Cruise Ship Law - Cruise Ship Rape & Sexual Assault http://blog.lipcon.com/ en-us Copyright 2006 Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:19:05 -0500 Wed, 15 Feb 2006 22:42:15 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Free Advice discussion thread recommends LMA Free Advice.com, a leading legal advice forum, yields discussion thread on crewmember rape and Charles R. Lipcon's experience in handling these types of cases. Here's an excerpt from the discussion thread:

BelizeBreeze
You might consider having her contact the attorneys at the following site as they are very experienced in cruise line liability cases. http://www.lipcon.com/index.shtml
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bhughes2621
Thank you everyone. I contacted Charles Lipcon yesterday, and he has been a termendous help. He is now guiding my daughter through this difficult process.

Read the entire thread on Free Advice.

]]> http://blog.lipcon.com/2006/01/free_advice_discussion_thread.html http://blog.lipcon.com/2006/01/free_advice_discussion_thread.html LMA Client Comments Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:19:05 -0500 Congress Eyes Cruise Ship Dangers ABC News brings cruise passenger disappearances to mainstream news. The word is finally getting out that something needs to be done to make cruise ships safer for passengers and crew. Finally a major news station is also catching on to this story bringing into the mainstream.

At LMA we have created a new blog section dedicated to Cruise Passenger Disappearances, as well as a new practice area on our web site dedicated to this area. We will be adding more info to the web site including a listing of people that have gone overboard. Regarding the cruise passenger disappearances blog, check back or sign up for the feed for regular updates on this evolving hot topic. Hopefully within the next year or two we can be dedicating this section to the reforms that the cruise lines will have been forced to make.

Read ABC's story below:

About a dozen people have gone missing on cruises in the last 2 years

Lawmakers are set this morning to investigate the potential dangers to vacationers cruising the high seas.

Two congressional committees will hold a joint hearing focusing on cruise-ship disappearances and crimes. The hearing comes on the heels of another cruise-ship disappearance in recent months, this one aboard Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Sea, which returned to Florida on Sunday with one less passenger than when it departed.

Source: ABC News

]]> http://blog.lipcon.com/2005/12/congress_eyes_cruise_ship_dang.html http://blog.lipcon.com/2005/12/congress_eyes_cruise_ship_dang.html Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:39:14 -0500 Rape & Sexual Assault on Cruise Ships Rapes are much more common that you would think on cruise ships. On one news show covering this topic (I think it was A Current Affair), stated that cruise ships are just big parties/ drink-fests which is partly to blame for so many rapes occuring on ships. Things like "ruffies" (a.k.a. the date rape drug) are put into girls drinks to get them wasted, something you wouldn't really think to have to worry about when departing on your dream cruise.

Most people depart with family or friends on their cruise vacation not even giving safety a though. There's a false sense of security when you are on a cruise, you think nothing can happen because the perpetrator would have no where to run. Actually, its really the opposite....crimes aboard cruise ships are hardly, if ever, prosecuted. Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A. discovered that one cruise line had 173 incidents of sexual assault or rape in a 5 year period, and not a single one resulted in a prosecution.

So the questions that come to mind are:
- What can the cruising industry do to make cruise ships safer?
- What can you do while on board a ship to ensure the safety of yourself, your family and/or your friends?
- When these horrible incidents do happen, how come nothing is done about it?

More information on cruise ship rapes can be found on the following sites:

CruiseRape.com: web site created by a cruise ship rape victim named April. There's her whole story as well as a video of her interview on A Current Affair.

http://www.lipcon.com/news_tv.shtml: several clips from Television shows including A Current Affair, CourtTV, MSNBC, Fox News, the O'Reilley Factor and more

We are interested in hearing all of your comments and experiences, if any, on cruise ship crimes and safety so let us know what you think and if you're going on a cruise STAY SAFE!

]]> http://blog.lipcon.com/2005/11/rape_sexual_assault_on_cruise.html http://blog.lipcon.com/2005/11/rape_sexual_assault_on_cruise.html Sat, 12 Nov 2005 19:47:24 -0500 Congressional Investigation Ordered on Missing Cruise Passenger George Smith We all remember hearing about missing cruise passenger George Smith, who went on a cruise for his honeymoon, never to be seen again. George Smith was never found and his family it seems may never know what really happened to him. Finally, last month, Congress ordered an investigation into his disappearance and MSNBC has been airing specials on this as well as on other cruise ship crimes.

View the most recent clip from MSNBC's Scarborough Country, which features maritime attorney Charles R. Lipcon discussing the congressional investigations ordered on missing cruise passenger George Smith.

]]> http://blog.lipcon.com/2005/11/congressional_investigation_or.html http://blog.lipcon.com/2005/11/congressional_investigation_or.html Cruise Disappearances Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:51:02 -0500 Charles Lipcon on A Current Affair Charles Lipcon has been featured on 6 episodes of A Current Affair. The episodes aired between July 16 and August 19, 2005.

The disappearance of cruise passenger George Smith & cruise ship crimes including rape and sexual assaults on cruise ships were covered. Charles Lipcon believes that it's "open season on the high seas" and has his own ideas about what might have happened to George Smith. Lipcon has handled similar cases, so listen to the clips from A Current Affair to learn more.

]]> http://blog.lipcon.com/2005/08/charles_lipcon_on_a_current_af.html http://blog.lipcon.com/2005/08/charles_lipcon_on_a_current_af.html Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:25:53 -0500