The Key Provisions

After much delay, the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010 (the “Act”) will come into force on 1 August 2016. The essential purpose of the act is to aid claimants in procuring recoveries from the insurers of insolvent defendants.The Key Provisions

This will be of particular use to businesses that frequently find themselves in litigation with financially weak defendants. However, insolvency practitioners should also take note of the Act as it places new obligations on them.

The Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010 (the 2010 Act) will finally come into force from 1 August 2016.

The Act improves the rights of claimants who have a claim against an insolvent company or individual to directly claim against the insolvent party’s insurer.

In particular, the 2010 Act brings about the following important changes:

The European Court of Justice has held that a director of an English company can be liable for breach of German company law where insolvency proceedings are opened in Germany.

Although the EU Insolvency Regulation and the UNCITRAL Model Law have been with us for some time, decisions involving the court’s recognition of foreign proceedings continue to evolve and will – of necessity – turn on the specific facts of every case. We investigate two recent decisions which came up with very different results.

The background – Re OGX Petroloeo E Gas S.A. [2016] EWHC 25

The past few months have seen some interesting developments in legislative and regulatory requirements in the restructuring and insolvency world. We explore a number of them in this article.

SBEEA – reports on director conduct from 6 April

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (Commencement No 4), Transitional and Savings Provisions Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/321) were made on 9 March 2016.

In a recent High Court decision, the validity of the appointment of joint receivers by ACC Loan Management Limited by deed under seal was upheld, and an order for possession in favour of those receivers was made.

Bankruptcy law in Ireland is now, broadly speaking, in line with that of the United Kingdom.

In particular, for bankrupts who cooperate with the bankruptcy process:

• bankruptcy will end in one year; and
• their interest in their family home will re-vest in them after 3 years.

Notably however, the courts will have discretion to extend the period of bankruptcy for up to 15 years for non-cooperative individuals and those who have concealed or transferred assets to the detriment of creditors.

The received wisdom is that if, as a debtor, you are considering equitable set-off arguments, you are clutching at straws. A recent case shows a rare example of when such rights can successfully be used however. This article explores the issues further.

The background

Company dissolution and restoration, and its effects upon property of the company, is a difficult area to grapple with. Two recent decisions dealt with similar issues but with completely different outcomes. We analyse the decisions and which one should be viewed as correct.

The background

This article takes a look at the considerations laid down in Re Sahaviriya Steel Industries UKLimited [2015] EWHC 2726 when the court is asked to make a validation against anticipated payments – what guidance can be extracted?