UKDC in Action : Negotiation and Settlement
The Club assists Members to resolve cases without resort to litigation.
By providing Members with advice on the merits of their claim, or by intervening on the Member's behalf, the Club can assist to settle cases quickly, often without incurring any material costs. In the 2005/6 year 966 cases were closed without incurring any external costs.
For example:
Unpaid freight
The Club was asked to help a Member recover unpaid freight of $32,000 and sent a letter before action to the charterer, threatening proceedings. No reply was received from the charterer and so the Club appointed an arbitrator. The unpaid amount was paid in full - three weeks after the Club was involved.
Cancellation
The Club was asked to advise when a charterer claimed the right to cancel a charter due to what it alleged was "force majeure". We helped the Member to calculate the level of damages - freight due, plus demurrage - then negotiated a recovery from the charterer. The Member recovered about 90% of the calculated claim, at no cost to the Association and within one month of asking the Club to advise.
Negotiating settlement between Members
Two Members of the Club (an owner and a time charterer) could not agree on the interpretation of a clause on the charter, with a relatively modest amount at stake. The Club proposed that the issue should be referred to an eminent London solicitor for an opinion, on the basis that the opinion would be binding on both parties.
Both Members agreed and the solicitor produced his opinion within two weeks (deciding, as it happens, in favour of the owner). The costs of obtaining the opinion were a few hundred pounds.
The costs of an arbitration - potentially many thousands of pounds - were saved and both Members avoided the potentially harmful commercial consequences of a long, drawn out dispute.