Lloyd's Open Form (LOF)

Lloyd’s Open Form is the standard international salvage agreement, operating on a no cure, no pay basis: the salvor earns an award only if it saves property, with the sum fixed later by arbitration in London under Lloyd’s rules. The current edition is LOF 2020. It incorporates the Salvage Convention 1989, whose Article 13 sets the award criteria and Article 14 grants special compensation for environmental protection efforts. Because Article 14 proved hard to apply, the market added the SCOPIC clause in 2000, which a salvor invokes to get a tariff-rated payment for casualties threatening pollution, regardless of the property salved. LOF awards are confidential and arbitrated, not litigated.