Law 3/2020, of September 18, on procedural and organizational measures to address COVID-19 in the Administration of Justice

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79102 I. GENERAL PROVISIONS HEAD OF STATE 10923 Law 3/2020, of September 18, on procedural and organizational measures to address COVID-19 in the Administration of Justice.

FELIPE VI KING OF SPAIN

To all who see and understand this.

Know: That the General Courts have approved and I come to sanction the following law:

PREAMBLE I

On March 14, 2020, the Council of Ministers approved Royal Decree 463/2020, declaring a state of alarm to manage the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19, which included, among other measures, limitations on the freedom of movement of persons, with the effects this entails for citizens, workers, and businesses. Specifically, within the scope of the Administration of Justice, the suspension of procedural terms and deadlines was ordered, with the sole exceptions necessary to guarantee the rights recognized to all persons in Article 24 of the Constitution.

To address the possible consequences of these measures, the Administration of Justice had to adapt, both from the point of view of adopting the necessary normative changes in procedural institutions and from the organizational perspective, all with the objective of achieving a progressive reactivation of the normal functioning of Courts and Tribunals.

In effect, the Administration of Justice suffered a significant slowdown as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis, so it became necessary to adopt Royal Decree-Law 16/2020 of April 28, on procedural and organizational measures to address COVID-19 in the Administration of Justice, which had the purpose, among others, of providing an agile exit from the accumulation of procedures suspended by the declaration of the state of alarm when the suspension was lifted.

Likewise, measures were adopted in anticipation of the increase in litigation as a consequence of the extraordinary measures adopted and the economic situation derived from the health crisis.

In a social and democratic State of Law such as the one in which we live, all citizens must participate in the process of recovering from the consequences of the crisis. The current health situation has a global impact and will bring negative effects to a wide range of social groups, although the social and economic consequences will affect vulnerable groups more severely.

Once the state of alarm is overcome, the Administration of Justice must adapt over the coming months to the new normality, taking into consideration the rights and needs of citizens as users of the public service of Justice in the exercise of the right to effective judicial protection, and guaranteeing the right to health both for them and for all personnel and professionals in the Justice sector.

Along with this, and in relation to the anticipated increase in litigation, the Administration of Justice must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial headquarters.

II

This Law is structured in three chapters, containing a total of twenty-three articles, seven additional provisions, two transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and thirteen final provisions.

Chapter I regulates procedural measures to establish the preferential processing of certain proceedings in the social, civil, and administrative-judicial orders directly arising from the health crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as those affected by its consequences. Among them, the processing through the procedural modality of collective conflict, which has an urgent character, and the preferential processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, stand out.

Chapter II includes measures in the concursal (bankruptcy) and corporate field. The COVID-19 health crisis has constituted an additional obstacle to the viability of bankrupt companies, which may determine either the impossibility of subscribing or complying with an agreement, leading companies to liquidation, or greater difficulty in alienating a productive unit that could prove viable. Therefore, Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, which adopted urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, extended to these companies the possibility of accessing a temporary regulation file for employment under the terms of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

To the measures already adopted in said Royal Decree-Law, this Law adds others, with a triple purpose. First, to maintain the economic continuity of companies, professionals, and self-employed individuals who, prior to the entry into force of the state of alarm, had been regularly fulfilling obligations derived from an agreement, an extrajudicial payment agreement, or a homologated refinancing agreement. Regarding these debtors, the duty to request the opening of the liquidation phase is postponed when, during the validity of the agreement, the debtor learns of the impossibility of fulfilling the committed payments and obligations contracted after its approval; likewise, the modification of the agreement, the extrajudicial payment agreement, or the homologated refinancing agreement is facilitated. Regarding the latter, the presentation of a new request is also allowed without the need for a year to have passed since the presentation of the previous one.

Second, it aims to promote and incentivize the financing of companies to meet their temporary liquidity needs, qualifying as credits against the mass, in the event of liquidation, credits derived from financing commitments or the provision of guarantees by third parties, including persons especially related to the bankrupt, which appeared in the proposal of agreement or in the proposal for modification of the already approved by the judge. In this same sense, to facilitate credit and liquidity for the company, credits of persons especially linked to the debtor in bankruptcies that might be declared within the two years following the declaration of the state of alarm are qualified as ordinary.

Finally, to avoid the foreseeable increase in litigation regarding the processing of creditor bankruptcies in Commercial Courts and Courts of First Instance, a series of rules for the acceleration of the concursal process are established, such as the non-necessity of holding hearings, the confession of insolvency, the preferential processing of certain actions aimed at protecting workers' rights, maintaining the continuity of the company, and preserving the value of assets and rights, as well as the simplification of certain acts and incidents (auctions, challenge of inventory and creditor lists, or approval of liquidation plans).

