A Freezing Order is a very serious type of court order and can help freeze bank accounts. Our legal team has been advising business, financiers and individuals since 2002 on all aspects of freezing injunctions. Let us help you too.
It is possible to obtain a court order to freeze bank accounts, but it is not as straightforward or as easily accessible as many people think.
Just because someone is owed money (eg in a normal trading situation), does not give an automatic entitlement or right to a court order to freeze a bank account. Normally that is just seen as a risk of day to day trading. Any failure to obtain money on account in advance of providing goods or services is seen as a responsibility of the creditor It is not something for the court to resolve by freezing a bank account.
However, it is possible in certain circumstances to obtain a court order to freeze bank accounts and this is done by obtaining a freezing injunction (or as it is also known, a freezing order or a Mareva injunction). However, the rules relating to freezing injunctions are very strict and numerous things have to be demonstrated to a court before the court will effectively interfere with a defendant’s ability to deal with its own assets.
For example, the court will have to be persuaded that there is
- a substantive claim against the defendant; and
- that there is also a real risk that the defendant’s assets will be dissipated or put beyond the creditor’s reach.
- furthermore, whilst not vital, ordinarily these types of application also demonstrate some form of likely dishonesty or fraudulent behaviour by the defendant.
So, whilst it is possible to obtain a court order to freeze bank accounts, it is not as available or easy as many parties think. However, the team at Francis Wilks & Jones can advise you in this area and even if you are not able to go down the freezing injunction or freezing order route, there are often many other remedies that may be appropriate to help protect you.
Don’t hesitate, call the expert freezing injunction and bank account frozen team at Francis Wilks & Jones and we can speak to you. We have many years’ experience dealing with all types of frozen bank account situations and helping our clients recover the monies they are due.
