If the claim is brought by the Insolvency Service under section 6 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 it must be brought in the court that was seized with conduct of the winding up that the conduct complaints relate to.   That means it can either be in the County Court or the High Court.  If the claim is brought in either the High Court or a County Court or one of the large regional centres such as Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds or Bristol it will be allocated to a specialist insolvency judge.

 

In order for the claim to proceed the Insolvency Service must ensure that the claim form and supporting affidavit are served in accordance with the relevant rules.  The details of the rules can be fairly detailed and it will be necessary to obtain legal advice to review what has happened.  It is possible to provide your lawyer with authority to accept service of proceedings on your behalf.

 

Any claim brought under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 is governed by the Civil Procedure Rules in its process through the court system.  This specifically provides for a claim for strike out to be made where a claim has no reasonable prospect of success, where it is an abuse of the court process, or where there has been a failure to comply with a rule or practice direction.  It will be necessary to take specialist legal advice about whether it is appropriate to make an application to strike out the Insolvency Service’s claim because there will be costs consequences to follow any such application.

 

That is entirely dependent upon your own preference and budget.  Stephen Chinnery is a Higher Court Advocate which means that he is an experienced High Court advocate.  There can be significant costs savings in instructing Stephen and his team to act as both litigators and advocates but this would need to be discussed in detail.