Page 23: of Marine News Magazine (October 2018)

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Innovation | Safety | Performance

STATUTORY COMPLIANCE FOR TANKERS defense costs and increases the company’s liability exposure as inconsistent testimony always creates issues.

The increased cost of litigation can be avoided by tak- ing statements from all potential witnesses immediately after the accident. Once a witness provides a statement, this statement can be used at a later time to “refresh his recollection” of how the event occurred or, in the event that he no longer works for the company, keep him from providing differing testimony with the goal of hurting the company or helping the plaintiff, both of which can

DIRECT DAMAGE STABILITY

TM be expected from a former employee, especially if he has

TM & CargoMax been terminated.

Along with taking statements, it is also a good practice to compile all of the documents that may be needed during

USER DRIVEN | ENDORSED WORLDWIDE: Herbert-ABS the defense of the claim. These documents will include rel-

TM evant contracts, work orders, safety and equipment manu-

CargoMax systems with the Direct Damage Stability als, JSAs, vessel logs, client instructions, photographs and option have been approved by IACS Classifcation accident reports. Compiling the information while it is

Societies for decades. Meet the new IMO MARPOL, IBC, readily available, and providing it to your defense team im-

BC, GC & IGC requirements for mandatory verifcation mediately upon retention, will save the company resources instruments onboard new and existing tankers. as you won’t have to search through archived materials or pay your legal team to compile the information for you.

You save litigation costs if you can provide your attorney www.herbert-abs.com with everything that they need “in the can” instead of hav- ing them locate the information later.

You may be asking, is it always good to compile all of this information early? And my honest answer is, not al- ways, as some claims are just bad. But, in most cases, the compilation of this information will help your case and save you signi