Maritime and shipping
Maritime and Shipping Lawyers
A vessel is finishing cargo operations and the money you are owed is about to sail with her. Or a container has come off short, wet or crushed, and the carrier has stopped replying. Shipping claims turn on how fast you move far more often than on how strong the file looks.
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The short answer
This page covers arrest and release of ships, cargo claims, bills of lading, charterparty disputes, collision and salvage, crew wage claims, marine insurance, and registration and sale, and it explains why arrest is the remedy most clients come to us for.
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Enough to say whether this needs a lawyer at all.
Ship arrest, the remedy most people come for
What an arrest does and does not do
Arrest is a court order holding a vessel in port until the claim behind it is secured. It does not decide the claim and it does not transfer the ship. What it does is turn a debtor who was ignoring your emails into one whose asset is sitting still against a schedule it cannot keep. That is why an admiralty lawyer in Dubai is usually contacted about security first and about the merits second.
Why arrest works here in practice
Ships call at the UAE constantly, at Jebel Ali and Port Rashid on the Gulf side and at Fujairah and Khor Fakkan on the Gulf of Oman side, where bunkering and anchorage traffic brings tonnage within reach of a local court. A vessel that enters the jurisdiction can often be arrested here even though the contract, the parties and the damage have no other connection to this country. That is the practical reason shipping law firms in Dubai handle claims that arose on the other side of the world.
Why speed matters more than anything else
A port call is measured in hours. An application has to be drafted, supported by evidence of the claim and of the vessel’s presence, translated into Arabic and filed with a valid power of attorney already in place. Maritime law firms in Dubai keep those papers ready for that reason. If you call after she has sailed, the claim has to chase the ship into another legal system.
Security and release
An arrest normally ends when the owner or the club puts up acceptable security and the ship goes back to work. What counts as acceptable is the whole negotiation, because the form of the security decides how easy the money is to reach later. The court may also require something from the arresting side. We publish no figure for either.
If the arrest should not have been made
An arrest made without a proper claim can expose the arresting party to a claim for the losses it caused, and those losses run at the daily cost of a detained ship.
Cargo claims and damage
Who you are actually claiming against
The first task is identifying the carrier. The name on the front of the bill of lading, the signature, the terms on the reverse and the charterparty behind it can point at different parties, and suing the wrong one can waste the only chance you have. Claims may also lie against the terminal or the freight forwarder rather than the ship.
Bills of lading and delivery without them
The bill does three jobs at once: receipt for the goods, evidence of the contract of carriage, and document of title. Most disputes come out of the third. Cargo released without production of an original, an original still sitting with a bank under a letter of credit, or delivery made against a letter of indemnity that then has to be enforced against whoever gave it. If your bank holds the originals and the goods have gone, that is a misdelivery claim and it needs attention the same week.
Proving the loss happened on the carrier’s watch
Survey the cargo at discharge, before it moves, and invite the carrier to attend. Give written notice of damage immediately, keep the tally sheets and the clausing, and photograph the stow before anything is unstuffed. A claim supported by a survey at the terminal is a different claim from one supported by photographs taken in a warehouse a week later.
Time limits
Cargo claims run out quickly, and the limit is short compared with ordinary contract claims. We publish no period.
Charterparty disputes
Time and voyage charters
The disputes follow the form. On a time charter the arguments are hire, off hire, speed and consumption, bunkers on delivery and redelivery, and whether a port or a cargo was one the charterer could order. On a voyage charter they are freight, laytime and demurrage, and whether the vessel was ready when the notice of readiness was tendered.
Laytime and demurrage
Demurrage claims are arithmetic built on documents: the notice of readiness, the statement of facts, the pumping logs, the letters of protest. They are usually won or lost on whether those documents were assembled and presented within the time the charter allows. Where the counterparty simply will not pay an agreed balance, the route may be a straightforward recovery action, which we cover on our debt recovery page.
Where the clause sends you
Charterparties very often carry a foreign arbitration clause, and that clause binds you whatever is convenient. It does not stop you arresting a ship here for security while the merits proceed elsewhere. See our page on arbitration and dispute resolution.
