Eight lessons from previous recessions

It does not take a professional economist to predict that a serious economic downturn is possible in the UK. Given that workforces will be impacted by this, many companies providing workforce support services are likely to be particularly affected.

KEY POINTS

Two recent cases examine whether, given the impossibility to liquidate a company due to a corporate deadlock, a court can invalidate certain resolutions at the request of one shareholder.

L’arbitrage est un mode consensuel de résolution des différends qui permet aux parties de personnaliser leur processus et même de choisir leur propre décideur. L’insolvabilité est le scénario diamétralement opposé, dans lequel les différends concernant le débiteur sont involontairement regroupés devant un seul tribunal d’insolvabilité.

Arbitration is a consensual method of dispute resolution in which the parties can customize their process and even select their own decision-maker. Insolvency is the diametrically opposite scenario, where disputes involving the debtor are involuntarily consolidated before a single insolvency court.

UK judgment is a prompt for landlords to consider all angles to maximise rent recovery in harsh economic conditions

The UK High Court has ruled in in favour of a landlord whose original tenant and guarantor were held liable for the rent accrued on a gym in Leeds despite the subsequent assignee operating under a restructuring plan.

The reforms respond to the needs of small and medium-sized companies, speed up processes and support business recovery

The Spanish Congress has approved (30 June 2022) the Insolvency Law Reform Bill, which transposes the Directive on restructuring and insolvency. A first text was approved in December 2021, but amendments were introduced throughout the first half of 2022 that modified several important points.

The Insolvency Service is satisfied that the restructuring plan and moratorium processes are broadly meeting their policy objectives – and that ipso facto clauses are likely to be used more in future

Insolvency practitioners will welcome the confirmation that they cannot be expected to be aware of same degree of information as if company was still trading

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that although insolvent parties may refer disputes to adjudication, they will have difficulty enforcing adjudication decisions in all but exceptional circumstances