TRANSPORT CLAIMS · NEXUS LEGAL
Which rule applies, what it gives, by when, and where it says so.
A transport claim turns on a rule, a date, a distance, a weight and a forum. Here a deterministic engine for each rule works out the answer and returns it with the text it cites. Passengers by air, rail, bus and ship. Cargo by road, air and sea.
Designed for the professionals who handle these claims.
What comes back
Two extracts from real engine responses. The same schedule, two routes: on one the rule settles the result, on the other it does not, and the response says so.
Delay, Madrid to Frankfurt
Scheduled departure 10 March 2026, 08:00 (+01:00). Scheduled arrival 10:40, actual arrival 14:10, time given: doors open.
Entitled
EUR 250 · Regulation (EC) No 261/2004
How it got there
- Flight on 2026-03-10: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as interpreted by the CJEU.
- Distance MAD-FRA: 1419.5 km on the sphere, 1420.9 km on WGS84.
- Departs from MAD (EU Member State (ES)): art. 3(1)(a).
- Arrival delay: 210 min (time given: doors open).
- Band a of art. 7(1): EUR 250.
Taken as given
- Confirmed reservation and, except for cancellation, check-in on time (art. 3(2)).
- Ticket at a fare available to the public or under a frequent flyer programme (art. 3(3)).
- This regime sets no time limit for claims: national law does.
The text it cites (one of the sources in this response)
Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, art. 7(1)
1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall receive compensation amounting to: (a) EUR 250 for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less; (b) EUR 400 for all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres, and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres; (c) EUR 600 for all flights not falling under (a) or (b). In determining the distance, the basis shall be the last destination at which the denial of boarding or cancellation will delay the passenger's arrival after the scheduled time.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261SHA-256 of the text
555eb94e891ecb2c91797e8c1d2a881a066810d533f66a0045d4d0f85332078c
Delay, Dublin to Keflavík
The same schedule, on a route that falls on a distance threshold.
Undetermined
Possible amounts: EUR 250 or EUR 400
How it got there
- Distance DUB-KEF: 1497.2 km on the sphere, 1500.8 km on WGS84.
- The sphere and the ellipsoid fall on different sides of a distance threshold: no model is chosen.
Extracts. Rules version 2026-11-03.1, sources checked on 24 October 2026. Each response carries its rules version, that date, and for each source cited, its text, where it came from and its SHA-256 fingerprint.
Why a language model does not decide this
The result is worked out by code written for each rule, with no language model in the calculation. The same facts under the same rules version give the same result. The version travels with the response, so a result can be traced to the rules that produced it.
- If a required fact is missing, the request is refused and says which.
- If the facts do not settle the result, the response says so and why.
- Anything taken as given is listed in the same response.
- It works from the facts it is given and does not prove them.
- It does not decide whether an alleged cause is true. That is for the court.
- A cargo figure is a cap on liability, not what will be paid.
- The decision stays with the professional.
Passengers
Each regime has its own engine and answers in its own terms: compensation, a percentage, a minimum or a limit.
Designed for claims companies and law firms.
Air
The regimes below are assessed on the same flight, and each says whether it gives grounds to claim.
What changes on 23 October 2027
- Flights scheduled to depart from that date fall under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/2202. Amounts and distance bands stay at EUR 250, 400 and 600, and 1,500 and 3,500 km.
- Delay of more than 3 hours, measured on-block (art. 2(x)).
- Cancellation is exempt with 14 days' notice; the 7-to-14-day tier goes (art. 5(5)).
- The reductions change (art. 7(2) and 7(3)).
- Nine months to claim (art. 7(9)).
Rail, bus and ship
Rail · Regulation (EU) 2021/782
- EU and EEA, journeys from 7 June 2023 (art. 41). National exemptions are taken into account.
- 25 % at 60 to 119 minutes, 50 % at 120 or more (art. 19). An undertaking may set a threshold of up to EUR 4 per ticket below which compensation is not paid (art. 19(8)).
- Missed connection on tickets combined by the vendor or tour operator: full refund plus 75 %, within 30 days of the request (art. 12(4) and (7)).
- Three months to complain (art. 28(2)).
Bus · Regulation (EU) No 181/2011
- Regular services boarding or alighting in the EEA, with a scheduled distance of 250 km or more. The Regulation has applied since 2013; the engine assesses journeys from 1 March 2021.
- Cancellation or a delay of more than 120 minutes from a terminal, or overbooking: continuation or refund must be offered (art. 19(1)). If not offered: refund plus 50 % (art. 19(2)).
- Assistance on journeys of more than 3 hours with a delay of more than 90 minutes (art. 21).
- Three months to complain (art. 27).
Ship · Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010
- Journeys from 18 December 2012.
- 25 % or 50 % of the ticket price (art. 19).
Cargo
One leg, one mode: road, air or sea. The result is a cap on liability. With it come the time limits, the defences that can be raised, who proves what where the text says so, and whether the cap can be broken.
Designed for cargo insurers on subrogated recovery, freight forwarders, carriers, shippers with volume, average adjusters, P&I clubs and transport law firms.
