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Practice areas

Admiralty and casualty

Collision liability and claims Tugs and towing law Wreck removal contracts Salvage, LOF and SCOPIC Pollution, bunkers and the environment Crisis management Collection of evidence Casualty response Treasure trove / salvage of historical wrecks

Casualty response

The biggest issue in those first moments is lack of information and only a partial understanding of what is happening. Often the incident will be over the horizon and in a maritime setting crew members may have been arrested making fact finding even more difficult. As we know often it is not the event itself which causes the most reputational damage, but the response. The inability to respond quickly in a world where social media is ready to condemn, even where no fault has been found, is critical.

We have over considerable experience within our team working with all stakeholders in the immediate aftermath of a casualty. We provide 24 hour casualty response capability. We have acted in many of the world’s headline cases:

  • Braer
  • Erika
  • Evoikos
  • Faina
  • Herald of Free Enterprise
  • Hyundai Fortune
  • ICL Vikraman c/w Mount 1
  • Marchioness Thames disaster
  • MSC Napoli
  • Penlee Lifeboat disaster
  • Prestige
  • Rocknes
  • Sealand Express
  • Tricolour

Related knowledge

Article 1
Could BMP 5 and the use of a citadel have prevented the capture of the Stena Impero?   »

The UK Sunday papers rightly are questioning why “we” wern’t prepared for the Iranian reaction to the detention of the Grace 1 (language matters here – Gibraltar have lawfully “detained” the Grace 1 and Iran have unlawfully “captured” the Stena Impero). There is no legal equivalence between the two events. Indeed Lawrence Freeman asks the […]
seaman guard ohio
Seaman Guard Ohio – @TheChennai6. Was Sri Lanka’s own floating armoury scandal to blame?   »

On November 28th 2017, over four years after their original arrest, the crew and men from the Seaman Guard Ohio were released having been acquitted of all charges by the Indian High Court in Medurai. They were driven from Chennai Central prison having won, not only what one of the men’s sisters described as their “battle […]
Further knowledge