Government proposals for new legislation would alter the law and procedures of personal insolvency in radical ways. The proposals include the establishment of an independent Insolvency Service and the introduction of non-judicial procedures for addressing unsecured debts (of any value) and secured debts (in the range €20,000 to €3 million). Current bankruptcy laws would also be amended.

On 25 January 2012 the Government announced proposals to amend the laws and procedures of personal insolvency in radical ways.

Earlier this year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided in In re Lett that objections to a bankruptcy court’s approval of a cram-down chapter 11 plan on the basis of noncompliance with the “absolute priority rule” may be raised for the first time on appeal. The Eleventh Circuit ruled that “[a] bankruptcy court has an independent obligation to ensure that a proposed plan complies with [the] absolute priority rule before ‘cramming’ that plan down upon dissenting creditor classes,” whether or not stakeholders “formally” object on that basis.