Pre-Pack: what's it about and how is it developing?

On 12 March, Houthoff Buruma hosted the 2nd ACG Holland lunch meeting of 2014. A panel consisting of Jacqueline Frima, vice-President of the Rotterdam District Court, Nico Tollenaar, attorney at law at Resor and Kees Lieve, partner at Kruger & Partners discussed the development of Pre-Pack (stille bewindvoering) which initially started to help simplify bankruptcy procedures and has now led to proposed legislation. 

Jacqueline Frima began by explaining the Rotterdam Court's approach, which included the 19 questions (see attached pdf) a candidate has to answer before being allowed to enter the Pre-Pack proceedings. The panel then discussed what else would be needed to make the Pre-Pack work efficiently with a good level of feedback and suggestions from attendees. At the end of the discusson, the panel unanimously agreed that Pre-Pack should be used much wider, i.e. not only for its current use, but also to prepare normal bankcuptcy proceedings since it is much easier to prepare in silence than after bankruptcy has been announced. Following the presentation, the lively discussion continued into lunch.