ITIC has warned that onerous documentary disclosure rules in the US courts can drastically increase the cost to shipping interests of defending even without-merit claims.

In the latest issue of its Claims Review, ITIC cites a case involving the manager of a number of cruise ships which was sued by a shipowner in a US court for alleged failure to oversee maintenance, for negligence in the provision of manning advice, and for negligence in relation to stability problems experienced by one of the owner’s ships. The owner alleged that theses breaches of contract caused it to incur increased maintenance and repair costs, and to lose profits. In total, it claimed in excess of $20m.

ITIC notes that an enormous amount of documentation was requested by the plaintiffs in this litigation. There were demands that the manager produce over five million documents, and such was the magnitude of the request for documentation that the court ordered that a specialist company be employed to track emails specific to the management of these vessels. The costs of the court-appointed email tracking firm were $350,000, while the average monthly legal costs incurred were $110,000 for each of the twelve months prior to trial.

Tags: International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC)