Digitalisation In Insolvency Proceedings

• Law Firm: Schoenherr Attorneys at Law
• Subject Matter: Insolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-structuring, Insolvency/Bankruptcy
• Author: Cvijeta Gavric and Petra Majher Lončar
• Published date: 22 February 2023

Due to their clear structure and organisation, insolvency proceedings are ideally suited for digitalisation processes. It is therefore more than surprising that despite Austria's pioneering role in the digitalisation of the justice system with its Justice 3.0 project, there has been no significant development in the expansion of digitalisation in insolvency proceedings since the early 2000s. The situation is different in Croatia, however, where the new Insolvency Act came into force in 2015 and was used as an opportunity to open the path towards digitisation. But what is Croatia doing differently and what can Austria learn from it?

When the new Insolvency Act came into force in Croatia, the first thing that changed was the method of publication. Instead of the previous provisions on informing parties and the general public of the insolvency proceedings via the Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia, an e-Bulletin board was introduced into Croatian insolvency proceedings. This is the Croatian equivalent of the Ediktsdatei in Austria. In Croatia, there are also commercial service providers that provide alerts based on a Croatian PIN (Personal Identification Number), which makes it easier to follow the e-Bulletin board. This enables information sharing in near real time, which can be considered a significant support as public announcements in the e-Bulletin board and the Ediktsdatei trigger material consequences under insolvency law.

The introduction of this possibility is especially welcome because insolvency proceedings are characterised by a huge volume of information and communication. Therefore, transparency in...