Road · CMR
- 8.33 SDR per kilogram with the 1978 Protocol, if all the relevant States are party to it.
- 25 gold francs per kilogram under the 1956 text, if none is, without converting them.
- If the relevant States differ, the response shows both and does not choose, unless the figure is the same.
- Delay: the carriage charges (art. 23(5)). A declared value replaces the cap of art. 23(3).
Air · Montreal Convention 1999
- 26 SDR per kilogram (art. 22(3), ICAO limit in force since 28 December 2024).
Sea: one assessment per forum
By sea the regime depends on where the claim is brought. So one shipment does not get one answer. It gets one assessment per forum, and they can differ.
Bill of lading, BE → US
Received 10 February 2026, delivered 14 March 2026. Damage not apparent. 12 packages and 3,000 kg affected out of 18,000 kg, not consolidated. Proven loss USD 48,000. Assessed as of 15 March 2026.
Forum: BE
Hague-Visby with the 1979 Protocol
8,000.04 SDR
666.67 × 12 packages. By weight, 6,000. The higher applies.
Forum: US
US COGSA
USD 6,000
500 × 12 packages.
In both: notice by 17 March 2026, action by 14 March 2027.
- Extract from a real engine response, rules version 2026-11-05.1. SDR and USD do not compare without a rate, and the rate is an input.
- The ceiling excludes court costs and interest.
- Late notice by sea creates a presumption and does not end the claim. The exception is the notice of delay under the Hamburg Rules, art. 19(5).
- A forum whose State is party to none of these regimes comes back undetermined: national law decides, and the response gives only what a clause in the document points to.
The regimes by sea
From assessment to court
What follows the assessment depends on the family, and each one does what is described here.
Air
- Assessment with sources, and the claim letter.
- Reply check: compares the carrier's reply with the facts and the assessment (flight number, date, airports, delay, notice and amount), and records what it alleges with the sentence that says it. Where the letter alleges a cause, it sets out what the CJEU has said about that cause. It records; it does not judge.
- Where to claim and the national time limit, for the 27 EU Member States, the 3 UK jurisdictions and Türkiye: the body for each, and the time limit where a source for it was found, with whether it is settled or contested. Where no ruling or official text was found, the answer says so and gives no figure.
- CSV batches of up to 1,000 rows, and saved claims with their status, from assessed to closed.
- Take to court: opens a case file in Nexus Legal, where the forum's jurisdiction is one it covers.
- From the case file: court documents for England and Wales (letter before claim, particulars of claim, form N1), Scotland (Form 3A), Northern Ireland (Form 125) and Spain (demanda de juicio verbal), and European Small Claims Form A for cross-border claims up to EUR 5,000, excluding interest and costs (EU, except Denmark).
Cargo
- Assessment with sources.
- Letter of reservation or notice, and the claim letter.
- Reply check: compares the document number and the dates of taking over and delivery with the facts, and lists what the reply alleges (a time bar, a rejection, a missing reservation or notice, a defence, a limit, a weight, an offer, a payment or its own terms), each with the sentence that triggers it.
Rail, bus and ship
- Assessment with sources, and the claim letter.
The screens, the letters and the API contract are in English. The Spanish claim form is in Spanish. The reply check reads English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Turkish; in Turkish it compares the data and does not detect allegations.
What is kept, step by step
It depends on the step. Working out an assessment or checking a reply stores nothing of the case by itself. Saving a claim and opening a case file store it, because that is what they are for.
Where language models come in
No language model is involved up to saving the claim, and none in the court documents or Form A.
Take to court leads into the regular Nexus Legal case file, which does use models. Opening it indexes the dossier for search, with personal data masked before text leaves for the search index; asking questions, the timeline and drafting inside the case file use models.
How masking and hosting work: Privacy policyFor those who integrate
Assessment for every family, reply check for air and cargo, and forum and saved claims for air are available over a REST API, with a public OpenAPI description.
The hosted MCP connector carries the assessments.
Questions
Who is this for?
Professionals who handle transport claims: law firms and claims companies for passengers; cargo insurers, freight forwarders, carriers, shippers, average adjusters and P&I clubs for cargo. It is not a service through which a passenger claims a flight.
Does a language model produce the result?
No. Assessment, letters, reply check, forum and court documents are generated without one. After Take to court, the Nexus Legal case file does use models.
Does it say how much will be recovered?
No. For passengers it says what the rule gives on the facts provided. For cargo it gives a cap on liability. Neither proves the facts, and the cargo ceiling leaves out interest and, by air and sea, court costs.
What happens when the facts are incomplete?
If a required fact is missing, the request is refused and says which. If the facts do not settle the result, the response says so and why. Anything taken as given is listed in the same response.
Does it decide whether the carrier's cause is true?
No. It records what the reply alleges and the sentence that says it. In air claims it sets out what the CJEU has said about that cause. Whether the cause is true is for the court.
Why are there several results for one sea shipment?
Because the regime depends on the forum. Each forum gets its own assessment, with its own instrument, cap and dates.
See it on a claim you know.
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