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Qwest Overview

Qwest is a maritime risk management consultancy, founded to meet its Clients’ existing and emerging needs around the clock and around the globe, through a range of innovative marine, legal, and consultancy solutions. It provides a comprehensive range of legal, claims, investigation and risk management services that protect ships, their operators, and their crews.

Qwest was founded in 2020 by West of England P&I Club and the C Solutions Group, bringing together world-leading marine insurance, loss prevention, legal and claims experience across a wide range of disciplines. It specialises in the provision of bespoke, end-to-end support services for the maritime industry, from pre-fixture through to post-voyage advice and dispute resolution solutions spanning every stage of each voyage.


Qwest Legal and Claims

Qwest Legal

Qwest Legal is a legal advice retainer providing Clients with pre- and post-fixture advice on all maritime or trade enquiries – whether it be contract wordings, claims or legal advice and general in nature or on a specific claim or dispute, up to the point that proceedings are commenced. We tailor our support packages to the individual Client’s needs and ensure they are competitively priced under an annual retainer structure. There is no limit to the number of enquiries that can be made under the retainer nor is there any deductible. Our team maritime lawyers and claims specialists works alongside the Client’s in-house teams, as well as their insurers, and can be called upon for advice whenever a problem arises. In addition to the retainer, Clients have the option of extending their package to include legal fee protection up to USD500,000.

Qwest Claims

Qwest Claims provides a flexible claims handling and legal service designed to respond to a specific need for advice and hands on handling of all types of marine claims where the Client has no other source of help – i.e. it is not covered by a traditional insurance by reason of scope of cover or deductible. Our team of maritime lawyers and claims specialists has expertise in all manner of claims, from the full range of P&I/FDD disputes through to H&M claims. Our team is available around the clock and provides value for money through fixed fees, hourly rates, no cure no pay or any combination of these fee structures to fit the Client’s requirements.

Qwest Shipmanagers

Qwest Shipmanagers supports third party Shipmanagers with legal advice services where a Manager does not have the benefit of an Shipowner’s defence cover, or where they are in dispute with the Shipowner themselves. In a similar retainer structure to Qwest Legal, Qwest Shipmanagers provides Clients with access to a team of maritime lawyers and claims specialists who can be called upon at any time to provide advice on any issue that a Shipmanager may face. Again, there is no limit to the number of enquiries that can be made under the retainer nor is there any deductible, and Clients also have the option of extending their package to include legal fee protection up to USD500,000. 

Qwest Demurrage

Qwest Demurrage can relieve the post-fixture burden on shipowners and operators by providing a comprehensive demurrage handling and recovery service. Demurrage is an important revenue stream but calculations can be a headache, with different charterparties having complex clauses and the impacts of weather, strikes, machinery breakdown and congestion all potentially needing to be considered, often within tight time constraints. Our industry experts work alongside our Client’s post-fixture and operations teams to provide an efficient and time-sensitive demurrage assessment, calculation and presentation and offering fixed fee and hourly rate fee structures, as well as no cure no pay for recovery services.

Qwest Investigation


Qwest Care

When a marine casualty occurs, much of the damage – the loss of life, personal injury, property damage and operational disruption – is apparent in tangible form. Other less tangible forms of damage, such as crew stress and trauma and the effects they can have on a return to normal operations, are less visible. Qwest Care introduces a new approach to crew interviewing and the surrounding wellbeing issues that may arise following a casualty which has been developed by Captain Terry Ogg and Dr Rachel Glynn-Williams, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, called Trauma-Informed Interviewing in a Marine Setting, or TIMS for short. The approach combines enhanced investigative interviewing techniques with expertise in ordinary human psychological responses in post-critical incident situations. It delivers more complete and better quality information and evidence from crew interviewees, providing psychological support and guidance for crew members with an emphasis on wellbeing.

Qwest Forensics

Qwest Forensics offers an effective intelligence service to safeguard a Client’s business in the compliance-led and increasingly digitalised commercial world. Services ranging from investigation of a counterparty’s standing prior, sanctions investigations, vessel tracking and drug smuggling prevention, investigation and mitigation, to fixing to asset tracing, debt recovery and cyber and IT forensics where loss has been suffered. Our team is staffed by former law enforcement officers experienced in undercover operations, marine professionals and trained financial and cyber experts with an approach that turns information into intelligence and evidence.


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