Letter · Maritime, Shipping & Transport
Cargo claim notice and time-bar protection letter (Hague-Visby)
Letter to a carrier giving notice of cargo loss or damage, holding the carrier responsible, requesting security and an extension of the one-year time bar under the amended Hague-Visby Rules.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- Australia, United Kingdom (England and Wales), United States
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked against the cited sources on 17 October 2026.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use promptly after discharge when cargo is lost, damaged or delayed under a bill of lading or sea carriage document governed by Australian COGSA or the Hague-Visby Rules. Do not rely on this letter to stop time running: only an agreed extension or commencing suit does that.
How AI may be used
AI may draft the letter from the survey, bill and correspondence and suggest candidate dates, but the time bar is a red-line risk: the lawyer calculates, confirms and diarises it personally.
AI may
- Draft the letter from the bill of lading, survey report and correspondence, citing each source.
- Suggest candidate notice and time-bar dates from the discharge and delivery dates for the lawyer to confirm.
- List missing documents needed to prove the claim.
AI must not
- Must not be relied on to calculate or diarise the limitation date.
- Must not decide which rules (Hague, Hague-Visby, amended Hague-Visby, Hamburg or US COGSA) govern the contract.
- Must not assert facts about cause of loss that the survey does not support.
The lawyer checks
- The governing regime, the identity of the carrier and the correct party to sue.
- The delivery date (or date goods should have been delivered) and the time-bar date, diarised with reminders.
- Any jurisdiction or arbitration clause, and the effect of s 11 for Australian inward and outward carriage.
- That an extension is confirmed in writing by the carrier or its P&I club before time expires; otherwise issue proceedings.
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Official form
Open the official form. Always use the current version from the issuer.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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