GBRW Expert Witness and Baltic Expert Witness Association to co-operate on provision of expert services
GBRW Expert Witness (GBRWEW) and the Baltic Expert Witness Association (BEWA) are delighted to announce an understanding for co-operation, under which GBRWEW can access BEWA’s extensive database of maritime experts and BEWA experts can refer to GBRWEW requirements for expert evidence in areas such as trade finance and trading.
For shipping market, commercial and charter party matters, BEWA’s membership includes shipbrokers (both wet and dry chartering and sale & purchase), chartering managers, freight derivatives traders, consultants, financiers, master mariners, marine surveyors and engineers, many with sea-going experience. The expertise of each individual BEWA member derives from many years of commercial, legal and practical shipping experience.
BEWA and the Baltic Exchange
Many BEWA members are members of the Baltic Exchange. BEWA operates under the Baltic Exchange umbrella and forms part of the Baltic Exchange group of maritime and related services.
The Baltic Exchange is a membership organisation with a long history at the heart of the global maritime marketplace since 1744. As part of its wide commitment to the maritime industry, the Baltic Exchange fully supports BEWA. The two organisations share common ethics, purpose and history.
All BEWA members must adhere to the Baltic Code, which binds members to maintain the highest levels of professionalism, efficiency and fairness.
BEWA is by design not UK-centric - there is growing membership in many other countries, where BEWA promotes to local law firms the advantages of using experienced experts in international and local maritime disputes and also recruits new members.
BEWA members can give evidence and professional expert opinions either in situ or via video conference link for hearings taking place in global arbitration centres and courts.
BEWA’s expert witnesses
Every day millions of tonnes of cargo and many passengers are transported by sea, mostly without incident. Across the oceans, thousands of specialist vessels are employed in both coastal and deep-sea trades. Given the volume and complexity of the industry, it is inevitable that disputes occasionally occur. Parties need to find a resolution and BEWA’s expert witnesses are experienced independent professionals, willing and able to provide their specialist expertise to help parties to reach a resolution. Reasoned opinion is given via written reports and/or by oral testimony as part of formal legal proceedings.
Paul Rex, Managing Director of GBRWEW, says: “Our understanding with BEWA is a natural complement to our expanding practice in the area of trading and trade finance, in which three of our directors have backgrounds structuring trade finance transactions and dealing with banking documentation issues. We now offer expert support in trading physical commodities (including the specific steel and other metals sectors) and commodity derivatives, as well as other marine, aviation and trade credit insurance and shipping finance.”
Jeffrey Blum, Chairman of BEWA, says: “BEWA’s vision is to be the global centre for the provision of maritime expert witnesses. The Baltic Exchange shares its motto with the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and both have always had a very strong historical, physical, cultural and professional connection: ‘Our Word, Our Bond’ definitely carries a lot of weight. If anybody around the world wants to look for an Expert Witness, the name ‘Baltic Exchange’ has a solid and highly respected reputation globally, to be upheld by all its members, including BEWA members.
My colleagues and I are keen to promote BEWA as the main place of choice for anyone involved in maritime disputes, such as P&I clubs, insurers, barristers, solicitors, charterers, operators and shipowners, so we see our understanding with GBRWEW as an effective way of developing this process.”
