Bankrupts’ personal info to stay online permanently

Personal information on every bankrupt in Ireland, going back to 1922, is now freely available online – and will remain there even after the bankruptcy is exited.

The information is available on the Courts.ie website.

As part of the Courts Service drive to put all its non-court business online, the bankruptcy register is now in place for the start of the new legal year.

And in a cost saving for practitioners, the search fee of €10 which applied to walk-in searches at Courts Service offices, has been abolished.

The register can be accessed at CSOL.ie, the Courts Service online portal, and can be used by either registered or non-registered users.

And the Courts Service has confirmed that even when a bankrupt exits bankruptcy, their personal details will be maintained in the online register in perpetuity.

“There is no provision under Irish bankruptcy legislation for any names or entries to be removed from the register,” confirmed High Court Examiner Patricia Troy.

“The list of mandatory information which must be provided under the EU Regulation includes both the opening and closing dates of the bankruptcy proceedings, and each member state is obliged to maintain this information on the register.

“Neither the Regulation nor Irish legislation provide for records to be removed from the online register,” she said, pointing out that the register must include mandatory information such as a home address and must be available to the public.

Searchable

The onscreen information available is searchable by bankruptcy number, debtor’s full name, bankruptcy status, address, county, postcode and the year of adjudication.

The bankruptcy register goes from the latest case, back to the earliest case in 1922 and the register displays in both chronological and numerical fashion.

The register can also be searched by county. The petitioner for bankruptcy will also display, as in a credit institution, as well as the legal representatives of the petitioning creditor, and the date of the petition.

It will show whether an adjudicated bankruptcy has been extended, annulled, discharged by law, or dismissed. Pending discharges will also display, where a bankrupt has completed a year in bankruptcy under the law.

Interim extension

When an interim extension to a bankruptcy is granted by a court, the extension time is added on to the discharge date, which is updated accordingly.

Searches of the register must be ‘intelligent’, that is the words searched must be spelt correctly but a partially-correct spelling will compute.

There is no printing facility on the bankruptcy register but a user may take a screen print.

The move comes as Ireland falls into line with the EU regulation of 2015 on insolvency and is expected to dramatically reduce Courts Service footfall to public counters.

“The requirement on member states is that by mid-2018, various insolvency registers be accessible electronically,” explained Geraldine Hurley, Head of Directorate for the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court, at the launch at the Courts Service office in Phoenix House, Smithfield, Dublin 7.

“There is a subsequent requirement that by 2019 they are linked to the justice portal in the EU and work will be ongoing on that,” she said.

“The advantage to practitioners is that all the information will be available onscreen in their office and there is no need to attend in person or to pay any search fee,” explained newly-appointed Examiner of the High Court Patricia Troy.

“All information from the Monday court list about adjudications of bankruptcy should be available online by Tuesday evening,” said Examiner Patricia Troy.

The manual register will no longer be maintained after the online system beds in, but there will be a transitional period where in-office assistance on a public office computer will be available to those in search of bankruptcy information.

The Courts Service has ambitious plans for the digitisation of its non-court work, despite the loss of income that will follow the abolition of the bankruptcy search fee. The body is keen to maximise use of the new service, given its investment and the benefits that will accrue to court users.

“When the new office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator is established, it will have an online facility,” Geraldine Hurley confirmed.

“The Supreme Court will also have an e-filing capability for applications for leave to appeal,” Geraldine explained.

“This is part of a wider project and we hope that practitioners and court users generally will become very familiar with this platform.”

An e-licensing project is also being piloted in a number of areas around the country including Sligo before being rolled out countrywide.

The bankruptcy information available online is “static” rather than interactive, but other applications will go further, according to the Courts Service.

In the second stage of development the register will widen to encompass all EU bankruptcies.

EU-wide register

All EU member states are required to establish an equivalent online bankrupts’ register by mid-2019, and these will link to the central EU justice portal.

In the second phase the register will link up with cross-border bankruptcy lists, as well as the Insolvency Service of Ireland register, but it will not replace the latter.

“This is part of a wider plan where we are moving to online filing, online applications, online court lists and online court results,” said Geraldine Hurley of the Directorate.

“That’s a very ambitious programme that’s going to require significant investment from government. We are starting with small niche projects like this one, to test the model and proof of concept.

“We have proposals on e-Probate and we are looking at the High Court as well but we have to schedule and prioritise these and they are resource-dependent,” said Geraldine.

Insolvency arrangements and corporate insolvency arrangements, as well as personal bankruptcies will also be on the register.