Admiralty and Maritime

Centrally located along the Gulf Coast and leading the nation in navigable river miles, Alabama owes much of its economic development to water transportation. Maynard & Gale attorneys have broad experience in admiralty and maritime law. This experience includes representation of vessel owners, operators, and charterers; cargo interests; P&I clubs; hull underwriters; shipbuilders and repairers; stevedores and terminal operators. Specifically, Maynard attorneys have developed expertise in the following areas:

• Arbitrations
• Cargo Loss and Shortage Claims
• Charter Parties
• Cruise Lines
• Interfacing with the United States Coast Guard
• Intermodal Transportation
• Investigations onboard Vessels
• Jones Act Claims Defense
• Limitation of Liability
• Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act 905(b) Claims Defense
• Marine Insurance Coverage
• Maritime Attachments and Arrests
• Maritime Collisions and Allisions
• Maritime Liens (State and Federal), including Foreclosure of First Preferred Ship Mortgages with and without Seizure
• Maritime Personal Injury and Death
• Property Damage
• Recreational Boating Accidents
• Regulatory Compliance
• Salvage and General Average
• Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Contracts and Commercial Disputes
• Treasure Salvage
• Vessel Transactions and Marine Financing

The Firm counsels clients in charter party disputes and matters of vessel financing and documentation. Maynard attorneys have considerable experience in defending maritime personal injury and death claims. The Firm has extensive experience in cargo claims of all types.

The Firm is experienced in collision and allision matters, standing ready to respond to whatever the needs of the client might be, whether to call out surveyors or to conduct an investigation at the scene of the casualty.

Attorneys in the Admiralty and Maritime practice routinely represent vessel interests in Immigrations and Coast Guard matters. This representation includes frequent handling of stowaway and deserter matters, from initial onboard investigation to repatriation, and through petitions to mitigate agency penalties. The firm routinely handles oil pollution matters, including overseeing response efforts, investigation of causes, and mitigation of fines.

Maynard’s maritime practice is truly international and cross-disciplinary in scope. We have prepared biomass contracts for manufacturers in connection with international commerce, and we have been involved with litigation surrounding an international coal supply agreement prepared by a company in-house. Our lawyers have drafted Charter Parties, time, voyage, and bareboat, and have litigated various provisions of existing Charter Parties, even to assist with London arbitration in connection therewith. Maynard lawyers have participated in obtaining the release of an alter-ego Chinese vessel after her sister-ship had been involved in a storm-induced allision at a Brazilian port. Finally, we have helped to draft shipbuilding contracts, including a series of $250M contracts for articulated tugs/barges and, in a different case, to litigate through appeal a separate substantial controversy involving an out-of-state shipbuilder.

Through many other dedicated practice groups, Maynard can also represent maritime interests faced with non-maritime issues such as environmental, over the road, toxic torts, governmental contract, governmental relations, and international trade dispute issues that from time to time impact the maritime industry.

Maynard has attorneys admitted to practice in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. Our attorneys are active in The Maritime Law Association of the U.S. (MLA), the Tulane Admiralty Law Institute, Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute (SEALI), the Greater New Orleans Barge Fleeting Association (GNOBFA), the Transportation Lawyers Association (TLA), the Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA) and the Defense Research Institute (DRI). In fact, our Shareholder Tom Rue is a past president of the MLA.