Overview
Admiralty and maritime is a unique practice. These laws govern activities, transactions and relationships occurring on navigable waters, including oceans, lakes, and rivers. Maritime and admiralty laws also cover many commercial activities that, although land based, are maritime in nature. The United States Constitution grants original jurisdiction to the federal courts over admiralty and maritime matters. However, the vast majority of maritime actions, including suits for damage to cargo, injuries to seamen, and subrogation actions, may be brought in either state or federal court. WSHB attorneys have experience in both forums defending claims for lost, damaged, delayed or hazardous cargo; claims arising out of collisions; wrongful death and personal injury; contract disputes; oil spills, pollution and product liability; in rem claims against vessels and other property; and complex marine insurance issues. We combine this litigation background with our nationwide presence and decades of experience handling legal matters in the insurance industry to also provide a wide range of counseling to meet our clients maritime legal needs.
Our Admiralty and Maritime Practice Group has extensive experience with:
Marine Insurance Coverage Counseling
Our Admiralty and Maritime Practice Group advises clients in connection with marine insurance claims and coverage issues, defense and monitoring of complex coverage claims, policy drafting and compliance matters.
Maritime Subrogation
We have the maritime litigation expertise necessary to maximize subrogation recovery, whether the issue involves vessel damage or disappearance, cargo damage or disappearance, offshore product liability, onshore and offshore exposed property (container terminals, ports, oil platforms, pipelines), marine casualty, marine liability, or insurance coverage issues relating to these losses.
Cargo Claims
Cargo insurance claims, including fine art and specie claims, arise when cargo is damaged, destroyed, or disappears. Our Admiralty and Maritime Practice Group attorneys determine risk, assess liability, form teams of well-qualified expert witnesses and formulate effective trial and litigation strategies and tactics to ensure a favorable outcome for our clients.
Personal Injury Defense
Injuries from serious accidents on navigable waters are frequent, unfortunate realities. While sensitive to the plight of those injured, WSHB protects our clients’ assets and interests by employing ethically sound defense strategies under current maritime law. We combine our maritime law expertise with decades of experience defending cases involving catastrophic injuries to obtain the best possible results for our clients.
