Ben Gardner

Ben deals with a range of Chancery work including corporate and individual insolvency, professional negligence, trusts and fraud.  Most recently, he has acted on cases involving cheque fraud, advised on the scope of solicitors' professional indemnity insurance and advised on the impact of insolvency in the shipping context.

Ben has undertaken work on a variety of insurance matters both in his own right and in conjunction with more senior members of Chambers.  He has appeared on behalf of insurers and insurance intermediaries at trial and is familiar with drafting and advising on insurance matters.  Most recently, he has been instructed to advise in writing on a US$4.5m coverage dispute and to appear in a 2-day trial relating to alleged mis-selling of insurance policies.

Ben has experience in a variety of general commercial disputes, including sale of goods, intellectual property, agency, banking and fraud.  He has been instructed to advise, plead and attend trial on all tracks in the area of commercial litigation.  Currently, he is currently advising on a US$1.5m brokerage commission dispute.

Ben regularly acts in dry shipping and commodities matters including cargo damage/loss, sale of goods, laytime and demurrage, cargo shortfalls and bunker disputes. He is also familiar with arbitrations under the auspices of commodities trade bodies, having been instructed on GAFTA, FOSFA and BCA cases.

Ben has experience advising on general average, arrest, collision and salvage matters.  He has experience drafting collision statements of case and was recently involved in a dispute about the sinking of a pleasure yacht following repairs and damage to a yacht during a prolonged stay at port.

Ben has experience in this key area of Chambers’ work.  In particular, he has been involved in ship repair, pipeline and drill construction claims.

Ben has experience of this core area of Chambers’ practice, including an appeal on the meaning of article 29 of the Montreal Convention and drafting fatal accident and personal injury claims.  He is also regularly instructed by major airlines to attend court in a variety of aviation disputes.

Ben regularly accepts instructions from major banks in a broad range of commercial and consumer matters.  He has recently acted in a number of cases involving payment protection insurance and banking fraud (e.g. cheque and credit card fraud) at all stages of the litigation.

Ben regularly advises on conflict of law issues under the European and common law regimes.  He has written and court experience of a variety of jurisdictional and choice of law disputes and has studied conflict of laws in England and America. 

Ben is regularly instructed to act in CMR and other road carriage and multi-modal transport matters. 

Ben has been involved in a variety of maritime arbitrations during pupillage.  He has recently acted as junior counsel in a US$80m ICC arbitration involving management of an oil rig, a time charter claim concerning measurement of cargo on an oil tanker and a dispute about the meaning of a charterparty dry-docking provision.  He also accepts instruction as sole counsel.