Insolvency
Ben is frequently instructed to handle a variety of Insolvency Act matters and applications, in both the personal and corporate insolvency contexts.
Ben has spoken at insolvency conferences, including the R3 Northern Forum, where he provided a mock-trial demonstration for a wide selection of insolvency practitioner delegates.
Instructions of particular note in Ben’s insolvency practice include:
- His instructions in Settle v Sandstone Legal Limited and Others [2025] EWHC 742 (Ch). Ben was instructed to represent the interim managers of a Manchester based law firm that was the subject of an administration application, brought by its sole director, to enable a pre-pack sale. Ben’s client was one of the proposed administrators of the firm, and he successfully ensured their appointment, in the face of contest from alleged creditors of the firm who averred to be owed £2 – £6m from it. The case was discussed in the Insolvency Insider (https://insolvency-insider.co.uk/p/sandstone-legal-case-update );
- His instruction to appear for the petitioning creditor in a contested winding up petition in pursuit of a debt valued at circa £910k. After exchange of skeletons, the debtor company abandoned its contest to the petition and instead entered CVL – appointing its own choice of liquidator. Ben’s client (the petitioning creditor) still pursued the compulsory order, against £2.1m purported creditors who preferred the CVL. The court accepted Ben’s submission on the lack of probity of the £2.1m worth of asserted creditors and the court made the winding up order in respect of the company. Ben was also successful in respect of a materially similar instruction concerning two concurrent petitions valued at £205k regarding two inter-related companies (more details of this case can be found here: https://www.exchangechambers.co.uk/high-value-recent-successes-for-ben-lafferty/ );
- His instruction to appear on behalf of a Respondent to an application to set aside a statutory demand worth £687k. Ben obtained the dismissal of the application and, therefore, preserved his client’s right to pursue its sizeable debt in the insolvency arena;
- His obtaining of an order restraining presentation of a winding up petition on behalf of a company that was asserted to owe monies to a purported creditor which it strongly disputed;
- His obtaining of three concurrent bankruptcy orders in a debt claim valued at circa £3.2m. In these actions, Ben provided procedural advice throughout, which ultimately assisted in obtaining the final orders, on issues such as the steps to be taken where capacity of a debtor may be relevant in insolvency proceedings;
- His obtaining of a bankruptcy order on behalf of a petitioning creditor in a case concerning the enforcement of EU judgments in England and Wales through personal insolvency proceedings. Ben successfully obtained a bankruptcy order stemming from a circa £320k judgment made by the High Court of the Republic of Ireland. Ben saw off an attempt to dismiss the petition based on section 271(3) of the Insolvency Act 1986 in obtaining the bankruptcy order;
- His obtaining of a bankruptcy order on behalf of a petitioning creditor in a case concerning a petition debt of circa £420k, which had previously been attended by Stephen Connolly of Chambers. Ben successfully obtained the dismissal of the debtor’s opposition to the petition and successfully obtained the dismissal of the debtor’s application for an interim order to allow an IVA to proceed;
- His attendance in a high court appeal in a bankruptcy case, to challenge the basis on which the court at first instance found a liquidated debt. This element of the appeal was conceded, as it was accepted that a court could not transfer a liquidated debt of a primary obligor to a guarantor, if the guarantor’s own liability was not itself of the liquidated debt variety. The case can be found under neutral citation [2025] EWHC 414 (Ch);
- His representation of joint administrators in an application to lift the statutory moratorium in an administration, so a creditor could bring a claim in respect of the company. Ben successfully obtained the dismissal of this application and an indemnity cost award for his client; and
- His involvement, both by the provision of drafting work and appearances in court, in a CVA challenge application valued at circa £1m, concerning the differential treatment of commercial landlords – where properties had been categorised into differing classes in the CVA. In this matter, Ben was pitted against a silk at the interlocutory stages and was led by Giles Maynard-Connor KC.