Christopher Boardman KC and Katie Longstaff acted for the successful trustees in bankruptcy in Lau v Cowley & Anor [2020] EWHC 2429 (Ch), the first reported case on the service requirements in schedule 2, CBIR. Mr Justice Fancourt held that the Court had the power to retrospectively sanction steps already taken to serve a recognition application on the debtor outside of the jurisdiction. The Judge’s pragmatic and sensible construction of the procedural rules will come as welcome news to foreign representatives and their lawyers. It discourages unmeritorious challenges to application for recognition and, in this case, paves the way for the office holder to issue Article 21 proceedings setting aside charges granted over the debtor’s UK-based assets.

You can read the full judgment here.