Canaveral, Port Everglades, and Port Miami, the last of which has routinely been nicknamed as the “cruise capital of the world.” The cruising industry generates 158,992 jobs in Florida every year, according to numbers from the Cruise Line International Association, the leading authority in the cruise line industry. In addition to thousands of jobs, it also accounts for $8.1 billion for the state’s tourist economy and generated approximately $9 billion for Florida businesses. From the growing cruise population bringing in more money, these cruise ships are continuing to compete with one another for bigger and better experiences on board. Last year, Port Miami attracted 7,299,294 passengers to the area from all over the world, according to reporting from NBC 6 South Florida. This is an almost 7% increase from before the pandemic.
Carnival Cruise Lines recently announced the addition of three new ships to its growing fleet. Before that, the company announced two other ships, one in 2027 and another in 2028, would also be added. This is in addition to five other vessels that it would be taking over from its sister brand. The three new ships that would be added have been announced to have a carrying capacity of about 8,000 passengers, a number that rivals Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas which is currently the largest sailing cruise ship on the water.
With the expansion of this booming industry comes the possibility of more passengers, meaning more money for the cruise corporations and the local economy. Leesfield & Partners, a law firm with decades of experience litigating slip and fall, medical malpractice and negligent security cases aboard these ships has seen how more passengers can lead to an increase in potential injuries at the hands of crewmembers, and or other passengers who would wish to do them harm.
In the first quarter of 2024, which ran from January to March 2024, there were eight assaults with serious bodily injury, 16 sexual assaults, 16 rapes and one missing persons case reported. This marks a small decrease from 47 to 36 total reported incidents of criminal activity on board cruise ships.
Companies with the most incidents overall in 2024 include Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line. Though the incidents are down overall, sexual assaults continue to make up a bulk of the types of crimes that take place on board. In data from 2023, there were 131 sex crimes reported to the FBI including 52 sexual assaults and 79 rapes happening on ships embarking and disembarking to and from the United States. In 2022, a year that did not differentiate between sexual assault and rape, there were a total of 87 alleged sex crimes. The data began differentiating between the two crimes in 2023.
Leesfield & Partners attorneys handled the case of a Canadian woman traveling aboard a cruise ship when she was raped by a cruise ship crewmember. The man used his employee keycard to gain access to the woman’s room while she slept. A multi-million settlement was reached for the women in that case.
Recently, the firm was secured in a case involving a crewmember filming passengers in their private bathrooms. Some of the passengers filmed were minors. Criminal charges have been filed in that case by authorities. That case is ongoing.
Hotel Injury Cases
With locations in popular tourist destinations such as Orlando, Key West and Miami, Leesfield & Partners has seen numerous cases of negligent security to the detriment of guests and employees.
In one case, a guest staying at a Key West hotel was attacked with a hammer in the hotel’s parking garage. The man, who was under the influence of drugs at the time, was able to get inside the garage and walk around for approximately 20 minutes with his weapon. The woman sustained permanent and severe injuries to her face and head.
A $40,580,000 verdict was reached for the woman in that case.
A $2,250,000 consent judgment was reached for a family following the assault and wrongful death at a Miami Beach Food Market.
One couple retained Leesfield & Partners attorneys to represent them in the wrongful death lawsuit of their son who died after being sucker-punched by another patron at a bar. He was 25 years old. The attack was unprovoked and had the bar employed a security company or off-duty police officers as security, the attack could have been prevented. The person who punched the couple’s son was sentenced to nine years in prison.
A $1 million settlement was reached by attorneys with the firm in that case.
Another couple visiting the state from New York were brutally attacked and sexually assaulted at a Miami hotel by a man allowed to walk right onto the property, a place known by its owners and local police to be running rampant with criminal activity. The assailant was able to go up to the couple’s room without being stopped and knocked on the door. When the husband opened the door, he was immediately punched in the face. The man continued to beat and strangle the husband. The wife was not in the room at the time of the initial contact and, when she returned, she was chased into the hallway where she was beaten and strangled.
Security footage shows hotel employees, including security, seeing the attack after it was reported by housekeeping staff and doing nothing to intervene.
“They are standing over this perpetrator as he is strangling and beating out client,” said Justin B. Shapiro, a Partner and Trial Lawyer with the firm, in an article published in 2021 in the Daily Business Review. “As our client is screaming for help, the hotel representatives and security guard stand there and do absolutely nothing. It is a stunning display of incompetence.”
The attack continued into the elevator where the wife was further abused. In the five years before this incident occurred, over 1,200 calls to 911 were placed related to this location including over 100 assaults and burglaries. Other crimes such as robberies, shootings, and drug and or gun charge incidents also took place at the hotel during that time. It is because of this location’s propensity for violent crime that the hotel should have been prepared with armed security guards to respond and protect vulnerable guests.
If you think you have a negligent security claim, don’t wait. Call a Leesfield & Partners attorney at 800-836-6400 for a free consultation today.
