Christopher Chatfield

Practice Areas

Chris is a London based partner who specialises in marine insurance. He qualified in 1997.

Chris handles goods in transit work, policy disputes, insurance litigation and the drafting of commercial contracts. His goods in transit work includes both recoveries and liability work. He also specialises in warehouse claims, defending and pursuing claims in relation to damage and loss to cargo arising from theft, floods, fires and other such causes. Chris’s work regarding carriage of goods includes both claims and liability matters involving domestic and international carriage by road, rail, sea and air.

He has represented stevedores and freight and port terminals in regard to claims by cargo interests, equipment claims and general liability issues. Chris specialises in cargo and freight liability policies and has been responsible for drafting policies in this area for many leading insurers. He has recently been heavily involved in advising a number of carriers, cargo interests and freight organisations on losses and liabilities arising in relation to loss and damage to temperature sensitive cargoes. This includes the issue of fear of loss claims and issues arising from the access of containers by clandestine entrants. He has also been instructed by a number of major insurers to draft their marine cargo and marine liability insurance policies.

In addition, Chris drafts commercial contracts and has drafted the standard trading conditions of inter alia, NVOCs, shipping lines, freight forwarders, road hauliers, courier companies, warehouse keepers, container terminals and cargo owners. He has also been responsible for advising clients on, and the negotiation of, multi-million pound freight distribution agreements and similar supply chain agreements. Chris regularly drafts contracts for cargo interests including multinational car manufacturers, satellite and aircraft manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and electronics manufacturers. He has been consulted by trade groups with regard to the drafting of some of their commonly used forms.

Chris is a qualified and accredited mediator, having received his certificate in 2024.

He is a member of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers, and holds a Master’s degree in International Commercial Law from the University of Nottingham.

Chris co-authored the marine chapter in the latest edition of Kennedys’ Claims Handling Law and Practice Guide which was published in February 2021.

Work Highlights

JTI Polska Sp. Z o.o. and others v Jakubowski and others (2021) - Supreme Court – successfully represented the claimant tobacco company and its insurers in pursuing the carrier and recovering excise duty in full in addition to the limits of liability in accordance with Article 23.4 of the CMR. This is one of the leading cases on the question of the damages recoverable under the CMR and on judicial interpretation of international conventions.

Lonham v Scotbeef – Court of Appeal – successfully defended insurers against a third party claim for damage to meat during storage. The storage facility had an insurance policy with Lonham which imposed on the storage facility a number of requirements in relation to incorporation of contract terms into agreements with cargo owners. The insured failed to meet those requirements and in one of the first decisions in the Court of Appeal on the effect of the Insurance Act 2015, the insurers were able to rely on their conditions precedent in order to deny the claim. The judgment provides important guidance on questions of construction and on the Act’s approach to conditions precedent and pre-contractual representations