News date: 30 August 2021
Mykola Skvortsov, Attorney at Law at Odesa office of Ilyashev & Partners, delivered speech on Practice of the Out-Of-Court Defence of the Shipowners’ Interests in the Event of Temporary Seizure of Goods Loaded on Vessel. Interaction with the Business Ombudsman Council at the seminar “Maritime Business and Trends in Maritime Law 2021”, which took place on 27 August 2021 in Odesa. The annual event was organized by the office of the Ukrainian Bar Association in Odesa Region, the Maritime Law Committee of the Ukrainian Advocates’ Association and the Transport Law Committee of the Bar Council of Odesa Region.
In his speech, Mykola Skvortsov shared the successful experience of handling the case pertaining to the actual detention of the Egyptian shipowner’s vessel in Berdiansk Sea Port upon execution of a protocol on violation of customs regulations by the Dnipro Customs Office inspector in respect of the cargo on board.
“As a result of prompt measures undertaken, including the involvement of the Business Ombudsman Council, we secured the out-of-court removal from the vessel of 5500 tons of wheat, – said Mykola Skvortsov. – In this way, the shipowner significantly minimized the damages associated with the vessel’s detention”.
Mykola emphasized the need for timely legal assistance in similar cases, and called on colleagues to actively use the Business Ombudsman Council as the out-of-court instrument for protection of business interests before the government authorities.
The participants also discussed other problems the shipowners face during the vessel calls at Ukrainian ports, specific aspects of arrest and release of ships in the Black Sea countries, practical cases during inspections and searches in the seaports, problems of legal status of the sea agents and trends in legal regulation of training, certification and employment of sailors.
The seminar speakers were the lawyers of the leading Ukrainian law firms in the field of maritime law.