The Bar Association claims the mandatory intervention of the lawyer in the bankruptcy proceedings for micro-enterprises.
It is well known that the new Reform of the Insolvency Law brings agility and advantages to the restructuring procedure, but, not for nothing, it has been the target of multiple criticisms, especially by insolvency administrators and lawyers, whose intervention in the process is no longer mandatory.
The new text foresees a special procedure for companies with less than 10 workers and entrepreneurs, which will be simpler, completely telematic and does not even require a face-to-face hearing with the judge, nor therefore the need for legal assistance. The problem with this system, experts warn, is who determines the insolvency by dispensing with advisors in the process and, therefore, the legal insecurity that this may cause in those debtors with less solvency and who cannot afford an advisor personally.
In this regard, the president of the General Council of Lawyers, Victoria Ortega, has claimed the importance of the role of the legal profession throughout the life cycle of commercial companies, from their incorporation to their dissolution. The participation of the lawyer "brings stability and legal certainty to the whole operation of the company," said Ortega at the opening of the fifth edition of the National Congress on Company Law held at the University of Malaga.
The inauguration of the congress, which this year deals with the problems surrounding corporate agreements, was also attended by the co-director of the event, Belén González Fernández, Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Malaga, Rosario Jiménez Rubio, Dean of Eastern Andalusia of the Association of Registrars, José Ángel Martínez, President of the General Council of Notaries, and Tomás Cordero Alcántara, Director of the Doctoral School of the University of Malaga.
The Spanish Bar Association is opposed to the elimination of the mandatory intervention of the lawyer in the procedure for micro-companies, as foreseen in the Draft Bill for the Reform of the Insolvency Law. This was stated in the allegations presented last year to the draft bill, warning that "this procedure, which would include a group as vulnerable as the self-employed, could generate defenselessness to the debtor, as well as a prejudice to people with fewer resources, since, without the mandatory presence of a lawyer, they would not have the right to free justice". The General Council of Lawyers warned in these allegations that this "could have serious consequences".
In an opinion article published this week in Expansión, the president of the Bar Association stated that "the text does not prohibit or limit, but it does obviate legal intervention in the dissolution of micro-companies. Therefore, if the Bankruptcy Law is approved with the current text, creditors will always have legal assistance, but this will not be the case for those who have lost everything. Surely the registration death of these companies will be quicker, but if only the lawyers of the creditor parties are involved in the process, who will guarantee that the rights of the insolvent party have been respected?
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