Debtor company in bankruptcy in Lithuania: what a creditor should do
Once the court ruling opening bankruptcy proceedings against a company becomes final, debts that arose before that date can no longer be enforced against it, and interest and penalties on those obligations stop running (Article 28(1)(2) and (4) of the Law on Insolvency of Legal Entities of the Republic of Lithuania (JANĮ)). Current payments, that is, payments needed to keep the company’s business running, may still be enforced under the procedure set by law (JANĮ Article 2(2); Article 28(4)). From the debtor you can recover the debt only through the bankruptcy proceedings. If another person stood surety for the debt, the surety is liable together with the debtor unless the surety agreement provides otherwise (Article 6.81(1) of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania (CK)). You must lodge your claim and the supporting documents with the insolvency administrator within 30 days of the publication of the ruling opening the case (JANĮ Article 41(1)). If you miss this deadline, your right of claim expires, apart from the exceptions set by law (JANĮ Article 41(6)). Below we explain what to do step by step and what to expect.
Who starts bankruptcy proceedings and how is covered in our article Does bankruptcy need shareholder consent? How insolvency is established. If the debtor is being liquidated but no bankruptcy proceedings have been opened, read Debtor company in liquidation: how a creditor claims the debt in Lithuania.
How to find out about the case and the administrator
The insolvency administrator sends a copy of the final ruling to creditors no later than 3 working days after receiving it (JANĮ Article 27(3)(1)). But the claim deadline runs not from receipt of that letter but from the publication of the ruling on the supervisory authority’s website (JANĮ Article 41(1)). The same website publishes the name and contact details of the administrator’s employee responsible for the case (JANĮ Article 32(1)(2)). The company’s status and the appointed administrator are entered in the Register of Legal Entities (JANĮ Article 27(4)). So once you learn that the debtor is in difficulty, check these sources yourself rather than waiting for the letter.
How to lodge the claim
The claim is lodged with the appointed insolvency administrator, not with the court. You attach the supporting documents and state how the claim is secured (JANĮ Article 41(1)). The law sets no form for the claim. State the amount of the debt and its legal basis, and attach the contract, invoices, payment history and, if the debt has been awarded, the court judgment or order. If you hold claims of different kinds, for example an employee’s claim and an ordinary commercial debt, state them separately, because they are paid in different ranks (JANĮ Article 94(2)).
The administrator checks the documents and, no later than 30 days after the lodging deadline, passes the claims to the court for approval together with an opinion on whether they are well founded (JANĮ Article 41(2)). Creditors’ claims are approved by the court (JANĮ Article 42(1)). The court approves undisputed claims no later than 20 days after receiving them (JANĮ Article 42(2)). If your claim is disputed, the court may hear it in oral proceedings (JANĮ Article 42(3)).
If you have missed the deadline, lodge the claim straight away and explain why it is late. The court may accept such a claim if it finds the reasons valid (JANĮ Article 41(4)). The law does not list which reasons are valid, so this is for the court to assess. The Supreme Court of Lithuania (Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas) has held that the longer the delay, the weightier the objective reasons must be (ruling of 7 May 2026 in civil case No. e3K-3-82-403/2026, paragraph 28). The law does not expressly say whether missing this deadline also ends a suretyship: a suretyship ends at the same time as the obligation it secures (CK Article 6.87(1)), and the Supreme Court of Lithuania, applying the former Law on Enterprise Bankruptcy, held that a missed deadline in the bankruptcy case does not end the surety’s obligation if the claim against the surety was brought in time (ruling of 16 April 2014 in civil case No. 3K-3-212/2014), so under the JANĮ this is decided case by case. Claims that arise after the case is opened, from the conduct of the insolvency procedures, may be lodged within 30 days of arising (JANĮ Article 41(8)).
What happens to bailiff enforcement and to a pending court case
Once the court accepts the application to open the case, the company’s assets may still be seized under enforcement documents, but their sale and enforcement are suspended (JANĮ Article 19(5)). After the case is opened, the bailiff hands the enforcement documents and the seizure documents for unsold assets to the court hearing the case within 7 days of the ruling becoming final (JANĮ Article 30(2)). If the bailiff had already announced a sale of the assets before the case was opened, the court may allow the bailiff to complete it and transfer the proceeds, less enforcement costs, to the creditors’ account (JANĮ Article 30(3)).
So an enforcement order or court order obtained before the bankruptcy does not collect the debt by itself. It only helps you prove the claim to the administrator. The law sets the ranks by type of claim, for example claims secured by a pledge or employees’ claims, and sets no separate rank for a debt awarded by a court judgment (JANĮ Article 94(1) and (2)).
Civil cases pending in court over property claims against the company are transferred to the court that opened the bankruptcy case, if no ruling has yet been made in them to set the case down for a court hearing (JANĮ Article 29(1)).
