Can I get assistance for bankruptcy?

If bankruptcy does prove inevitable, a lawyer can help you file for bankruptcy. This is because within a month after the company stops paying, it is obliged to file a declaration. A natural person will file the declaration himself (or with power of attorney). For a company, the administrative body will act. The declaration is made electronically via the Central Register Solvency. If an electronic declaration is not possible, it will exceptionally still be filed "on paper" at the registry of the corporate court. The company must attach certain documents to its declaration. The declaration and the data supporting the declaration must also be communicated to the works council, the committee for prevention and protection at work, the union delegation or an employee delegation. Quite a job, in other words.

A lawyer can assist you if you are subpoenaed in bankruptcy. A company can be summoned in bankruptcy by one or more creditors, by the public prosecutor or by the provisional administrator.

If bankruptcy is declared, a receiver is appointed. A receiver is always a lawyer. Those lawyers have received special training, thus providing a guarantee about their competence in the field of liquidation proceedings. The receiver's duties include drawing up a description of all movable and immovable property and selling it. The liquidator must also trace and collect all claims and sums of money owed to the bankrupt. The amount of the bankrupt's assets is distributed among the creditors. Finally, the liquidator decides on the fate of ongoing contracts (e.g. rental agreements, insurance agreements, licence agreements, etc.).