Bankruptcy blog

July 31, 2007

Bankruptcy in the United Kingdom

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For bankrupcty in Scotland see Sequestration

There is no single law on bankruptcy in the United Kingdom with there being one system for England and Wales, one for Northern Ireland and one for Scotland.

Contents


Bankruptcy Law

There are two main personal insolvency regimes in the UK: one for England and Wales and another for Scotland. In England and Wales the majority of personal insolvencies are “bankruptcies”. The remainder are Individual Voluntary Arrangements or IVAs, which are arrangements between the debtor and his or her creditors for the payment of the debts on different terms: for example by instalments, or over a period of time. These two forms of insolvency have close equivalents in Scotland, where bankruptcies are known as sequestrations and the equivalent of IVAs are Protected Trust Deeds, or PTDs.

In bankruptcy, an indebted individual sees his debts forgiven in return for surrendering his assets (and sometimes a limited proportion of his income). He is allowed however to retain so-called “exempt” assets such as tools-of-trade and basic necessities and the generosity of this exemption level has received much attention in the USA where it varies among states, potentially affecting bankruptcy filing rates.

Bankruptcy is handled by a Trustee in bankruptcy who must be either the Official Receiver (a civil servant) or a licensed insolvency practitioner.

Following the introduction of the Enterprise Act 2002’s bankruptcy provisions in April 2004, an England & Wales bankruptcy will now normally last no longer than 12 months and may be less, if the Official Receiver files in Court a certificate that his investigations are complete. However, in cases where the bankrupt is considered particularly culpable for his or her insolvency, the bankruptcy can last for up to 15 years, although such orders are rare.


Why are bankruptcies soaring?

Some claim that the Enterprise Act threatens massively to increase the number of bankruptcy cases. Indeed, bankruptcies have risen considerably since the change. However they were already on an upward trend, and the rise is mirrored in Scotland, where there has been no legislation change.

A popular alternative explanation for the run-up in UK insolvencies is “destigmatisation” - people, it is said, are becoming less ashamed of going bankrupt. This is hard to prove, but some evidence is provided by figures showing that, increasingly, bankruptcy petitions are filed by debtors themselves, rather than their creditors.

The UK average household debt-to-income ratio has risen substantially in recent years, leading some to attribute the rise in insolvencies to excessive borrowing. However, the ratio of debt repayment costs to income has remained quite low, weakening this claim. Moreover, the rise in borrowing could itself be a reflection of a lower “fear” of bankruptcy - the destigmatisation effect again.


Insolvency figures

Type 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 (p)
Bankruptcy Orders 19,892 19,647 21,611 21,550 23,477 24,292 28,021 35,898 47,287
Individual Voluntary Arrangements 4,549 4,902 7,195 7,978 6,298 6,295 7,583 10,752 20,293
Total 24,441 24,549 28,806 29,528 29,775 30,587 35,604 46,650 67,580
  • (p) are provisional figures
  • Sources: http://www.dtistats.net/sd/insolv200505/table2.htm http://www.dtistats.net/sd/insolv200602/table2.htm


External links

  • British household indebtedness and financial stress: a household-level picture [PDF] Quarterly Bulletin, Personal Sector Articles, Winter 2004 (Report for Bank of England)
  • Website of the Insolvency Service in the UK
  • National Debtline Bankruptcy information document

Diplomatic Immunity (TV series)

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Diplomatic Immunity was a weekly political analysis and debate television show on TV Ontario, which ran until 2006. Issues discussed reflected contemporary concerns; recently, these included terrorism, Middle East affairs, and US politics, though potentially any issue of international significance was considered.

It was hosted by Steve Paikin, and featured regular guests and invited analysts. Regular guests included:

  • Janice Stein, Director of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.
  • Patrick Martin, a columnist and editor at the Globe and Mail
  • Richard Gwyn, a columnist at the Toronto Star
  • Lewis MacKenzie, a retired Major-General of the Canadian Armed Forces

Invited analysts were typically experts in the field of discussion; they were sourced from academia, politics and the business community alike.