In what order your claim will be paid
A pledgee’s claims are paid first from the pledged assets (JANĮ Article 94(1)). The first rank covers claims for new or interim financing not secured by a pledge, employees’ claims, social security and health insurance contributions and claims from business carried on during the insolvency proceedings; the second rank covers all others (JANĮ Article 94(2)). The debt without interest and penalties is paid first, and interest and penalties only in the second stage (JANĮ Article 94(3)). If funds are not enough for all the claims of one rank, they are paid pro rata (JANĮ Article 94(4)). An unsecured commercial debt is not on the first-rank list, so it is paid in the second rank together with all other remaining claims (JANĮ Article 94(2)). If a claim is assigned to another person, its rank does not change (JANĮ Article 94(5)).
Creditors’ claims are paid no later than 14 days after the final bankruptcy report is approved, except for a pledgee’s claims paid from the pledged assets and a few other exceptions set by law (JANĮ Article 95(1)). Creditors’ claims are paid from the assets left after the costs of the bankruptcy proceedings are covered (JANĮ Article 93(1)). So whether and how much you receive depends on the assets sold, the costs of the proceedings and the total of higher-ranking claims. From the day the ruling opening the case becomes final, neither the company nor you may set off claims against each other, apart from a narrow exception for tax overpayments (JANĮ Article 28(1)(3)).
The creditors’ meeting: do you need to take part?
Once the court approves your claim, you may take part and vote in creditors’ meetings, propose agenda items, challenge meeting decisions and obtain information on the process from the administrator (JANĮ Article 43(1)–(4)). Only creditors whose claims the court has approved vote (JANĮ Article 45(1)). A decision is taken if creditors holding more than half of the approved claims of the creditors present vote for it (JANĮ Article 51(1)). Decisions bind all creditors, including those who did not attend (JANĮ Article 51(2)).
You are not required to attend, but only a creditor who voted against a decision, or a creditor who did not attend and was not properly notified of the meeting, may later challenge it (JANĮ Article 55(2)). For now you may vote in advance in writing or, where this is offered, by electronic means (JANĮ Article 51(3) and (4)). From 1 May 2028 voting at creditors’ meetings will be electronic (JANĮ Article 51(3), version from 2028-05-01). Notices of meetings, their decisions and information on assets and costs are published in the supervisory authority’s information system, and you are deemed to know them from the moment they are posted there (JANĮ Article 32(2) and (3)). A decision of the creditors’ meeting may be challenged in court within 14 days from the day you learned or should have learned that it was taken (JANĮ Article 55(1)). The administrator’s decisions and actions may be challenged within the same period (JANĮ Article 31(1)). So it pays to check the system regularly.
If you suspect the bankruptcy was deliberate
A creditor may ask the court to declare the bankruptcy deliberate (JANĮ Article 71(1)). A creditor with an approved claim may claim compensation for damage caused through the fault of the management bodies or the administrator, and may apply to the court to bar the CEO from holding office (JANĮ Article 43(5) and (6)). The Supreme Court of Lithuania has held that a creditor may claim damages from the CEO in its own name only where the CEO’s acts were aimed specifically at that creditor or where the bankruptcy has been declared deliberate, and then only for the part of the claim left unpaid in the bankruptcy; otherwise the damages are paid to the company (ruling of 31 December 2018 in civil case No. e3K-3-540-469/2018, paragraphs 24–26). Who is liable for debts after the company is deregistered is covered in Are shareholders and the CEO liable for debts after deregistration?.
If restructuring proceedings have been opened against the debtor
The same bans on enforcement and on charging interest apply once restructuring proceedings are opened: they last until the ruling approving the restructuring plan or ending the case becomes final (JANĮ Article 28(1)). You lodge your claim within the same deadline (JANĮ Article 41(1)). In restructuring an administrator is not always appointed; if none is, the company’s CEO exercises the administrator’s rights and duties (JANĮ Articles 35(1) and 103(3)), so lodge the claim with the CEO. The draft restructuring plan is approved by the affected creditors in classes (JANĮ Article 107(1)); if a class does not approve, the court may still approve the plan, but only on the conditions set by law (JANĮ Article 111¹(2)). Claims are paid in the manner and within the periods set in the plan, following the statutory order of ranks (JANĮ Article 113(1)). The plan runs for no more than 4 years from its approval (JANĮ Article 105(1)); the court may extend it once by no more than one year (JANĮ Article 105(4)). Before agreeing to waive part of the debt or to defer payment, consider what would happen if the restructuring failed and the case turned into a bankruptcy.
More on company bankruptcy
How to start
Send us the court ruling opening the case or the debtor’s name and company code, the documents supporting the debt (contract, invoices, correspondence, court judgment or enforcement order) and details of any pledge or other security.
Phone +370 5 212 1506, email info@linden.lt
More about this service: Company bankruptcy and insolvency.
