Welcome to this edition of the Ashfords Marine Newsletter.

The Christmas and New year are busy periods for mariners and we trust that all our clients have had a good and safe Christmas break. We also wish you all a prosperous New Year.

In this addition of our Newsletter we look at jurisdiction issues, VAT and a commercial construction of contracts. We also update you on arbitration and look at funding large commercial claims on a Conditional Fee basis - particularly
important in these difficult economic times.

As a department this has been a busy period for us all and we continue to look at ways of improving our service to our clients from all our offices, particularly those in London, Exeter, Plymouth and Bristol.