The show aired on Friday nights at 23:00, and Sundays at 15:00 and 23:00.


See also

  • Diplomatic immunity (the governmental policy)
  • Diplomatic License, similar US program


External links

  • TV Ontario: Diplomatic Immunity

July 28, 2007

Superintendent of Bankruptcy

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Superintendent of Bankruptcy (Canada)

The role of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy is to ensure that bankruptcies and insolvencies in Canada are conducted in a fair and orderly manner.

As stated on the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Website:

“Whether you are a debtor (you owe money), a creditor (you are owed money) or a trustee (someone who administers bankruptcies and insolvencies), our goals are equally simple: to make the bankruptcy and insolvency process easier for you to understand and provide you with the information you need to best manage your situation.”

CO - Commerce Officers work here as Assistant Superintendents, Senior Bankruptcy Analysts and Bankruptcy Analysts.
PM - Program Managers work here as Assistant Bankruptcy Analysts.

Family Law Act (Canadian)

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For Acts in other jurisdictions by the same name, see Family Law Act.

The Family Law Act came into force in the Canadian province of Alberta on October 1st, 2005. It replaced the Domestic Relations Act, the Maintenance Order Act, the Parentage and Maintenance Act, and parts of the Provincial Court Act and the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act in that province.


External links

  • Alberta Courts Web Site

July 27, 2007

CFIA

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CFIA is an abbreviation, it can be used to refer to:

  • Canadian Fence Industry Association
  • Canadian Food Inspection Agency
  • Canadian Foreign Intelligence Agency

July 26, 2007

1790 in Canada

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See also:
1789 in Canada,
other events of 1790,
1791 in Canada and the
list of ‘years in Canada’.


Events

  • British Captain George Vancouver begins his three-year survey of northwest coast of North America
  • Spain signs the Nootka Convention, ceding the Pacific Northwest to England and the United States.
  • October 7 New York consents to Vermont’s admission to the Union, with cessation of New York’s jurisdiction, in the disputed territory.
  • Lower Canada is divided into three districts, instead of two.


Births


Deaths

Financial distress

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Financial distress is a term in Corporate Finance used to indicate a condition when promises to creditors of a company are broken or honored with difficulty. Sometimes financial distress can lead to bankruptcy. Financial distress is usually associated with some costs to the company and these are known as Costs of Financial Distress. A common example of a cost of financial distress is bankruptcy costs.


External links

  • Indicators and Souces of Financial Distress
  • Predicting Financial Distress of Companies: Revisiting the Z-Score and Zeta® Models by Edward Altman
  • Financial Distress, Bankruptcy Law, and the Business Cycle by Javier Suarez and Oren Sussman

Financial distress cost are divided into: direct costs 

                                       :  indirect costs

Direct Costs
-changes the payout to debtholders if bankruptcy occurs. these include the direct expenses that a company inccurs; auditors’ fees, legal fees, management fees and other payments.

Indirect Costs
-changes the distrubition of firm value prior to bankruptcy. these include loss goodwill. which will result in less sales, hence revenue

July 25, 2007

Regula

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Regula is a planetary object in the fictional Star Trek universe.

Regula is where Stage 2 of the Genesis Project is conducted and where Space Station Regula 1 orbits. Space Station Regula 1 is the space facility that the Genesis Device was developed and tested. Spock describes Regula as a, “great rock in space”. The planetoid is devoid of any life. Stage 2 of the Genesis Project calls for the Genesis matrix to be placed in a cavern. The Starfleet corp of engineers mined out a cavern deep underneath the surface of Regula just to perform Stage 2. When Captain Kirk and his landing party find no one aboard Space Station Regula 1 they notice the coordinates on the stations transporter system as being deep inside Regula. Remembering that Stage 2 must be conducted in a cavern, Kirk decides to beam down to the coordinates to see if he can find any survivors from Space Station Regula 1.

