What should you do if another business (i.e. a supplier, customer or other contract counterparty) is suffering distress and may be considering filing for insolvency?

This alert provides several “do’s” and “don’ts” to consider before and after insolvency and advises taking a proactive approach to dealing with distressed customers.

Lockdown, shutdowns, drops in revenue and related negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic faced by companies even still operating and in a healthy state have prompted the Czech government to respond to this situation and implement statutory measures to mitigate such impacts (the so-called LEX COVID), also in the area of insolvency. Most of such measures are only temporary during the extraordinary measures taken by public authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. LEX COVID, which brings the below-mentioned changes, has already been enacted and came into force on 24 April 2020.

Our recent blog discussed the decision in Re Carluccio’s Limited (in administration) [2020] EWHC 88D (Ch) where the Court considered whether administrators would “adopt” the employment contracts of employees they furloughed after the 14 day grace period.

The High Court has delivered the first decision on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the “Scheme”), in the context of the Carluccio’s administration.

As we have previously discussed (HERE), despite further clarification from HMRC over recent days, there remain some unanswered questions regarding the detailed operation of the Scheme, given that the Scheme’s exact legal framework has not been published.

The Czech Government has prepared several measures that should help people and businesses in the challenging times related to the outbreak of COVID-19. These measures are currently divided into several draft laws, covering topics such as insolvency, loans, leases, employment, and court proceedings. We have chosen relevant fields briefly described below and we will provide more detailed information about these relevant fields once the final laws are passed by the Parliament (which should be shortly due to the state of legislative emergency).

Over the weekend, the Business Secretary announced that UK Insolvency Laws will be changed.

The changes will give businesses “extra time to weather the storm” and give comfort to directors who, challenged with trading through a difficult cash flow period, will not face claims for wrongful trading.

Relaxation of wrongful trading provisions

The proposed measures alleviate concerns that borrowing additional funds offered by the Government could place a director at risk of personal liability.

The ILA Technical Committee, in conjunction with the CLLS, has produced the attached briefing note that reminds practitioners and businesses of the flexibility of a UK administration to stabilise, protect, and, if necessary, restructure companies.

Following on from our blog: Does e-filing give you a headache? Does the recent guidance issued by the Chancellor help ease the pain?

In this blog, we highlight changes to law, practice and procedure that will or could impact the restructuring insolvency market this year – covering important changes that should be on your radar – as well as providing an update on those changes that were expected but which might be delayed beyond 2020.

Brexit – will it be business as usual for R&I practitioners?

This week sees the UK finally leave Europe.

First, there was the HMV case, then Skeggs Beef and SJHenderson. Following which we had further judicial decision in All Star Leisure and now Keyworker Homes, all of which considered the validity of appointment of administrators using the e-filing system.

Keyworker Homes deals with these questions: