EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Amr A Abbas, Ahmed Abdel Hakeem, Khaled Abou El Wafa and Adham Ahmed Saied, Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy
regulated under Egyptian civil law) and bankruptcy (which is regulated under a recently promulgated law – namely, Law No 11 of 2018). Unlike bankruptcy pro - cedures, insolvency procedures apply to non-traders with regard to non-commercial disputes. Under civil law, a debtor may be declared insolvent if their assets are insufficient to satisfy their debts. Insol - vency is declared either by the judgment of the court of first instance of the district in which the debtor is domiciled or upon a petition of the debtor themselves or one of their creditors. The lawsuit will be adjudi - cated in an expedited manner. On the other hand, bankruptcy is primarily sought when a merchant ceases to pay its commercial debts due to disturbance/disruption/turmoil in its financial affairs, subject to the satisfaction of specific legal requirements. It thus aims at liquidating the assets of the merchant, enabling creditors to satisfy their claims from the proceeds of the sale. 2.3 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Domestic Judgments Generally, there is no specific timeframe in which to enforce a domestic judgment. The costs and time - frame vary depending on the selected enforcement method – ie, precautionary or compulsory enforce - ment – and whether the enforcement procedures are against movables or immovables. The law regulates the necessary requirements and procedures for each enforcement method. By way of example, assum - ing that enforcement will be made against movables owned by the debtor, the process may take approxi - mately 18–24 months. For a precautionary attach - ment, it may take six to eight months. It is generally advisable to commence enforcement procedures against the defendant’s bank account, as this is a more efficient and prompt enforcement procedure.
These registers include the Real Estate Register’s Office for the identification of immovables ownership and the Commercial Register for the identification of commercial companies. Additionally, there are some procedures that can be followed by the successful party to identify the defendant’s assets. For instance, to initiate an attach - ment on the defendant’s bank account, the applicant must inform the relevant banks of their debt and the intended attachment via a document procured from a court bailiff. The applicant has then to submit an appli - cation to the competent judicial authority to obtain an order obliging the banks to disclose the financial position of the defendant. The banks must then disclose the financial position of the defendant within 15 days of the receipt of the court bailiff document and the disclosure order. The banks cannot then pay the amounts under their custody to the defendant. COVID-19 It should be noted that the COVID-19 outbreak led the government to temporarily close and suspend the operation of the Real Estate Register’s Office to curb the spread of the virus. This office has now resumed its operation with a limited capacity. On 29 June 2020, the Prime Minister issued Decree No 1295 of 2020, stating that the period of lock - down – from 17 March until 27 June 2020 – would be treated as a suspension period for all limitation periods, including those pertaining to enforcement proceedings. As such, the non-commencement of enforcement proceedings within that timeframe does not impact any limitation periods related to enforce - ment proceedings. Recently, the Court of Cassation invoked the above-mentioned decision to justify the suspension of procedural periods regulating the con - testation of judgments. 2.5 Challenging Enforcement of Domestic Judgments The Civil and Commercial Procedures Law No 13 of 1968 includes the legal options available for the defendant to challenge the enforcement of domestic judgments. These options include:
2.4 Post-Judgment Procedures for Determining Defendants’ Assets
Generally, there is no central official record where the successful party can identify the assets owned by the defendant. However, certain public registries may be helpful in identifying some of the defendant’s assets.
148 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook