Victims of the White Island eruption are set to sue Royal Caribbean, saying they were told "absolutely nothing" about the volcano's risks by the cruise operator.
Twenty-one people died as a result of the eruption, with the bodies of two of those still missing.
Most of those who died in the December explosion were exploring the island on a day trip from the cruise ship the Ovation of the Seas.
Now, a number of passengers and family members of victims are suing the cruise ship's operator, Royal Carribean, according to ABC Australia.
They are accusing the company of negligence, breach of contract and breach of Australian consumer law.
"It's had an amazingly horrific impact," Rita Yousef, who works for Stacks Goudkamp, the law firm taking in change of the lawsuit, told ABC's Four Corners.
"People have lost loved ones. They had to witness them in hospital having been completely burnt, being completely unrecognisable from their horrific burns, and people are having to somehow pick up the pieces."
Yousef said passengers were told "absolutely nothing" of the risks facing them on the volcano and were instructed only to "wear enclosed shoes".
Yousef said the fact that the tour went ahead after GNS raised the alert level of White Island from one to two in the weeks before was unacceptable.
"At the very least, Royal Caribbean, which held itself out to be responsible for this tour, should have been monitoring this, and communicating with participants as to the risk, and giving them the choice, an informed choice to decide not to go because of this risk," she told Four Corners.
"But what appears [to have] happened is that nobody [at Royal Caribbean] was monitoring or taking this level seriously."
Thirty-eight people from Ovation of the Seas were on the island when the volcano erupted.
Just after the eruption, passengers from the ship told Newshub they were in a "state of shock".
In a message on Facebook posted just after the tragedy, Ovation of the Seas offered its "deepest prayers and condolences" to all those involved.
"Our hearts and kind thoughts go out to the passengers and crew onboard Ovation of the Seas and also the families affected," the company said.
In a statement to ABC, a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean said the company has "focused on providing care and support to passengers, their families and crew that were impacted by this event".
