Amendment Rules

Insolvency Amendment Rules 2010 (SI 2010/686) as corrected by SI 2010/734 came into force on 6 April. All hearings must now be in open court unless the court orders otherwise. Affidavits are replaced by witness statements verified by statements of truth and certificates of service. Ex-parte applications are replaced by ‘applications without notice to any other party’ and ‘leave’ is replaced by ‘permission’ and ‘fit’ by ‘just’. ‘Days’ now means ‘business days’. Anyone arrested under a warrant for failing to attend a public examination or under s364(1)(a) of the Insolvency Act 1986 must be brought to the court if possible rather than being taken directly to prison. The court is given power to exclude the debtor’s home or business address from advertisements or records provided to creditors if such disclosure may reasonably be expected to lead to violence against the debtor or a person residing with them. An undertaking by a solicitor to discharge the debts can be sufficient security to enable discharge without the need for a conditional order if the court is prepared to accept such an undertaking.