Leeds Law Society has put together some key points to consider when filing Winding Up Petitions using CE File at the Business and Property Courts in Leeds. In addition there is some guidance contained in this note relating to CE File in Leeds, as a matter of best practice.
1. Official Receiver’s Deposit As Court users may be aware, the petition will not be issued or released until the Official Receiver’s deposit (the “Deposit”) has been received. The Deposit can be paid by cheque or credit card, once the petition has been filed at Court and the claim number released.
Once the Deposit is received, the sealed petition will be released. You will usually be notified of this by email but you can also check the CE File platform.
Currently it is not possible to pay the Deposit by PBA or through CE File.
2. Searching for Petitions Once the Deposit has been paid, the Petition will be searchable by the public on the CE File website.
3. Note from the Business and Property Court in Leeds regarding insolvency matters Please see the attached letter from the Court with further guidance on insolvency matters in the BPCs in Leeds.
4. Notice of Appointment of Administrators Please see the attached note from the Chancellor clarifying the procedure to be used in the Business & Property Courts regarding the appointment of an administrator when an application is made electronically outside court hours.
Practitioners are also referred to the comments of Snowden VC in In The Matter Of Carter Moore Solicitors Ltd [2020] EWHC 186 (Ch), as set out below:
“I should also make it clear, for obvious reasons, that wherever possible and until the position is clarified by a rule change, practitioners should attempt to avoid CE-filing a notice of appointment of administrators out of Court hours.”
5. Uploading documents When uploading documents, please ensure that you have chosen the correct filing type and sub-type and have chosen the most suitable option.
For example, winding-up petitions should be filed using the “winding-up petition” option rather than “Creditor’s Petition” – the latter should be reserved for bankruptcy rather than other insolvency matters.
Practitioners should also take care to use the correct descriptions for the parties – in insolvency matters, this should be “Petitioner” and “Company” or “Respondent” rather than “Claimant” and “Defendant”.
The “miscellaneous” and “correspondence” options should only be used where no other suitable or more appropriate filing type can be identified. This will enable Court staff to process documents more easily and speed up the process where documents need to be referred to a judge.
When filing an application notice with accompanying witness statement or claim form with particulars of claim, users should use the “add associated filing” option when uploading the witness statement / particulars of claim, rather than uploading all the documents using “add another document” under the originating application / claim form. This will result in separate documents being listed and identified separately on the court file.
6. Orders Practitioners should continue to upload Word versions of draft orders to CE File. Failure to do so will result in a delay in obtaining a final version of the Order (as the Court will need to contact the practitioner to request a Word version)
7. Correspondence with Court and CE File Parties are reminded of their obligations under CPR 39.8 to copy all correspondence with the Court (save for where CPR 39.8(3) applies) to the other parties.
Correspondence with the Court does not show on a user’s CE File records. Therefore it is recommended that you email copies of any correspondence filed to the other party and note that this has been done in the letter to Court.
8. Urgent matters Where an urgent matter is being filed during Court opening hours, practitioners can call the Court to alert the staff to the incoming matter. Any documents and filing comments should also be noted as urgent.
Practitioners should only do this where a matter is genuinely urgent.
This note should be read in conjunction with our note of 17 December 2019.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact: info@leedslawsociety.org.uk or catherine.woodward@gordonsllp.com
Leeds Law Society
17.02.2020
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