A Freezing Order is a very serious type of court order. Our legal team has been advising business, financiers and individuals since 2002 on all aspects of freezing injunctions. Let us help you too.
Much depends on whether you are looking to obtain the benefit of a freezing order or if you have received one and need urgent advice. We set out some options for both below.
If you have received an injunction to freeze assets
If you have received an injunction to freeze assets it is vital that you take early action to protect your interests. For example, just because a court has granted a freezing injunction doesn’t always mean that it was right that one was ordered.
Often, freezing injunctions are obtained “without notice” (without any warning) to a defendant and there are certain circumstances where a defendant who has received a freezing order can then apply to get it dismissed at the next hearing.
- however, whatever your situation as a defendant it is crucial to act in accordance with the terms of the freezing injunction to avoid possible action for contempt of court for breaching the terms of the freezing injunction;
- often, tight time limits are given to do certain things such as disclosure of assets and providing disclosure affidavits and you often only have 7 or 14 days before you are back in court on the freezing injunction itself.
Quick effective commercial advice is therefore highly recommended to avoid the common freezing injunction pitfalls. We are here to help.
If you want to obtain an injunction to freeze assets
An injunction to freeze assets is commonly obtained in circumstances where a claimant has a substantive claim against a defendant and where a risk of dissipation (removal / hiding) of the defendant’s assets is seen to be likely.
- there has to be a real risk that a defendant, when notified of a claim, is likely to try and put its assets beyond a creditor’s reach;
- there are strict legal tests relating to both the dissipation argument and the strong arguable case argument which any party trying to apply for an injunction to freeze assets must overcome.
However, in the right circumstances an injunction to freeze assets can be extremely beneficial to a party as part of its overall debt recovery claim and ensuring that it gets paid at the end of the day.
Our team is highly experienced in applying for freezing injunctions and regularly obtains these in court.
Whatever your circumstances the team at Francis Wilks & Jones are the freezing injunction experts. We can assist you whether you are a claimant or defendant and have expert links to many third parties often needed as part of the team effort when it comes to freezing orders.