Lexis®PSL Restructuring and Insolvency monthly highlights—March 2016

This month’s highlights include the launch of the Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules, analysis of the latest wrongful trading case (Re Balls Builders), and consideration of the impact of Brexit on the UK restructuring market, together with other news and recent cases affecting the day-to-day work of restructuring and insolvency professionals.

Headlines

Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules

In the single-biggest change to insolvency law in a generation, the Insolvency Rules 1986, SI 1986/1925 (IR 1986) are set to be replaced in their entirety in 2016. In a process which has been ongoing since 2006, the new insolvency rules will not simply be a renumbering exercise—a number of new rules and procedure will take effect which practitioners will need to get to grips with. At LexisNexis® UK, we have published the Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules, an online-only resource accessible through Lexis®Library. Written by Dr John Tribe and Susan Morgan, the Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules compares, on a rule-by-rule basis, the IR 1986 and the new draft insolvency rules, as they were published in July 2015. The Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules will be updated once the new insolvency rules are passed.

We have published a series of briefings to give you insight into four hot topics:

• Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules—background and structure
• Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules—meetings and proxies
• Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules—office-holder remuneration
• Annotated Guide to the New Insolvency Rules—prescribed forms

Actual loss must be shown for a successful wrongful trading claim

Re Ralls Builders Ltd (in liquidation); Grant and another (Joint Liquidators of Ralls Builders Ltd) v Ralls and others [2016] EWHC 243 (Ch), [2016] All ER (D) 142 (Feb)

If a company trades while in financial difficulties, at what point does liability arise where the directors know or ought to know that there is no