Regula can also refer to a part of an Ionic Column of Classical Greek Architecture. The regula is a part of the ekphora but not part of the ionic base. It is located just above the ionic base.

Pacific Cordillera

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The Pacific Cordillera is a top-level physiographic region of Canada. This designation is peculiar to Canada because, in Canada, the Rocky Mountains drift west and crowd against the Pacific Coast Ranges, so that intramontane plateaus in Canada are narrow and they may be taken into consideration together with adjoining ranges.

July 24, 2007

Personal bankruptcy

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Personal bankruptcy is a procedure which, in certain jurisdictions, allows an individual to declare bankruptcy. In other jurisdictions, bankruptcies are reserved for corporations.


Personal bankruptcy (Canada)

The concept behind bankruptcy in Canada is that an individual assigns (surrender) everything they own to a trustee in bankruptcy in exchange for the elimination of their unsecured debts.

Exemptions

The rules for filing personal bankruptcy in each province and territory differ slightly. In some areas of Canada individuals may be permitted to keep (exempt) certain property. Common items for exemption include clothing, furniture, appliances, motor vehicles, medical and dental aids, a home, family heirlooms, and some insurance. In basic terms, any property the debtor might require to survive can be exempt. Personal Bankruptcy will eliminate most, if not all, of an individual’s debt, but it also impacts their future ability to obtain credit.

Costs

The cost of personal bankruptcy in Canada depends on the individual’s monthly family income, the size of the family, and their assets (such as RRSPs). An alternative to personal bankruptcy (in Canada) is a Consumer Proposal.

July 23, 2007

Corporate recovery

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Corporate recovery is the term given to the rescues undertaken by professional accountants, who are professionally trained, to assist the management of companies in nursing a company in financial and other difficulty back to health.

This work is usually undertaken at the behest of the directors of the company directors and is normally undertaken by licensed insolvency practitioners.

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Chief of Staff (United States Congress)

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A U.S. Congressional Chief of Staff is the top executive in the office of a member of the United States Congress. Chiefs of staff may also be called “Administrative Assistants,” not to be confused with simple secretaries.

Very much like an office manager, they supervise all the aspects of a Congressional office including personnel decisions and policy initiatives. A chief of staff is usually the alpha in a congressional office responsible only to the Member; however, there are some offices that have less traditional hierarchies. They may also be assigned to such political undertakings as campaign finance fund raising and campaign organization. From time to time a CoS may be based out of a district office, but they are almost always found on the Hill. Usually they are very experienced working on Capitol Hill or are a personal friend of the Member. Some chiefs of staff got their positions by previously serving as a campaign manager. Salaries tend to be near or above $100,000.

July 22, 2007

High density storage media

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High density for data storage like diskette, CD or DVD refers to the amount of information they manage.

July 21, 2007

Sobelair

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Sobelair is the oldest Belgian charter airline. While operational, it was based out of Brussels Airport. Sobelair is the abbreviation of its Belgian name, “Société Belge des Transports Aériens”.


Code Data

  • ICAO Code: SLR


History

The airline was founded in 1946 by three ex-employees of Sabena. The airline quickly flourished and turned a reasonable profit, and was on its way to become a serious competitor to Sabena. So Sabena took a majority share in Sobelair. The company became a full daughter of Sabena, and concentrated itself on charter flights. On January 19th, 2004, some two years after mother airline Sabena, the airline declared bankruptcy. In June 2004, the bankruptcy was declared invalid. However, service did not resume, as no infrastructure nor personnel remained.

July 20, 2007

United States bankruptcy court

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The United States Bankruptcy Court is a federal court that has subject matter jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases. Bankruptcy cases cannot be filed in state court. Each of the 94 federal judicial districts handles bankruptcy matters.

The bankruptcy judges in each judicial district in regular active service constitute a “unit” of the applicable United States district court (see ). The bankruptcy judge is appointed for a term of 14 years by the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the applicable district is located (see ).

