Glossary — Court-ordered liquidation
What is a court-ordered liquidation?
Collective proceedings opened by the commercial court against a company in suspension of payments whose recovery is manifestly impossible. A court-appointed liquidator is named by judgment to realise the assets, satisfy creditors and close the entity. It is governed by Book VI of the French Commercial Code.
What it is
Court-ordered liquidation is a collective proceeding governed by Book VI of the French Commercial Code. It is pronounced by a judgment of the commercial court, either on the director's own declaration of suspension of payments (filing for insolvency), on a creditor's summons, or by the court of its own motion. The court establishes that recovery is manifestly impossible.
The judgment appoints a court-appointed liquidator, a professional listed on a national roster, who takes the director's place for the liquidation operations. They sell the assets, settle creditors according to the legal order of privileges, dismiss any employees, and conduct the proceedings through to closure.
Why it matters
For the digital estate, court-ordered liquidation is more constrained than the amicable form. The liquidator may not always be aware of intangible assets (cloud accounts, Git repositories, technical correspondence), and their valuation comes second to physical assets. Without a proactive approach, valuable content — client databases, unbilled deliverables, correspondence — can be erased within months when cloud subscriptions are cut off for non-payment.
How Archivum approaches it
Archivum works directly with court-appointed liquidators and administrators who want to secure a digital estate before it is dispersed. The contract is tripartite: liquidator, former directors, Archivum. It sets the liquidator's access conditions during the proceedings, and the fate of the archives beyond removal from the register.