The European High Yield Association's proposals for reforming the UK insolvency laws risk pushing the UK towards the US litigation-heavy model says Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP, the City law firm.

In proposals submitted to HM Treasury, the trade body for the high yield debt industry called for a "court supervised restructuring process" where:

The English Court has ordered that meetings be convened on 4 July 2008 for creditors to vote on the solvent schemes of arrangement being proposed by 82 members of the E W Payne Pools. The E W Payne Pools have been in run-off for over 20 years and, it is predicted, that the run-off could last, if not for the proposed schemes, for at least another 20 years. The purpose of the schemes is to bring that run-off to an early close. The schemes establish a method for the valuation and payment of cedants' current and future claims against the Pools.

When a person is unable to pursue a claim against someone who has been made bankrupt on account of the bankruptcy having been discharged, it may still be possible to pursue the claim against the bankrupt’s insurers, following a recent ruling.

The case involved 12 claims for breach of trust against nine solicitors and a Mr Dixit Shah. It was brought by the Law Society and 19 of the various clients of the solicitors.

In Dynamex Friction Ltd v Amicus an administrator had dismissed the entire workforce immediately on being appointed because the company had no money to pay its debts. At that time no transferee of the insolvent business had been identified and there was no prospect of a sale. However, the administrator did shortly afterwards agree a sale of the remaining company assets to a newly formed purchaser company that had links with the directors of the ‘old’ company.

Where a receiver of an insolvent company brings an unsuccessful claim, a personal costs order will not be made against the receiver unless there are exceptional circumstances making it just to do so.

A company went into administration and company voluntary arrangements were entered into to effect a rescue of viable parts of the group. As part of that process, a valuation of the liabilities of the companies as at 1 October 2001 was required. They included claims arising under section 75 of the Pensions Act 1995. However, those debts were not triggered until July 2004 and the scheme actuary for did not sign the section 75 certificates and apportion shares amongst the various companies until March 2006.

[2008] EWHC 1099 (Ch)

The High Court has ruled that calculations of employer debt by scheme actuaries cannot be challenged by insolvency practitioners unless there is evidence of fraud or error.

The credit crunch is biting ... your scheme's sponsoring employer is facing insolvency ... what can the trustees and advisors do before the insolvency to lay the foundations for a smooth Pension Protection Fund (PPF) assessment period?

What is a PPF assessment period?

The number of individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) is set to soar to over 50,000 this year, according to industry sources. This follows two years in which the number of IVAs has been slightly more than 40,000 per year.

Secured creditors with an unsecured shortfall cannot claim a share of the prescribed part of the floating charge realisations set aside for unsecured creditors under Section 176A of the Insolvency Act 1986. This applies whether the secured creditor is the holder of a fixed or a floating charge (or both).