Unpaid charter hire, demurrage, or bunker invoices don't need a lawsuit — they need leverage. Ship arrest, LMAA arbitration, and cargo liens, backed by local collectors in every major port.
Get a maritime case review →Most industries have no equivalent to ship arrest — a lawful order that keeps a debtor's vessel in port until the debt is settled or security is posted. It's the fastest form of commercial leverage in maritime law.
That's why maritime collection isn't ordinary B2B collection with a shipping vocabulary bolted on. It requires collectors who understand voyage economics, laycan pressure, and BIMCO or GENCON charter terms — and admiralty lawyers who can move fast enough to arrest a vessel before it sails from its next port of call.
Most files resolve amicably — the shipping industry runs on reputation, and P&I Club standing matters to every serious operator. When it doesn't, the file moves straight to enforcement: arrest, LMAA arbitration, or a cargo lien, without starting the story over with a new party.
A demurrage invoice doesn't need a reminder. It needs someone who can find the vessel.
In Anthropic's Economic Index — which measures which occupations' tasks AI is actually used for across millions of anonymized conversations — tasks commonly done by paralegals and legal assistants rank in the top 15% of all 718 occupations tracked. Case documentation is increasingly AI-assisted; deciding whether to arrest a vessel still isn't.
Haka AI builds the case file the moment your claim is placed — charter terms, vessel history, flag-state and beneficial-ownership data — so your admiralty lawyer starts the arrest application already briefed, not starting from zero.
Source: Anthropic Economic Index, May 2026 release. Figures describe observed AI usage by occupational task, not employment.
Yes. Ship arrest is one of the most powerful maritime enforcement tools. Our admiralty lawyers can obtain arrest orders in major port jurisdictions worldwide, preventing the vessel from sailing until the debt is settled or security is provided.
London Maritime Arbitrators Association arbitration is the most widely used maritime dispute resolution mechanism globally. Most charter party agreements contain LMAA clauses. It's binding, confidential, and produces awards enforceable under the New York Convention in 170+ countries.
Yes. Maritime debtors frequently operate through single-purpose companies under different flag states. Our investigators trace beneficial ownership through Lloyd's List Intelligence, Equasis, flag state registries, and corporate registry searches to find the real party behind the debt.
Amicable recovery typically takes 20 to 60 days. Ship arrest can be obtained within days in most major ports. The shipping industry's sensitivity to vessel detention and P&I Club reputation means amicable resolution rates are often higher than other sectors.
No cure, no fee. Commission is a percentage of the recovered amount agreed upfront — no registration fees, retainers, or hidden charges. Legal costs for ship arrest or arbitration are assessed and approved separately before filing.
Maritime debt covers more than unpaid freight. Charter hire and time charter balances, demurrage and detention claims, port agency disbursement accounts, bunker fuel invoices, ship chandler and marine supply debts, towage and pilotage fees, dry-dock and repair invoices, and P&I Club contributions all move through the same recovery machinery — because the underlying leverage is the same: the vessel itself, or the operator's standing in an industry that runs on reputation.
That leverage starts with documentation — charter party agreements, bills of lading, freight invoices, delivery receipts, disbursement accounts, correspondence — ideally referencing industry-standard terms like BIMCO or GENCON, since claims backed by recognized contractual language move faster through both negotiation and arbitration.
From there, a maritime-experienced collector opens the file: direct contact with the ship owner, charterer, or operator, referencing the specific charter party or bill of lading in question. Most files never need to go further than this — shipping companies with an ongoing reputation in a small, relationship-driven industry respond very differently to a properly documented maritime demand than to a generic invoice reminder.
Ship arrest lets a creditor apply to a court in the port where a vessel is docked — or about to dock — to detain it until the underlying debt is paid or adequate security is posted. It's available under the International Convention on Arrest of Ships and its domestic implementations in most major maritime jurisdictions, and it's fast: arrest orders can often be obtained within days once the vessel's location is confirmed, which is why beneficial-ownership and flag-state tracing is worked in parallel with every file from day one.
The commercial effect is immediate. A detained vessel costs its owner or charterer money every hour it isn't moving cargo — far more than the underlying debt, in most cases — which is exactly why arrest resolves disputes that months of correspondence couldn't. It's also why simply raising the possibility, credibly, often produces payment before an application is ever filed.
Most charter party agreements already specify London Maritime Arbitrators Association arbitration as the dispute-resolution mechanism, which means the forum is usually pre-agreed before a dispute even exists. LMAA arbitration is binding, private, and — critically for international creditors — its awards are enforceable in over 170 countries under the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. A creditor doesn't need to relitigate the claim in the debtor's home courts; the award itself becomes the enforceable instrument almost anywhere the debtor holds assets.
Where a charter party specifies a different arbitration body — SMA in New York, SCMA in Singapore — the same enforcement logic applies. The forum is fixed by the contract; what matters is having admiralty counsel who can move the arbitration forward without delay and pursue recognition wherever the debtor's assets actually are.
Cosmopolite's maritime collectors work on no cure, no fee: nothing upfront, a fixed percentage of what's actually recovered, agreed before your file is placed. Legal costs for ship arrest applications or arbitration filings are quoted and approved separately — you decide whether to authorize each escalation, rather than discovering it on an invoice afterward.
A demurrage claim doesn't age well. Neither does the goodwill it's costing you to keep quiet about it.
Our debt recovery agency with over 25 years of experience provides: Business to Business Collections Services, Legal Debt Collections and worldwide Skip Tracing services.
