domains: insolvency law

Insolvency means the inability to comply with ones financial obligations.

In the case of traders and commercial companies, this will lead to a state of bankruptcy which will be determined before the Courts of Commerce in a declaratory judgment.

As a result thereof, a trustee will be appointed. Under the supervision of the judge (judge-commissioner), the trustee is charged to sell the assets and to pay the creditors according to specific sequential rules.

There is an extensive set of laws, governing this subject, focussing both on the interests of the bankrupt party and on the interests of all sorts of creditors, co-creditors and guarantors, with sanctions according to the criminal law.

In order to prevent bankruptcy, the legislator has provided the possibility of a judicial settlement. Any trader who fears that the continuity of his company is threatened, may request under certain conditions and within the set judicial procedure, to freeze his existing burden of debt with possibility of partial cancellation.

As regards non-traders, the insolvency may lead to a procedure of collective debt mediation, and the case arising, involving the partial or complete cancellation of debts.

Any lawyer giving legal advice in these subjects, is supposed to have the specific know-how thereof. Various post-university courses and seminars fill in this need of further permanent training.