Represent you as advocates in Court in a disqualification claim
To stand the best possible chance of either defeating the Insolvency Service’s claim to disqualify you as a director or to mitigate the seriousness of the alleged conduct forming the basis of the claim you will need an experienced court room advocate specialised in directors disqualification cases. Stephen Chinnery is authorised as a solicitor advocate which means that he is qualified to both prepare your case and present it to the Judge. In the right case this can represent a significant cost saving as a barrister may not need to be instructed.
The role of an advocate is to present your case in court. This will mean preparing a skeleton argument that will bring together all of the facts in your favour and explain to the Judge how those facts have legal significance. Ultimately, the job of an advocate in a director disqualification case will be to try and persuade a Judge that your conduct as a director of an insolvent company did not fall below the standard required of you by law.
The answer depends ultimately in which court the claim is issued. Both the County Court and High Court has jurisdiction to hear director disqualification cases. The court that was seized of the winding up of the Company will have exclusive jurisdiction to deal with the claim to disqualify you as a director.
Whilst you will not be compelled to give evidence there are very few practical ways in which you could mount a successful defence without there being evidence in support of your case. The answer to this question is case specific and you will need to talk it through with an experienced lawyer.
In the same way that those witnesses that appear in court to support your case will be subject to questioning your lawyers will have the opportunity to cross examine the witnesses for the Insolvency Service. Those witnesses are likely to be an Insolvency Service investigator or the Official Receiver and any other witnesses that may be relevant to the alleged unfit conduct. For instance in those cases where trading to the detriment of HMRC is the allegation of unfitness it is common to have HMRC officers appear as witnesses.
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