Practice Areas - Cargo Loss and Damage

February 5, 2012

CARGO LOSS AND DAMAGE

A very large part of our practice is the defense of claims for cargo loss and damage on behalf of shipowners and charterers. Over our 50 year history, we have successfully handled thousands of claims, litigations, and arbitrations involving virtually every type of cargo. A long history of representing major liner services has enabled us to develop expertise in liner claims, containerized shipments and a wide variety of general cargoes. The firm also regularly defends claims involving specialized cargoes, such as refrigerated commodities, dry bulk cargoes, liquid petroleum and chemical cargoes. Having become experts in the field by virtue of our extensive experience, our partners have published articles, written papers and presented speeches on numerous issues relating to cargo matters.

While many cargo losses originate from an isolated incident (i.e. theft, handling damage, breakdown of reefer machinery), other claims result from major casualties, such as collisions, groundings, sinkings, fires, explosions and boarding seas causing loss of deck cargo overboard. We have significant experience in dealing with such major loss cases and, on short notice, our attorneys are prepared to attend at the scene of casualties and conduct on board investigations in order to develop and preserve evidence.

We strongly emphasize the need to keep our clients appraised of significant developments and to work with them to establish the essential facts needed to evaluate the merits of each claim. In doing so, our main goal has been to determine at an early stage whether a particular claim can be successfully defended or should be settled on best terms in order to avoid the inherent costs of litigation. All of the firm's attorneys experienced in cargo matters are admitted to practice before the Federal and State Courts in New York and many are also admitted to practice in a second jurisdiction, for example New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Louisiana.

Representative Cases