This is from Daniel Dennett here Maritime law is notoriously complicated, strewn with hidden traps and escape clauses that only an expert, a sea lawyer , can keep track of, so sea-lawyering is using technicalities to evade responsibility or assign blame to others. That part about evade responsi…

I always thought it was like seagoing teenage kids, i.e. someone who will spend an hour explaining in the most convoluted way possible why they don’t have to do a job that would have taken them half an hour :roll_eyes:

From Duck Duck Go: A querulous or captious sailor, disposed to criticize orders rather than to obey them; one who is always arguing about his work, and making trouble. Said to have first appeared around 1805 - 1829, Merriam-Webster puts the origin as 1829. My experience dating back to the 1970s a…

“Captious” is good word for it: Captious comes from Latin captio , which refers to a deception or verbal quibble . Arguments labeled captious are likely to “ capture ” a person; they often entrap through subtly deceptive reasoning or trifling points. A captious individual is one who might also be dub…

I’ve always thought of a sea lawyer as a sailor who dispenses legal advice to shipmates freely but without a formal law education to validate his advice.

Yes. Like a “jailhouse lawyer”. Several good answers here. Also like many posters here on gCaptain :roll_eyes:

Term comes from the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Following the mutinies at the Nore, a greater emphasis was placed on seaman’s rights and regulations preventing their abuse and some fellows got rather good at nitpicking regulations. I have printed and laminated sheets explaining the most …

The arguments are also often spurious .

Wikipedia: * Sea Lawyer: (1) A sailor or his buddy, making eloquent but completely spurious arguments at Captain’s Mast, or in response to some disciplinary action. (2) An argumentative, cantankerous or know-it-all sailor. A sea lawyer is adept at using technicalities, half truths, and administrativ…

[image] Kennebec_Captain: A sea lawyer is adept at using technicalities, half truths, and administrative crap to get out of doing work or anything else he doesn’t want to do, and/or to justify his laziness. Change a few words and that could describe a lot of politicians. :rofl:

What is a sea lawyer?

Scuttlebutt

jdcavo March 22, 2023, 2:46pm 9

Real lawyers prefer to use specious.

Topic		Replies	Views
Injured seaman Professional Mariner Forum	5	750	October 14, 2021
New Article Maritime Law	2	2229	March 19, 2009
Maritime Law Maritime Law	0	1077	August 23, 2019
Blank Rome LLP - Not All Attorneys Are the Enemy Professional Mariner Forum	1	1207	January 24, 2013
My maritime rants! Scuttlebutt	39	4192	June 11, 2009

What is a sea lawyer?

Related topics