Insolvency Made Clear: A Guide for Debtors

Acknowledgments
I owe special thanks to all those who helped me write or proofread this book.
I thank my colleagues in chambers for their support, particularly Guy Olliff-
Cooper and Hossein Sharafi, with whom I have discussed the text. Guy was kind
enough to let me use his checklist of rules applying to bankruptcy and winding
up petitions and statutory demands, which is set out in Annex 2. The clerks and
staff at 4 Stone Buildings led by David Goddard have also helped in the production
of the book and offered an external perspective. My parents, James and
Jane Kessler both reviewed the text and made helpful comments; as did Natasha
Pein, Adrian Hogan and Dominic Olins.
In pre-pandemic times I would ask my mini-pupils to research chapters of the
book. Thanks go to Hamish Levick (challenges to Trustees); Tom Hemming
and Elena Margetts (insolvent estates); Aabynn Cha (corporate insolvency); Kit
Holliday (directors’ guarantees); Maha Ahmad and Miriam Sadler (bankruptcy
offences); Sahar Khan (when to go bankrupt); and Rabin Kok (directors’ disqualifications).
Matthew Gold proofread the entire text. I wish them all success
in their legal careers.
Finally, the text went from manuscript to book thanks to Helen Lacey at Bath
Publishing.
Important notice
This book tries to help ‘litigants in person’: people who do not have lawyers.
It explains legal words, rules and procedure as clearly as possible. Because the
book is written for litigants in person, it sacrifices accuracy for clarity. For example,
it provides the basic rules without giving all the exceptions, and it provides
the underlying principles without a full explanation of the legal test. Almost
every page is ‘wrong’ through omission. It follows that this book is not a replacement
for legal advice.
The author does not accept any legal liability or responsibility in respect of any
errors or omissions from this book.
DANIEL KESSLER
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