OUR SERVICES
We offer services in the following areas of practice
Shipping agreements, charter party, and bill of lading disputes
Hormuz has been focused on practices in the areas of dry shipping and the relevant agreements. As a regional leader in the law of carriage of goods by sea and dry shipping, we advise on and deal with charter parties, bills of lading, employment, and other agreements and lawsuits.
We are one of the few law firms in the region able to provide a full range of legal services needed by any companies engaged in the very diverse and complicated shipping business and the relevant activities. We advise our clients, including but not limited to shipping companies, insurance companies, shippers, charterers, shipowners, freight forwarders, ship crew, shipyards, brokers, and governmental entities, on a full range of legal issues in international trade and shipping. We cover a spectrum of vessels, including bulk carriers, oil and LNG tankers, container ships, fishing vessels, passenger vessels, and yachts.
Hormuz helps clients in negotiating and drafting any agreements, bargaining, and amending any contract clauses regarding international seaborne trade and export of goods, vessel issues either break-bulk or container carriers or petroleum, chemical, or LNG tankers. Our services include bareboat agreements, time and voyage charter parties, contracts of affreightment, pooling agreements, shipbuilding contracts, and the like.
Together with the domestic laws and regulations applicable to international trade and shipping, we advise our clients on the international treaties and conventions, such as Hague/Hague-Visby Rules, Hamburg Rules, Rotterdam Rules, INCOTERMS, UCP 600, etc. and the impacts and implications they may have on the agreements and the bills of lading they are involved in.
Benefiting from expert lawyers in employment, labor and social security laws, Hormuz provides clients with all the legal advice and support they need to make and manage their human resources, including crew members, stevedores and handling workers, and the office-work people at any positions on the ship or the port, and to file the concerning litigation or to defend lawsuits based on such agreements, whether in courts or before the governmental authorities.
Marine cargo claims, cargo liens, lay time, and demurrage disputes
From the early stages of cargo carriage, the seller’s warehouse through its sea voyage to the buyer’s warehouse, we will offer advice and legally protect our clients throughout this land and sea process. The services we offer will typically start at the point the bill of lading gets issued through the final delivery of the cargo for any types of charter parties, whether it’s time charters, voyage charters, contracts of affreightment, or bareboat charters.
We advise clients on cargo quantity and quality claims and counterclaims, laws and jurisdictional disputes, ship arrest and detention, letters of credit, letters of indemnity, cargo liens, cargo insurance issues, non-payment of hire, speed and performance, maintenance, unsafe ports issues, repudiatory breach, dangerous cargoes, and above all laytime and demurrage.
Hormuz files, defends and follows up litigation on claims for losses, damages and shortages of cargoes at the law courts, tribunals or arbitration centers. Our services in this field of practice shall cover any type of vessel, either bulk carrier, container carrier, or liquid tanker, and will include any types of cargo, either bulk food or commodity, livestock, petroleum, chemical, LNG, etc.
Our extensive knowledge and experience will guarantee professional covering of any cargo-related subject matters and solving any controversies with the parties to the sale, service, or carriage agreements, and governmental officials quickly and efficiently.
Vessels and offshore installations construction, and sales agreements
Hormuz offers any sort of legal services to the clients in connection with contractual negotiations and administration of sales, lease, building, and repair of ships, as well as offshore supply vessels and structures, including FPSO and FSO units, drilling units and jack-up rigs, and the related businesses.
We represent buyers, shipyards, state-owned and private oil and gas companies, and financing banks, in litigation or arbitration arising out of the purchase, lease, design, construction, repair, renewal, refurbishment, conversion, assembling, and dismantling of vessels and offshore installations, including cancellation of agreements, quality and class issues, warranty disputes, sea trials, late delivery and delay, performance or refund guarantees, and controversies over technical supervision and ocean towing of offshore structures.
In the yacht business, Hormuz Shipping Lawyers’ expert team protects the clients’ interests for any purchase or lease contracts or new-build projects. Among other things, our yacht clientele benefit from a list of professional advice on yacht sales and lease agreements, yacht-building agreements, design agreements, project management agreements, conversion, refit and refurbishment agreements, confidentiality agreements, flag and registration issues, and safety matters. We also offer discreet and personalized services for financing, maintenance, and management of yachts and superyachts, including finance and security documentation, crew and management services, mooring arrangements, and problems regarding tax and duties.
Marine insurance, environmental issues, personal injury
Hormuz Shipping Lawyers offers legal advice to the insured shipowners, ship operators, charterers, and insurers and brokers in connection with the coverage issues, proof of loss, and the other controversies over the insurance agreements, either vessel’s hull and machinery or offshore installations are involved, or marine cargo and crew are at risk.
We advise on any areas of marine insurance including insurance agreements and policies, insurance companies and P&I clubs, FD&D insurance, charterers' liability, as well as ports and terminals liability, and any other insurance-related legal questions. We offer professional services covering any aspects and subjects of marine insurance if they are ships and cargoes, acts of god risks, or environmental issues.
Because of the carriage of huge volumes of crude oil and products by tanker vessels and the existence of the numerous oil and gas drilling, extraction, and warehousing facilities both in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea regions, marine environmental cases of the region have gained the utmost importance, and have become among the leading legal cases in any of the coastline countries.
On this basis, Hormuz expert lawyers in the environmental laws and regulations, whether domestic or international, together with our specialized lawyers in environmental criminal cases, are ready to give advice and represent clients in the courts and the administrative authorities of the countries of the region with respect to oil pollution, bilge water, ballast, and waste liquid disposal, and hazardous material discharges.
Our services also cover personal injury and casualty cases, including collision, constructive total loss, grounding, fire and explosions, salvage, towage, wreck removal, piracy, injury, and fatality. We support and offer a 24/7 regional service through our liaison offices in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and the Caspian Sea.
Dispute resolution services, litigation, arbitration, and mediation
To defend our clients and protect their benefits in the shipping business at large, Hormuz lawyers are ready to attend any domestic, regional, or international court, tribunal, arbitration center, or administrative body. Our professional shipping and maritime litigators are ready to file lawsuits or to defend them and to prepare and submit the necessary evidence and documentation, and follow-up the cases at any level in Iran or abroad.
Court litigation is being vastly replaced by some Alternative Dispute Resolution methods (ADRs) in the shipping business as well as most fields of international business. Among the several ADR methods, international arbitration has become the most favored method for dispute resolution in high-value, cross-border businesses such as the shipping business. On this basis, Hormuz Shipping Lawyers has become fully equipped with highly qualified business arbitration experts, to represent clients at any arbitration institute domestic or international, and to follow-up the lawsuits.
In addition to the arbitration services that we offer in any of the international, domestic, and regional main arbitration institutes, such as ICC, LMAA, SIAC, DIAC, ICAC, we are ready to offer help and advise on the other ADR methods, including mediation and fact-finding as well.