Freight Demurrage and Defence Insurance

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For the last 130 years, the UK Defence Club has built a reputation for superior maritime legal costs insurance. As an independent specialist provider, we provide our Members with comprehensive cover and ensure that they have access to advice and assistance in any jurisdiction, anywhere in the world.

UKDC Members enjoy:

Market leading cover – $15 million limit with no mandatory deductibles, and no release calls
Continuity Credits - rewarding length of Membership
Unrivalled Expertise – access to legally qualified claims executives worldwide
Extensive Advice and Assistance – from one of the most experienced teams in the industry
Exceptional Support – for individual cases and wider industry issues
Superior Influence – Membership of the most influential provider of legal costs insurance in the marketplace

Independence you can count on

Unlike our international competitors, our cover is not part of your P&I cover. We are focused solely on the provision of legal costs insurance to shipowners and operators. Our independence has a number of advantages:

We have developed the most extensive cover in the market place. It responds to a wide variety of claims including those against other insurers
As a specialist provider, we constantly look for opportunities to evolve to meet the very specific and changing needs of this market
By focusing solely on legal costs insurance, we have been able to develop unrivalled experience and expertise
Our Board of Directors and our finances are dedicated solely to legal costs insurance and are not distracted by other issues.

Continuity Credits – rewarding our Members

Since 2015, our Members have benefited from reductions in premium due to our Continuity Credits scheme, including an additional discount for those Members entering their entire fleet with the Club.

At the 2025 renewal Continuity Credits were given to those Members who have been with the Club for a complete policy year applied as follows:

10% capital distribution; and
an additional discount of 10% is available to those Members entering their entire fleet with the Club.

The application of Continuity Credits is reviewed by the UKDC Board on an annual basis at its November Board meeting.

Putting our Members' interests at the forefront of all of our activities

We support our Members in relation to both their cases and wider industry issues
Freedom of choice - for the benefit of all our Members we have Preferred Legal Suppliers with whom we have agreed fee structures (including alternative billing arrangements) however we do not restrict your choice of lawyer
We assist Members in securing the outcome that is right for them. We look for opportunities to resolve disputes amicably and, where that is not possible, we are experts in managing litigation, whatever the jurisdiction