Finally, within this Chapter II, two norms are established that seek to temporarily and exceptionally attenuate the consequences that the application of general rules on the dissolution of capital companies and on the declaration of bankruptcy would have in the current situation, so as to allow companies to gain time to restructure their debt, obtain liquidity, and compensate for losses, either through the recovery of their ordinary activity or through access to credit or public aid. In this way, the suspension of the duty to request the declaration of creditor bankruptcy is extended until December 31, 2020, and it is provided that for the purposes of the legal cause of dissolution due to losses, the losses of the current fiscal year shall not be counted.

Along these lines, in the repealing provision, Article 43 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, is repealed, which established the suspension of the duty to request bankruptcy during the validity of the state of alarm and provided that judges would not admit to processing requests for necessary bankruptcy until two months had passed since the end of said state.

Ultimately, the aim is to avoid declarations of bankruptcy or the opening of the liquidation phase regarding companies that may be viable under general market conditions (going concern value higher than liquidation value), with the consequent destruction of productive fabric and jobs.

Chapter III regulates organizational and technological measures aimed at continuing to address the consequences, already exposed, that the crisis has had on the Administration of Justice and extending the temporal application of the same until June 20, 2021, trusting that by then all health guarantees against COVID-19 will exist.

Thus, the holding of procedural acts preferably through the telematic presence of participants is established to guarantee the health protection of persons and minimize the risk of contagion, safeguarding the rights of all parties to the process. However, in the criminal jurisdictional order, the holding of trials preferably through telematic presence is excepted in cases of proceedings for serious crimes, or when any of the accusations involves provisional imprisonment or a prison sentence of more than two years is requested, in which the physical presence of the accused is necessary.

Likewise, to attend to the same ends, public access to all oral proceedings is limited taking into account the characteristics of the hearing rooms. This allows for the maintenance of safety distances and avoids crowds and the movement of people in judicial headquarters when it is not strictly necessary.

With the same purpose, a system for public attention by videoconference, telephone, or through the email address enabled for this purpose is established, such that physical attention is limited to strictly necessary cases and only by prior appointment.

The recovery of the ordinary activity of judicial and prosecutorial offices required not delaying the deadline for reintegration after the lifting of the main restrictions and, in this way, establishing measures that would help to face with the least possible impact the increase in litigation.

In this way, the creation of judicial units for the knowledge of issues derived from COVID-19 is provided for, and the possibility that lawyers of the Administration of Justice can, during the training period, perform substitution or reinforcement functions is established, among other measures. With this, it is intended to address the urgent need to regularize the situation of courts and tribunals to make effective the right to effective judicial protection without undue delays.

Furthermore, this objective must be compatible with the adequate protection of the health of the personnel of the Administration of Justice, the rest of the professionals, and the individuals who go to their headquarters. Therefore, measures are specified that imply the temporal distribution of the provision of services by the personnel of the judicial offices, so that they can fulfill their usual schedule successively. To this end, morning or afternoon work shifts are established, thereby avoiding the coincidence of all personnel in the same hours. The compliance with that schedule by different personnel serving the Administration of Justice, even without extension of the workday, also allows for the holding of trials and hearings not only in the morning, but also during the afternoons.

In final provision fourth, Law 18/2011, of July 5, regulating the use of information and communication technologies in the Administration of Justice, is modified, facilitating remote access to the applications used for procedural management, thus promoting telework, and the system of recognized identification and signature is modified, dissociating one from the other, under the same terms as Law 39/2015, of October 1, of the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations.

In particular, facilitating remote access to the applications used for procedural management, as well as citizen access to electronic services in the Administration of Justice, will imply that all bodies, judicial offices, and prosecutor's offices are equipped with the necessary and sufficient electronic means, instruments, and information systems to develop their function efficiently. At the same time, a unification of the publication of resolutions and communications in the Single Judicial Edict Board is carried out, which will be published electronically by the State Agency of the Official State Gazette, ending the dispersion in bulletin boards and different official gazettes, reinforcing the simplicity of this procedure and reinforcing the guarantees of the parties.

Final provision fifth modifies and extends the vacatio legis of Law 20/2011, of July 21, of the Civil Registry, until April 30, 2021. The current situation and the need to concentrate efforts on the recovery of activity in the Civil Registry prevent addressing at this time the organizational and operational change it requires in such a short period of time, so it is necessary to extend it to guarantee its adequate and full entry into force. However, its entry into force for the consular offices of the Civil Registry is provided for on October 1, 2020, applied progressively.

