Court judgment backs Jersey authorities to deal with £1.3 billion cross-border insolvency case

Jersey's Viscount is seeking the assistance of the English High Court for the first time in 36 years in a £1.3 billion cross-border insolvency case. 

Jersey's Royal Court has granted the Viscount's application and issued two letters of request to the English High Court seeking judicial cooperation and recognition of the Viscount and her appointment as administrator of the désastres of a Jersey doctor and a Jersey-registered company declared en désastre late last year.

The Royal Court has also requested the High Court to authorise the Viscount to exercise such of her powers and functions as maybe necessary, including allowing her to intervene in and prosecute or defend or apply for a stay in various sets of proceedings currently before the English courts.

If the request is accepted by the English Court, it will be the first time that Jersey's Viscount has been recognised by the High Court since 1981 – it will also mean that creditors should not assume in the future that Jersey's Royal Court will always concede to a request to put a Jersey insolvent company into English administration.