20 February 2013

There is a basic principle of UK insolvency law called the ‘hindsight principle’. It is a principle of general application that where the amount of a contingent claim has been estimated for the purposes of an insolvency officeholder paying a dividend, and the amount of the claim becomes certain before the payment, the actual amount will be taken as the claim’s value, not the prior estimate. The use of the hindsight principle removes the need to make the estimate or makes the estimate more accurate and produces what may generally be regarded as fairer values for the purposes of the distribution or payment.

Briefing