Maritime cases are handled in maritime courts under the Maritime Act. The Maritime Act is a general enactment which is accompanied by special enactments and regulations. Helsinki District Court is the competent maritime court in the region of Helsinki Court of Appeal. In Helsinki District Court all maritime cases are handled in the 3rd department.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out what kind of maritime cases has Helsinki District Court handled during 2000 - 2010 and how the maritime cases are handled there. Moreover, this thesis will present statistical information about maritime cases in Helsinki District court during the years in question.

The theory of this thesis consists of the Maritime Act as well as other enactments and regulations. Judicial literature has also been used. Statistics are from Helsinki District Court's own Tuomas-system and the example caseshave been collected from district court archives. An interview with district court judge, Björn Hellman, gives a practical perspective to the matter.

The annual number of maritime cases in Helsinki district court compared to other civil cases is very marginal. There is also a lot of variation among maritime cases. The infrequency and special features of maritime cases create challenges to the judges handling these cases.