Collision, salvage and general average
A collision or a grounding produces several matters at once: the casualty investigation, the cargo interests’ claims, the hull and machinery position and the pollution exposure. Salvage brings in a separate contract and a separate award. General average brings in an adjuster and calls for security from every cargo interest on board before the goods are released. All of it moves quickly, so preserve the evidence and appoint a surveyor before the vessel is repaired.
Crew wage claims
Unpaid seafarers, sometimes on a vessel whose owner has disappeared, are a recurring problem in this region. The crew are also owed repatriation, and their claims are treated seriously in the ranking of who gets paid out of a ship.
Marine insurance
Hull and machinery, cargo policies and club cover each respond differently, and each carries conditions that are easy to break by accident. Late notification, a broken warranty or a survey missed at discharge can turn a valid loss into an argument with your own insurer. An insurer who has paid and wants to recover from the party at fault takes over the original claim, and the original time limits with it.
Registration, sale and mortgages
Registering a vessel, changing flag, recording or discharging a mortgage and selling tonnage all turn on the same searches. Before money moves, check the register for mortgages and arrests, check the class position, and deal with bunkers and crew in the sale documents. A ship bought out of a judicial sale after an arrest sits on a different footing from one bought from its owner.
The law that applies, and why it is not settled
The UAE’s maritime legislation was replaced relatively recently. Practice under the new regime is still forming, points that looked settled under the old law are being argued again, and much of what is published online still describes the previous position. Treat any confident statement about UAE maritime law, this page included, as something to check against the current text before you act on it.
Disputes can also end up in the DIFC or ADGM courts where the parties or the contract sit there, and a plain contractual claim with no maritime element belongs with our civil litigation work.
How we work on maritime matters
What a maritime lawyer in Dubai does first depends on the clock. Maritime lawyers in the UAE are usually brought in under time pressure, so the first call is short: where is the vessel, what is the claim, what is in writing, and is there a power of attorney in place. From there it is the arrest application or the defence of one, the security negotiation, the evidence, and then the claim itself through the courts or the arbitration the contract requires. Our basis of charging is on the legal fees page.
What to send us
The bill of lading, both sides. The charterparty and any fixture recap. The invoices and the account showing what is unpaid. The survey report, the notice of readiness and the statement of facts where they exist. Dated photographs. The correspondence, including anything already sent to the owner or the club. The vessel’s name and IMO number, and where she is now. The insurance policy and its schedule.
Questions people ask us
Can I arrest a ship for a debt owed by the charterer rather than the owner?
Sometimes, depending on the type of claim and the relationship between the debtor and the vessel. It is the first question we check, because it decides whether an arrest is available at all.
How quickly can an arrest be obtained?
Fast enough to catch a port call if the papers are ready, which is why the power of attorney and the translations matter as much as the merits. We would rather give you a realistic answer after seeing the file than publish a timescale that fits no case.
My cargo arrived damaged. Who do I claim against?
Start with the bill of lading and work out who contracted to carry the goods. It may be the shipowner, a charterer, or a freight forwarder who issued its own document. Survey the cargo before it moves either way.
The ship has already sailed. Have I lost the claim?
No. You have lost the easiest security for it. The claim continues, and the vessel or a sister ship may come back into a jurisdiction where it can be arrested.
Do you act for shipowners as well as cargo interests?
Yes, and for charterers and insurers. We check for conflicts before accepting instructions on a casualty where we already act.
Speak to a maritime lawyer in Dubai
If a vessel connected to your claim is in UAE waters now, that is the fact that matters today. Send us the bill of lading or the charterparty, the amount outstanding and the vessel’s name, and we will tell you whether an arrest is available before anything is filed.
Call us on +971 50 747 9570 or email help@lawyerindubai.ae. Our office is at Empire Height Towers, Marasi Drive, Business Bay, Dubai. You can also reach us through our contact page.
Related pages: arbitration and dispute resolution, civil litigation, debt recovery, legal fees.
What this costs
The first ten minutes are free. After that a standard fee applies and you are told what it is, in writing, before any work starts. Court and government fees are set by the court and are separate from ours.
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