Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
A woman working on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship who was stabbed by another member of the crew before he went overboard has survived her injuries, according to reporting from national news outlets.
The woman was stabbed multiple times in what cruise officials are calling a “personal dispute” on July 24. She was attended to by the ship’s onboard medical staff and is now in stable condition, Royal Caribbean said in a statement.
The incident happened around 7 p.m. while the ship was heading to the Bahamas’ CocoCay. The male employee who cruise officials said was involved in this incident allegedly fled the area where the stabbing took place before jumping from the ship into the water.
He was later found unresponsive by the ship’s search and rescue team and was pronounced dead by medical staff.
The 28-year-old woman has not been named by the company and was only identified as being from South Africa
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners is Florida-based law firm with decades of experience handling every manner of injury that can occur on a cruise ship. Our skilled trial attorneys have secured numerous record verdicts and settlements for injured clients and grieving families throughout the state.
As common carriers, cruise lines have heightened duty of care to ensure the safety of their clients. In data reported to the FBI and made public by the Department of Transportation, there were a total of 43 alleged crimes that occurred on cruise ships from April to June 2025. Of those crimes, 13 were sexual assaults, 20 were rapes, four were assaults with serious bodily injury and three were missing persons cases.
In nearly five decades of personal injury practice, Leesfield & Partners has represented clients affected by the negligent actions of cruise ship personnel. From onboard injuries to medical malpractice and excursion-related accidents, our attorneys work tirelessly to pursue the best possible outcome for every client.
Bernardo Pimentel II, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Attorney, is representing as woman who was left traumatized after a member of the crew was found planting hidden cameras in the rooms of guests. In addition to our client, those who were filmed included children. The crewmember has since been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child sex abuse material.
Since the ordeal, our client has been left severely emotionally scarred.
“If we hold these carriers, these cruise lines … accountable for these kind of situations, they can now proactively seek out this misconduct and these people, these individuals that can commit these kind of actions against their passengers before it even occurs,” Mr. Pimentel told reporters when discussing the case.
Previous Cases
The firm represented a Canadian tourist who became the victim of a crime at the hands of a ship’s crewmember. In that case, our client was traveling on a cruise ship when a member of the crew abused his employee status and used a keycard to gain entry into her cabin.
A confidential amount was secured for the woman in that case.
Previously, Leesfield & Partners represented a member of the crew aboard a cruise ship with inadequate medical staff on board. In that case, our client lost an arm due to the ineptitude of the doctors and nurses when he went to the ship’s infirmary with symptoms of nausea. Instead of adhering to the clear black box warning label — which instructed medical staff to administer the drug deep into the muscle very slowly — the medical team rapidly injected this drug into our client’s IV.
He was in immediate agony at the beginning of a 17-hour, excruciating journey. Doctors aboard the ship began searching the internet as our client’s symptoms worsened. In addition to the extreme pain, his skin blackened, and his arm went necrotic.
By the time he was able to seek medica treatment on shore, paramedics noted his arm was ischemic, severely swollen and mottled from his elbow to fingertips. Despite the best efforts of doctors at the hospital on land, his arm could not be saved and was amputated.
Leesfield & Partners secured more than $3.3 million in an arbitration award against the cruise line in that case.
The firm recovered $2.5 million for a 9-year-old who collided with an unpadded steel grommet while diving for an out-of-bounds ball as he played on a ship’s basketball court. The child in that case suffered a catastrophic brain injury as a result on the traumatic incident.
Similarly, the firm represented a man, 62, who was injured while playing pickleball aboard his cruise ship. The firm settled the case for $500,000.
Partner Justin B. Shapiro and Trial Attorney Evan Robinson secured a confidential amount for a woman who was injured after an onboard fall. In that case, the woman slipped on water that was not cleaned up by crew in a timely manner. As a result, the woman fractured her right femur and fractured one of the bones in her lumbar spine.