With final provision seventh, a technical improvement is introduced in the modification of Article 159.4 of Law 9/2017, of November 8, on Public Sector Contracts, approved by Royal Decree-Law 15/2020, of April 21, on urgent complementary measures to support the economy and employment.

In final provisions eighth and ninth, the possibility of availability of pension plans for self-employed or autonomous workers is expanded to cases where, without ceasing their activity, they have had a reduction of at least 75 percent in their billing as a consequence of the health crisis situation.

The modification is made through specific adjustments in the wording of additional provision twentieth of Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, to add to the already collected case of cessation of activity the new case of reduction of billing by at least 75 percent; the definition of the case of reduction of billing is adjusted to that used in the new wording given by Royal Decree-Law 13/2020, of April 7, to Article 17 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, in relation to the extraordinary benefit for cessation of activity. Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 15/2020, of April 21, is also modified to specify the accrediting justification of this situation before the entity managing pension funds.

Regarding this last issue, it should be noted that to justify the reduction of billing, reference is made to what is already provided for the accreditation of that billing volume in the request for the extraordinary public benefit for cessation of activity of the self-employed, which includes the same case of reduction of 75 percent of billing. With this, the same documentation will serve the self-employed worker to accredit their circumstance of reduction of billing both in the case of the public benefit and in the case of the availability of their pension plans.

All other aspects of the availability of pension plans regulated in both royal decree-laws, referring to the amount, linked to the estimated loss of net income, and to the period of state of alarm and one additional month, are maintained.

Likewise, final provision eighth, taking into account the effects of the pandemic and the impact on the income of many households, extends the deadlines established in Articles 4 and 8 of Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, by which urgent complementary measures are adopted in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, so that the tenant of the habitual residence can make the request for temporary and extraordinary deferral of the payment of rent. Certain aspects of Article 9 are also modified in order to give greater agility to the processing of the line of transitional financing aid, so that it can be operational for tenants in a vulnerable situation in the shortest possible time.

CHAPTER I Procedural Measures

Article 1. Processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

1. The lawsuits presented by the legitimized subjects referred to in paragraph 2 of this article shall be processed according to the procedural modality of collective conflict, when they refer to the suspensions and reductions of working hours adopted in application of what is provided in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, and such measures affect more than five workers.

2. In addition to the legitimized subjects according to Article 154 of Law 36/2011, of October 10, regulating the social jurisdiction, the representative commission provided for in the labor regulations issued to alleviate the effects derived from COVID-19 in relation to the temporary regulation files for employment referred to in this article shall also be legitimized to promote the aforementioned collective conflict procedure.

Article 2. Preferential processing of certain proceedings.

1. Until December 31, 2020 inclusive, the following files and proceedings shall be processed with preference:

a) Processes or voluntary jurisdiction files in which the measures referred to in Article 158 of the Civil Code are adopted.

b) In the civil jurisdictional order, processes derived from the lack of recognition by the creditor entity of the legal moratorium in mortgages for habitual housing and real estate affected by economic activity, processes derived from any claims that tenants might raise for lack of application of the legally provided moratorium or of the mandatory extension of the contract, as well as concursal proceedings of debtors who are natural persons.

c) In the administrative-judicial jurisdictional order, the appeals filed against the acts and resolutions of Public Administrations by which the application of aids and measures legally provided to alleviate the economic effects of the health crisis produced by COVID-19 is denied.

d) In the social jurisdictional order, processes for dismissal or contract termination, those derived from the procedure to declare the duty and manner of recovery of working hours not provided during the paid leave provided for in Royal Decree-Law 10/2020, of March 29, which regulates a recoverable paid leave for employed persons who do not provide essential services, with the aim of reducing the mobility of the population in the context of the fight against COVID-19; procedures for the application of the MECUIDA plan of Article 6 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17; denials of extraordinary benefits for cessation of activity provided for in Article 17 of said Royal Decree-Law 8/2020; procedures for the individual, collective, or ex officio challenge of temporary regulation files for employment for the causes regulated in Articles 22 and 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17; those that are processed to make effective the modality of remote work or the adaptation of working conditions provided for in Article 5 of the same; resolutions denying the request for the recognition of the right to health assistance

cve: BOE-A-2020-10923 Verifiable in https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79103 Justicia must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial headquarters.

II

This Law is structured in three chapters, containing a total of twenty-three articles, seven additional provisions, two transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and thirteen final provisions.

Chapter I regulates procedural measures to establish the preferential processing of certain proceedings in the social, civil, and administrative-judicial orders directly arising from the health crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as those affected by its consequences. Among them, the processing through the procedural modality of collective conflict, which has an urgent character, and the preferential processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, stand out.

