Interesting Development In London

[Steve Thatcher]

I did a case in London two weeks ago.
In London if you owe over £100,000 your case is dealt with in the Rolls Building on Fetter Lane.
You file your papers and they are sent up to the Judge to consider in your absence.
If your debts are English he/she will just make the order.
If your debts are Irish, he will ask you to come back after filing a witness statement in which you state how and why your COMI is in the UK

Last time I pre-empted the Judge and filed this statement with the petition and statement of affairs.

The Judge made the order immediately

I do not know if this is a one off, or if my statement had exactly the right formula, but it saved me a second court trip and the client two months

SteveThatcher

www.helpwithdebtuk.com

 

[Jim Stafford]

Steve

I would echo that. Any of our clients availing of UK bankruptcy are now being advised to file a witness statement with the petition. High value cases (more than €5 million, but there does not appear to be a particular threshold) outside London are more at risk of being referred to the High Court in London. It may now now be more expedient for high value cases to file the petition with the High Court in London. At a minimum, the regional judges are adjourning the petitions until Irish creditors are notified.

Jim Stafford

 

[Steve Thatcher]

Steve

I would echo that. Any of our clients availing of UK bankruptcy are now being advised to file a witness statement with the petition. High value cases (more than €5 million, but there does not appear to be a particular threshold) outside London are more at risk of being referred to the High Court in London. It may now now be more expedient for high value cases to file the petition with the High Court in London. At a minimum, the regional judges are adjourning the petitions until Irish creditors are notified.

Jim Stafford

Absolutely the creditors must receive notification.
The two heads of the regulation that give an EU citizen the right to go bankrupt in another jurisdiction are :-
that they are habitually resident and
that their creditors are able to reasonably ascertain where they are

to combat any suggestion that a creditor doesn't know, I get clients to write to creditors quite early and demand a reply so we can exhibit the letter as confirmation

Steve Thatcher
www.helpwithdebtuk.com