Maritime
The Maritime Practice Group at Balch & Bingham provides a wide range of services, offering our clients significant legal, transactional, legislative and regulatory capabilities.
We regularly assist our clients with acquiring, selling, securing, financing and insuring vessels, maritime companies, and other marine assets; reviewing, drafting and implementing master service agreements, charter parties, leases and construction contracts; perfecting and enforcing leins, as well as developing comprehensive employment and risk management plans. At the same time, we continue to handle a broad scope of complex litigation, ranging from toxic exposure to marine disasters to catastrophic oil well blowouts.
We represent clients in state and federal courts across the gulf south and along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Our group includes attorneys licensed in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Illinois and Missouri. Representative matters have included:
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General maritime law matters, including arrests and attachments, cargo claims, limitation of liability, collisions and allisions, and charter disputes;
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Personal injury defense, including Seamen claims under the Jones Act, longshoremen claims under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, and passenger claims under the general maritime law;
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Counseling and litigation regarding marine insurance coverages, including inland marine policies, P&I, MEL, hull, bumbershoot, builder's risk hull coverages, and special coverages provided by the London marine Market.
Representative clients include vessel owners, towing companies, marine contractors and fabricators, drilling contractors, terminal operators, service companies, oil and gas operators, casino and entertainment operators and their underwriters. We work with owners and operators of special purpose vessels, such as integrated tugs, mobile offshore drilling units, offshore supply vessels, dive support vessels, pipe and cable laying vessels and dredges. We also provide service to ports, marinas, shipyards and marine construction companies as well as other industries with maritime-related needs.
Because the complex issues that affect the maritime industry often touch more than one branch of government, the Maritime Practice Group is able to provide our clients with effective and creative solutions to legislative, administrative or judicial issues, drawing upon the lobbyists in our Washington, D.C. office as the need arises.
The Maritime Practice Group can also draw on a wide range of other capabilities from within the firm to benefit our clients. These include anti-trust counseling and litigation, assistance with corporate and financial transactions, bankruptcy, equipment leasing, environmental compliance counseling and litigation, maritime tax issues, and government contracting counseling and litigation. We also provide the maritime industry with a broad range of related services, including construction law, insurance coverage analysis, labor and employment, municipal law, public and private finance and real estate transactions.