Debtors' e-registry getting closer

If everything goes according to the government's plan, the law on the National Register of Debtors will come into effect from 1 February 2019. It will contain information on companies that are undergoing bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings, as well as data on consumer bankruptcies and people who are in arrears with maintenance.

If everything goes according to the government's plan, the law on the National Register of Debtors will come into effect from 1 February 2019. It will contain information on companies that are undergoing bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings, as well as data on consumer bankruptcies and people in arrears with maintenance. Experts are sounding the alarm that throwing companies in restructuring into the Debtors Register could cause problems for them in obtaining loans.

The Ministry of Justice referred a draft law on the National Debtors Register to the Council of Ministers on 7 September this year. Contrary to the original plans, the register is to be much more extensive than expected. It will include companies and individuals against whom restructuring or bankruptcy proceedings are underway, as well as debtors who are in arrears with alimony for more than six months.

No more paperwork

The register is to be public and accessible online for everyone. We will find out from it when the company filed for restructuring proceedings, which court is handling the case, we will learn the file reference, the name of the restructuring administrator, the list of claims, the composition of the bankruptcy estate, as well as the creditors' repayment plan.

An important change introduced by the proposed act is the necessity to file pleadings and documents only by means of an electronic register. The same will happen with court decisions - they will be published only in the ICT system. The courts will also abandon postal deliveries and they will be sent electronically, which will reduce the number of paper correspondence and also shorten the time between issuing a ruling and sending it.

Faster courts, lower costs

Ma to znacznie usprawnić pracę sądów rejonowych i ich wydziałów gospodarczych, które zajmują się postępowaniami restrukturyzacyjnymi i upadłościowymi, a także przyspieszyć procesy naprawy firm. Nie bez znaczenia jest również znaczne zmniejszenie kosztów tych postępowań. Zarówno sądy, jak i przedsiębiorcy nie będą już musieli publikować obwieszczeń oraz ogłoszeń w Monitorze Sądowym i Gospodarczym, co pozwoli na duże oszczędności w postępowaniach restrukturyzacyjnych i upadłościowych.

Pleadings and documents will be entered into the electronic system using the pre-prepared electronic forms available in the system and will have to be certified with a qualified electronic signature. The register will not include cases that were started before the law came into force, which is scheduled for 1 February 2019. Their documentation will remain in paper form.

Risk of stigmatisation of companies in restructuring?

Restructuring advisers warn, however, against lumping companies in recovery and rogue debtors into the same register.

According to Małgorzata Anisimowicz, it would be worthwhile to change the name of the register, and if not - then at least to clearly separate a separate 'green' subdirectory of restructuring proceedings in the general register, so that intuitively and mentally users of the register would distinguish companies under restructuring from yellow alerts about consumer or business bankruptcy, and even more so from red alerts - concerning dishonest, evading debtors who have not paid their debts for years.

The material appeared on ccnews.co.uk:

18 September 2017:
" Closer and closer to e-record of debtors