David appeared for the administrator in R (on the application of Palmer) v Northern Derbyshire Magistrates Court in the North Derbyshire Magistrates Court in 2018 and subsequently before the Divisional Court and the Supreme Court. Administrators are not untypically faced with the tension between making early collective redundancies to reduce costs, in the interests of the creditors, and complying with the obligations under TULRCA on consultation and the filing of the HR1 form with the Secretary of State. The decision of the Supreme Court concludes that administrators are not an officer of a company in administration for the purposes of S.194(4) of TULRCA. Administrators are not then at risk of criminal prosecution if they fail to comply with the notification obligations. The prosecution of the administrator in this case caused considerable anxiety in the insolvency practitioner community. The success of the appeal before the Supreme Court will allay those fears. It has been a long road. The redundancies which prompted the prosecution occurred in 2015.
David led James McWilliams of 3VB and was instructed by David Sonn of Sonn Macmillan Walker.
A copy of the judgment can be found here.
