North of England’s Greek Members Continue to Focus on Loss-Prevention

Around 80 Greek members of North of England P&I Association attended the A rated 65 million GT club's annual seminar at the Piraeus Marine Club last week. The seminar is part of North of England's continuous program of providing advice and support to its Greek membership on loss prevention and associated practical and commercial considerations. In-house freight demurrage and defence lawyers Helen Yiacoumis and Antigone Yanniotis, both of whom are based in the club's Piraeus office, covered the various issues associated with charterparty withdrawal and checking before fixing. Office manager Tony Allen then looked at the implications of a deviation under P&I and shipowners' liability cargo cover, after which Tony Baker and Andrew Kirkham from North of England's risk-management department explained how to take a more pro-active approach to port state control inspections. The club has also recently held a number of in-house loss-prevention seminars for its Greek members on the topics of pollution, ship operators' risks, collision claims and risk management. For those presentations the Greek and risk management teams were joined by senior UK-based claims executive Julie Fisher, who specializes in personal injury claims and cargo claims. The in-house seminars reflect North of England's continued emphasis on direct loss-prevention support for members at an individual level. They also included a risk-assessment workshop, where members could actively participate in assessing and addressing how best to deal with loss-prevention issues in a practical and effective manner.