ThawClaim · We recover money from failed frozen shipments

01 · Why claims die

The carrier denies. The insurer pays part. The file goes in a drawer.

Nine months later the filing window closes and the money is gone for good. Not because the claim was weak. Because nobody owned the fight.

The clock kills quietly

Truck cargo claims typically must be filed within 9 months. Ocean suits die at 12. Most write-offs we see were still recoverable, just unworked until the window shut.

Denials are opening offers

“Act of the shipper.” “Pre-existing condition.” “Insufficient documentation.” Carriers raise the same defenses on every reefer loss, and most survive only because nobody rebuts them.

Nobody’s job to chase it

Your broker places coverage. Your ops team moves freight. A $60,000 denied claim belongs to no one. So it belongs to us.

02 · The 48-hour read

Every read answers five questions. In writing. With dates and dollars.

iWhat is recoverable

A dollar range, not a maybe. Built from your invoices, the temperature record, and market values.
iiWho owes it

Every liable party in the chain, ranked: carrier, warehouse, ocean line, with the legal basis in plain English.
iiiThe clock

The exact dates your claim windows close. Usually the most valuable line on the page.
ivWhy the denial fails

If they denied you, the specific reason their defense does not hold. Or the honest news that it does.
vWhat happens next

What we would file, against whom, in what order. Whether you engage us or run it yourself.

Exhibit A · Claim read · Frozen seafood

Illustrative

Loss

Reefer container, frozen sockeye. Claimed value $84,000. Carrier denied: “shipper failed to pre-cool.”

Estimated recoverable

$55,000 to $70,000

Primary target

Ocean carrier. Clean bill of lading plus the set-point record contradicts the pre-cool defense.

The clock

Suit window closes MAR 14 · warehouse notice closes NOV 02

Verdict

Recoverable. Denial rebuttable on the carrier’s own telemetry. Recommend demand within 21 days.

Illustrative example. The structure of every read; figures are not from a client engagement.

Send us a dead claim

03 · Where the money hides

Most companies file one claim. There are usually four ways in.

The typical loss gets filed once, against the marine policy, and abandoned when that check comes up short. The other tracks almost never get worked. That is the gap we live in.

Track	Counterparty	What it recovers	Basis
TRACK 1	Your own insurer	Partial payments and deductible gaps that another track can still make whole	Marine policy terms
TRACK 2	The ocean carrier	Clean bill in, damaged cargo out: the carrier has explaining to do, and its own telemetry usually does the arguing	COGSA · 46 U.S.C. § 30701 note
TRACK 3	Trucking & drayage	A strict liability regime for interstate carriers; the short window is exactly why these die unfiled	Carmack · 49 U.S.C. § 14706
TRACK 4	The warehouse	Product went in sound and came out ruined: the facility owes an explanation and often a check	Bailment · UCC Art. 7 · storage contract

These are federal statutes and standard commercial doctrines, verifiable by your own counsel. We are not asking you to trust a method. We are asking you to check the law we file under.

04 · The clock

Your claim is probably still alive. Here is how long that stays true.

Loss type	Governing rule	Typical deadline
Refrigerated truck / drayage	Carmack Amendment: claim filed with the carrier	9 months from delivery
Ocean reefer container	COGSA: suit against the ocean carrier	1 year from delivery
Cold storage / warehouse loss	Storage agreement plus bailment law	Often 60 days’ notice
Marine cargo policy claim	Your policy’s notice terms	Prompt notice; check policy

Typical periods under standard bills of lading and storage agreements; your documents control. The 48-hour read states your exact dates.

If the loss happened in the last 12 months, most of these windows are still open. That is the reason to send the file today, not next quarter.

05 · The deal

The whole arrangement fits on one page. Here it is.

Free

The 48-hour read. Every claim, every time, including the ones we tell you not to chase.

25%

Of what we actually collect. 20% on recoveries above $100K. No recovery, no fee.

$1,500

Case-initiation fee when we take a claim on, credited back in full against our contingency at recovery.

One-page engagement letter. You approve any settlement before it is accepted. Either of us can walk away before a settlement is accepted. If we tell you a claim is dead, that costs nothing. You will just finally know.

06 · Who reads your file

Sadat

Founder · New York
Direct line, answered by me

[email protected] (310) 384-0459

ThawClaim is a specialist recovery practice, not a platform with a sales team. When you send a file, I read it. When there is a findings call, I am on it. When a carrier gets a demand letter, I wrote it.

We built our own software to read claim files fast. That is how a verdict comes back in 48 hours instead of six weeks. But judgment on every claim is human, and the human is me. You will never be handed off.

07 · Questions operators ask first

Direct answers, no hedging.

What does this cost me?

The read is free. Genuinely, including when the answer is “do not bother.” If we take a claim on, there is a $1,500 case-initiation fee, credited back in full against our contingency when we recover, and our fee is 25% of collected funds, 20% above $100K. If we collect nothing, you owe nothing beyond that initiation fee. And we do not take claims we do not believe in, because our economics do not work on dead files.

Which claims qualify?

Temperature-related cargo and storage losses: reefer breakdowns, temp excursions, warehouse failures, spoiled or rejected frozen product. Roughly $20,000 to $150,000 in value, from the last 18 months, in the US. Denied, underpaid, stuck, or never filed all qualify. If it is outside that box, send it anyway. The read will say so honestly.

What do you need from me?

Forward whatever exists: bill of lading or booking confirmation, temperature download or exception notice, commercial invoices, any claim correspondence or denial letter, and a survey report if one was done. Missing pieces are normal. Part of the read is telling you which gaps matter and which do not.

Are you a law firm?

No. ThawClaim prepares, files, and negotiates freight and warehouse claims: demand letters, evidence packages, statutory deadline management, settlement negotiation. When a claim needs litigation or first-party insurance advocacy, we bring in licensed transportation counsel or licensed adjusters, and we tell you that in the read. You always know which lane your claim is in.

How long until money actually lands?

The read takes 48 hours. Recoveries are structurally slower: clean carrier claims typically settle in one to four months, and contested denials run longer. We give you a realistic timeline in the read and a one-line status update every week after filing. Nobody goes dark on you.

Why would you look at my claim for free?

Because it is how we find the claims worth chasing, for both of us. Our software does the heavy reading, so a verdict costs us little to produce, and we would rather earn the recovery work by showing you the analysis than by asking you to trust a pitch. Roughly a quarter of the files we read are worth pursuing. The free read finds them fast.

08 · Send the file

Thirty seconds now. A verdict in 48 hours.

Tell us what happened in two sentences. We reply from [email protected]; you answer that email with whatever documents exist. No organizing required.

We recover money from failed frozen shipments.