Juan Carlos Machorro, Carlos Olvera and Ricardo Orea, Santamarina y Steta

This is an extract from the 2023 edition of GRR's the Americas Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.

In summary

En raison de la hausse du commerce mondial, la question du recouvrement international des créances ne peut être évitée.

The Polyvocal Court

This series looks at the enforcement options available to creditors to recover sums due by a debtor in Scotland. In the previous edition we looked at Inhibition which is similar to a Charging Order in England. A reminder can be read here. In this edition, we now turn to look at how Earnings Arrestment operates in Scotland.

The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020, commonly referred to as the "Breathing Space Regulations", came into force on 4 May 2021. The Regulations provide eligible individuals with problem debt a period of protection from their creditors known as a "breathing space moratorium".

In This Issue:

There are significant differences in the procedures available to lenders north and south of the border when it comes to enforcing fixed charges or standard securities over real/heritable property. In this blog, we will compare the process in England & Wales ("E&W") of appointing a fixed charge or "LPA" receiver with the Scottish calling-up procedure

England & Wales: LPA receivers

When the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”) was notified in 2016, one of its most talked about provisions was the limited scope of adjudication and consequently narrow jurisdiction conferred upon the National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) in deciding insolvency cases. In fact, the provisions of the Code in respect of financial creditors were viewed by many as draconian and unconstitutional as the NCLT, prior to commencement of insolvency process, is required to only examine a debt and default and nothing else.

In the 1500s, debtors in England would avoid paying their debts by transferring property to friends or family as a gift or for undervalue, move to a sanctuary such as church land, wait for their creditors to exhaust their efforts or come to a favourable settlement of the debt, and then return and take a re-transfer of the property. This was a fraud on the creditors.

To prevent this mischief, in 1571, Parliament enacted the Fraudulent Conveyances Act (13 Eliz I, c 5), known as the Statute of 13 Elizabeth, and in Australia, as the Elizabethan Statute. It provided:

I. Introduction