Technically, the United States district courts have subject matter jurisdiction over bankruptcy matters (see ). However, each such district court may, by order, “refer” bankruptcy matters to the bankruptcy court (see ). As a practical matter, most district courts have a standing “reference” order to that effect, so that all bankruptcy cases in that district are handled, at least initially, by the bankruptcy court. In unusual circumstances, a district court may in a particular case “withdraw the reference” (i.e., take the case or a particular proceeding within the case away from the bankruptcy court and decide the matter itself) under .

The overwhelming majority of all proceedings in bankruptcy are held before a United States bankruptcy judge, whose decision in all matters is final, subject to appeals to the district judge or a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (”BAP”) for review of the decision.


External links

  • Official site of the U.S. bankruptcy courts

July 19, 2007

Trustee in bankruptcy

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A Trustee in Bankruptcy, in the United States, is a person who is appointed by the United States Department of Justice or by the creditors involved in a bankruptcy case.

In a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy the trustee gathers the debtor’s non-exempt property, managing the funds from the sale of those assets, and then paying expenses and distributing the balance to the owed creditors.

In a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy the trustee is responsible for receiving the debtor’s monthly payments and distributing those funds proportionally to the bankrupt’s creditors. The Bankruptcy Trustee will act on behalf of the debtor to guarantee that both the creditors’ and the debtor’s interests are maintained in accordance with the bankruptcy laws, and will often be required to act as a negotiator between the two parties.


External links

  • National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees
  • DOJ U.S. Trustee Program

July 18, 2007

Bruce Mann

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For English civil servant, see Bruce Mann (civil servant).

Bruce H. Mann is the Carl F. Schipper, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a legal historian whose research focuses on the relationship among legal, social, and economic change in early America. He began at the Law School in Fall 2006, after being the Leon Meltzer Professor of Law and Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

In his latest book, Republic of Debtors: Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence (winner 2003 SHEAR Book Prize; 2004 J. Willard Hurst Prize, awarded by Law and Society Association; and 2003 Littleton-Griswold Prize, awarded by the American Historical Association), Mann explores the legal, social, economic, moral, political and intellectual implications of debt and failure in the early American republic, revealing how problems of money, credit, and debt implicated questions of commerce and agriculture, nationalism and federalism, dependence and independence, even slavery and freedom.

Mann has been the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society, and the annual convention of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. His four teaching awards include three at Penn: the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Law Course; the Harvey Levin Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching at the law school; and the university-wide Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Mann is married to Elizabeth Warren, who is the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

Virtual assistant

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A Virtual Assistant (or simply VA), is an independent contractor providing administrative, technical, or sometimes creative assistance to clients–usually to other independent entrepreneurs and solo and small business practices, such as that of a lawyer or realtor. Virtual assistants work from their own office (hence “virtual”), thus making it a fairly popular (and growing) profession. It is estimated that there are about 5,000-8,000 virtual assistants worldwide.
Common modes of communication and data delivery include the Internet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and fax machine. Although the occupation gives a degree of independence, work is on a contractual basis, and a long-lasting cooperation is standard. Typically 5 years of administrative experience in an office is expected at such positions as executive assistant, secretary, legal assistant, paralegal, legal secretary, real estate assistant, office manager, etc.


Worker classifications

  • The traditional employee is managed and directed by the employer they work for. They are paid a salary with employment taxes deducted by the employer. Work is directed, managed and supervised by the employer.
  • A temp worker is an employee of a staffing agency who goes on-site to employer (customer) premises. They are paid by the staffing agency they work for, while their on-site work and activities are managed, directed and supervised by the employer, who is a customer of the staffing agency.
  • A virtual assistant is an independent contractor, not an employee. They set their own rates, operating standards and policies, pay their own self-employment taxes, and manage the work and how it is carried out.


References


External links

  • Information about the occupation