Lawsuits, Royal Caribbean, and Its Claims Administrator

Though we'd like to think that the luxury of a cruise comes from some sort of magic, but the fact is that it requires the work of many people to make a cruise something fun for its passengers.

In some cases, these people work a lot of overtime in order to make that cruise magic happen. But mistakes happen on cruise ships, and one mistake made by Royal Caribbean cruise lines was that they forgot to pay some of their employees for a lawsuit. The results of this help to illustrate the role the Royal Caribbean Cruises claims administrator plays in ensuring that this error is corrected.

The Claims

The original lawsuit brought against Royal Caribbean accuses the company of failing to pay an adequate amount of overtime pay for its ship employees, as had been set by a collective bargaining agreement. Rather than take time and money to argue this in court, Royal Caribbean chose instead to settle out of court. Rather than leave the company in charge, a claims administrator for Royal Caribbean Cruises was assigned.

The role of the claims administrator for Royal Caribbean Cruises is to evaluate claims made by people who say they are part of the class-action lawsuit that was brought against Royal Caribbean, and then to process those claims and make payment to those who qualify.

Unreturned Funds

Several years after the settlement, it became apparent that not all of the claimants had cashed the checks issued for them. As a result, Royal Caribbean Cruises asked the claims administrator to return the unpaid money to them, as was outlined in the agreement. This resulted in another trip to court, as the lawyers for the workers wanted to ensure that the remaining people were paid. In the process of arbitration for this dispute, the claims administrator for Royal Caribbean Cruises acted as a third party consultant, using their knowledge of the claims administration business to come up with a plan for allowing the remaining claims to be properly processed.

In this manner, the claims administrator for Royal Caribbean Cruises balanced the needs of the workers to be paid with Royal Caribbean's desire to have the matter resolved and remaining funds returned to them. By processing the claims, and in helping to resolve further disputes between the workers and Royal Caribbean, the claims administrator serves a key role in assuring that the results of class action lawsuits are handled in a fair and honest manner.