12.8.5 Confirmation procedure

In order for a plan to become effective that all classes have accepted (a consensual plan), a confirmation hearing should not always be required. In such cases a confirmation hearing should only have to take place if an interested party requests one within a certain period, for instance one or two weeks after the vote. If no such request is made within that period the plan should automatically become effective without a confirmation hearing.

In order for a plan to become effective that one or more classes have rejected (a non-consensual plan), a confirmation hearing should always be required. A confirmation decision should not be subject to appeal.

In order to ensure that any objections to the plan are brought to light early on in the process, creditors should be obliged to raise objections as soon as practicable, under the penalty of losing the right to raise the objection at a later stage. The proponent of the plan then has the opportunity to timely address the relevant complaints and to accommodate them within the plan where possible and appropriate. This avoids the proponent of the plan being taken by surprise by the complaints at the confirmation stage, at which point it would not be able to do anything much about them, at least not without going through the voting process again.