The perils of making a declaration of solvency by company directors, without reasonable grounds.

Summary

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has published its Annual Report for 2015.

Key Developments from the Report: 

In the matter of Fuerta Limited, High Court, 22 January 2014

Judge: Mr. Justice Charleton

A recent decision of the High Court has highlighted the interesting area of law that applies when an application is made to wind up a company on the grounds that it is "just and equitable" to do so.

The Personal Insolvency Bill 2012 has passed Committee Stage in the Dáil. The Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality made a number of changes to the Bill, many of these being technical changes to clarify provisions or to correct inconsistencies.

Key changes

Some of the key changes made by the Select Committee were as follows:

The courts and FOS are now headed down very different paths in their approach to credit crunch losses suffered by clients of regulated firms. While FOS has all but abandoned the general law of causation in its approach to cases of consumer detriment, we have observed how the courts have held again and again that the general law of causation applies to mis-selling claims.

The FOS opened last week for the business of being open. It is now subject to the Freedom of Information Act. However, theFOS web page on the point suggests the Service is trying to limit what will no doubt be a flood of requests.

The FOS’ web page sets out a long list of facts and figures it is most frequently asked about, organised into seven categories adopting the Information Commissioner’s model publication scheme for non-departmental public bodies covered by the FoIA.