Petra van Dijk

Our client had served a statutory demand on a debtor against whom our client had obtained a judgment in default (that is to say a judgment obtained in default of the claim being defended). The debtor applied for the statutory demand to be set aside.

The debtor had failed to respond to the initial proceedings and at the set aside hearing said that he had moved from the address where the proceedings had been served some considerable time ago.

We were able to guide the Judge to the relevant procedural rules, which say that at the hearing of an application to set aside a statutory demand, the court can not question the legitimacy of a debt, if the debt is based on a judgment. The statutory demand was upheld and payment of the debt subsequently obtained by our client.

A widow came to see us, when the administration of her late husband’s estate could not proceed, because her husband was an undischarged bankrupt at the time of his death. The husband had been made bankrupt many years ago and the known creditors and the costs of the bankruptcy had been paid from the proceeds of sale of a property by the trustee in bankruptcy.

Despite payment of the bankruptcy debts and costs, no-one had dealt with the fact that the husband’s discharge from bankruptcy had been suspended indefinitely at the time when the property had been sold. We were successful in obtaining an order discharging the husband from bankruptcy in a quick and efficient manner; without the need for any court hearings.

We advised a director/shareholder on her exit from a company. The client was referred to us by a firm of insolvency practitioners at a time when our client’s co-investor had withdrawn funding from the company, as a result of which it was trading insolvent. Consequently, under the wrongful trading provisions set out in the insolvency legislation, our client was exposed to potential personal liability for the company’s debts.

We provided her with the necessary advice concerning her obligations whilst the company was trading insolvent, as result of which our client had the confidence to stand her ground on a deal breaker aspect of her exit negotiations with the co-investor and the company.

Our client was served with a winding-up petition in respect of a disputed debt. We were successful in obtaining an interim injunction to restrain the advertisement of the winding-up petition on the basis of the dispute.  

In addition, we were successful in obtaining an order for security for costs, on production of evidence that the creditor was impecunious and unable to pay our client’s costs, in the event that the petition was successfully defended. This meant that the creditor could not proceed with the petition, until it had paid a sum representing our client’s likely costs into court.

This success meant that our client was protected from adverse publicity concerning the winding-up proceedings and the risk of having its bank account frozen. It also meant that our client was in a position to come reach settlement with the creditor, avoiding the costs which would have been associated with a disputed petition hearing or indeed any ‘ordinary’ proceedings.