Trust me, I'm a surveyor

Trust me, I'm a surveyor
John Guy reports from the tenth annual marine surveying forum

SURVEYORS and lawyers have a lot in common. They are both in businesses where they sell their knowledge in a competitive and individual market. They are both concerned with details. They both make most money when the shipping industry gets things wrong. But all too often they forget that they also share a mutual dependency. Without surveyors, lawyers would have no evidence and no expert input to help them fight cases. And without lawyers, insurance companies wouldn't need surveyors to help them fight cases either.

So it was nice to see a sprinkling of lawyers attend the Lloyd's List Events 10th International Marine Surveying Forum in Barcelona. And nicer still to have some lawyers talking sense to the delegates. Local lawyer Jaime Rodrigo de Larrucea talked sense about terminal operators' liabilities, Barcelona-based Ignacio de Ros talked sense about presenting evidence using graphical displays, and Peter Jackson, head of Hill Dickinson's cargo and transit department, talked sense about the role of experts under the Woolf reforms. Peter's paper and the subsequent lively discussion with the very international audience showed how UK legal practice can affect practice worldwide.

The conference was full of e-speak, with lots of talk about how the internet would affect surveying. There was news that a criminal court in the UK has recently refused to accept digital photographic evidence, on the grounds that it is too easily tampered with. But there was also news that this is a debate of the past, as means of encrypting and tracking digital images are now available, and there has yet to be a single case of an arbitration or civil court anywhere refusing digital evidence.

There was a fair amount of evidence that surveyors are rightfully sceptical of the effect of the internet on their business. After all, you can't survey ships over the web. But you can book surveys and deliver reports and find information over the web, and that is what both surveyors and lawyers should be doing. What they should not be doing is letting the web destroy the personal trust on which surveying and the law as businesses hang their respective hats.

Trust is what a surveyor sells, pointed out Sam Ignarski, founder of Wavyline.com. So while he visibly enjoyed telling the audience that they must get into the electronic age, and that parts of their jobs would go, he also showed how machines cannot replace trust. "Stick to your knitting," he said. "But use the new tools."

Calls for solidarity among ship agents

Suzanne Starbuck summarises the legal highlights from the fourth annual ship agency conference.

SHIP agents must stand together in the face of falling income and mounting pressure from principals, according to Edouard de Clebsattel, president of FONASBA (Federation of National Associations of Ship Brokers & Agents). Speaking at the fourth annual Ship Agency conference in London on 26/27 April, organised by Lloyd's List Events, de Clebsattel described ship agents as "the compulsory link in the transport chain."

The volatile, cyclical and competitive nature of the shipping industry is to blame for the pressure on margins for agents and owners alike. Among the speakers addressing the challenges facing agents was Lars Lewis of Richards Butler, Paris. Looking at what France can offer for ship arrest, he described France as "still attractive, the risks being relatively small compared to some other jurisdictions."

The ability of third parties to arrest a ship has also been addressed by the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. Chris Hobbs of Norton Rose looked at the implications of the Act for contract drafting, and at what changes the Act has made to the role of ship agents.

Continuing threats to the livelihood of ship agents are stowaways and deserters, often leaving agents with huge repatriation costs. Julia Mavropoulos, director of ITIM, managers of ITIC, advised agents to exercise extreme caution in the face of increasingly ingenious and sophisticated fraudsters.

Spain has also seen its fair share of law amendments affecting ship agents. Barcelona-based Ignacio de Ros drew delegates' attention to agents' liabilities under new Spanish law, obliging them to pay the port dues on behalf of the owner or charterer. He explained how the port agent must have a bank guarantee opened in front of the port authority to be able to act as port agent. If some dues are not paid, these will be located from the bank guarantee.