Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth will call Miami home, at least for a little while, a history-making move for the company.
After an “increasing demand from North American guests,” the ship will be making trips to the Caribbean from what many consider to be the cruising capital of the world, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.
The ship will be in Miami from mid-October until April 2026, making trips that range from nine to 28-night voyages to locations such as Jamaica, Mexico St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Honduras, Mexico, Barbados and Puerto Rico. After its departure in April of 2026, the ship will return to Miami next October until April 2027.
The move will likely draw more cruise ship passengers to the area, which has seen a steady increase in passengers following the industry-wide shutdown in2020 for the pandemic. In a record-breaking year, PortMiami say 8.2 million passengers in 2024. This was an over 12% increase since 2023. With more passengers, however, comes more possibility for injury. Leesfield & Partners attorneys have been representing injured cruise ship passengers for nearly five decades.
Leesfield & Partners
With a home base in Miami, Florida, Leesfield & Partners has had the unique opportunity of watching cruise ships compete with one another over the years to become “floating cities” and sea-bound theme parks. Today’s cruise ships increasingly feature winding slides, slick water parks, and other onboard attractions that, without proper safety measures, can result in catastrophic injuries. When tragedy strikes, Leesfield & Partners stands ready to support injured passengers and their families. To date, the firm has secured over $40 million for cruise ship passengers injured due to that corporation’s negligence.
Many of the painful injury cases brought to Leesfield & Partners have been caused by unassuming hazards such as inadequately maintained railings, slippery surfaces, and hot tub or jacuzzi steps. Despite the commonplace object, our clients have suffered permanent and disfiguring injuries due to a cruise line’s negligence.
Previous Cruise Ship Injury Cases
Every year, thousands of cruise ship passengers are injured aboard ships for various reasons. And, every year, thousands of these passengers file personal injury claims against these cruise lines. Leesfield & Partners has extensive experience in this area of personal injury law and has encountered nearly every type of case imaginable. To date, the firm has secured over $40 million for cruise ship passengers injured due to that corporation’s negligence.
From a fall on a pool deck that caused a painful injury likely needing surgery, to a fatal fall from a cruise ship balcony, our attorneys have seen the devastating fallout of these injuries and the impact they have on clients due to a company’s negligence.
One family represented by the firm tragically lost their 8-year-old girl when she fell five stories to her death on a cruise ship. The child had separated from her family and learned over an interior railing. The badly built railing shifted the child’s center of gravity and resulted in her fall. A six-figure recovery was obtained for the family in that case.
The firm has seen dozens of slip and falls and trip and falls aboard cruise ships resulting in over $3 million in recovery for clients. The majority of these falls were due to wet pool decks or wet floors, and all could have been easily avoided.
Bernardo Pimentel II, a Trial Attorney at the firm, is handling a case where a cruise ship employee was found to be filming passengers in their private bathrooms. Our client, who has been left with emotional scars and PTSD following the incident was one of many passengers whose privacy was violated due to the actions of this employee. Others who were filmed include minors. The employee who planted the hidden cameras was sentenced to federal prison for producing child sex abuse material.
That case is ongoing.
Another negligent security case handled by the firm involved the brutal rape of a Canadian tourist who was traveling on a cruise ship. An employee abused his employee status and used his keycard to enter her room and attack her.
In addition to premises liability and negligent security cases handled by the firm, Leesfield & Partners has also litigated numerous cases involving medical malpractice aboard ships and shore excursion injuries.
Recently, Partner Justin B. Shapiro filed a case in which a woman on a jet ski tour suffered severe spinal injuries after the tour guide meant to lead the group crashed into her from behind.
When discussing the case with local media, Mr. Shapiro said it was a “recipe for disaster.”
“If there’s any kind of incident you’d never expect on one of these jet ski tours it’d be that the tour guide, the protector, is the one who crashes into you and shatters your spine,” he said.
If you or a loved one were injured in a cruise ship accident, don’t wait—call a Leesfield & Partners attorney today at 800-836-6400 or 305-854-4900 for a free consultation to find out if you’re eligible to file a claim.