Chapter II includes measures in the concursal (bankruptcy) and corporate field. The COVID-19 health crisis has constituted an additional obstacle to the viability of bankrupt companies, which may determine either the impossibility of subscribing or complying with an agreement, leading companies to liquidation, or greater difficulty in alienating a productive unit that could prove viable. Therefore, Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, which adopted urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, extended to these companies the possibility of accessing a temporary regulation file for employment under the terms of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

To the measures already adopted in said Royal Decree-Law, this Law adds others, with a triple purpose. First, to maintain the economic continuity of companies, professionals, and self-employed individuals who, prior to the entry into force of the state of alarm, had been regularly fulfilling obligations derived from an agreement, an extrajudicial payment agreement, or a homologated refinancing agreement. Regarding these debtors, the duty to request the opening of the liquidation phase is postponed when, during the validity of the agreement, the debtor learns of the impossibility of fulfilling the committed payments and obligations contracted after its approval; likewise, the modification of the agreement, the extrajudicial payment agreement, or the homologated refinancing agreement is facilitated. Regarding the latter, the presentation of a new request is also allowed without the need for a year to have passed since the presentation of the previous one.

Second, it aims to promote and incentivize the financing of companies to meet their temporary liquidity needs, qualifying as credits against the mass, in the event of liquidation, credits derived from financing commitments or the provision of guarantees by third parties, including persons especially related to the bankrupt, which appeared in the proposal of agreement or in the proposal for modification of the already approved by the judge. In this same sense, to facilitate credit and liquidity for the company, credits of persons especially linked to the debtor in bankruptcies that might be declared within the two years following the declaration of the state of alarm are qualified as ordinary.

Finally, to avoid the foreseeable increase in litigation regarding the processing of creditor bankruptcies in Commercial Courts and Courts of First Instance, a series of rules for the acceleration of the concursal process are established, such as the non-necessity of holding hearings, the confession of insolvency, the preferential processing of certain actions aimed at protecting workers' rights, maintaining the continuity of the company, and preserving the value of assets and rights, as well as the simplification of certain acts and incidents (auctions, challenge of inventory and creditor lists, or approval of liquidation plans).

Finally, within this Chapter II, two norms are established that seek to temporarily and exceptionally attenuate the consequences that the application of general rules on the dissolution of capital companies and on the declaration of bankruptcy would have in the current situation, so as to allow companies to gain time to restructure their debt, obtain liquidity, and compensate for losses, either through the recovery of their ordinary activity or through access to credit or public aid. In this way, the suspension of the duty to request the declaration of creditor bankruptcy is extended until December 31, 2020, and it is provided that for the purposes of the legal cause of dissolution due to losses, the losses of the current fiscal year shall not be counted.

Along these lines, in the repealing provision, Article 43 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, is repealed, which established the suspension of the duty to request bankruptcy during the validity of the state of alarm and provided that judges would not admit to processing requests for necessary bankruptcy until two months had passed since the end of said state.

Ultimately, the aim is to avoid declarations of bankruptcy or the opening of the liquidation phase regarding companies that may be viable under general market conditions (going concern value higher than liquidation value), with the consequent destruction of productive fabric and jobs.

Chapter III regulates organizational and technological measures aimed at continuing to address the consequences, already exposed, that the crisis has had on the Administration of Justice and extending the temporal application of the same until June 20, 2021, trusting that by then all health guarantees against COVID-19 will exist.

Thus, the holding of procedural acts preferably through the telematic presence of participants is established to guarantee the health protection of persons and minimize the risk of contagion, safeguarding the rights of all parties to the process. However, in the criminal jurisdictional order, the holding of trials preferably through telematic presence is excepted in cases of proceedings for serious crimes, or when any of the accusations involves provisional imprisonment or a prison sentence of more than two years is requested, in which the physical presence of the accused is necessary.

cve: BOE-A-2020-10923 Verifiable in https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79104 Justicia must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial headquarters.

II

This Law is structured in three chapters, containing a total of twenty-three articles, seven additional provisions, two transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and thirteen final provisions.

Chapter I regulates procedural measures to establish the preferential processing of certain proceedings in the social, civil, and administrative-judicial orders directly arising from the health crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as those affected by its consequences. Among them, the processing through the procedural modality of collective conflict, which has an urgent character, and the preferential processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, stand out.

Chapter II includes measures in the concursal (bankruptcy) and corporate field. The COVID-19 health crisis has constituted an additional obstacle to the viability of bankrupt companies, which may determine either the impossibility of subscribing or complying with an agreement, leading companies to liquidation, or greater difficulty in alienating a productive unit that could prove viable. Therefore, Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, which adopted urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, extended to these companies the possibility of accessing a temporary regulation file for employment under the terms of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

To the measures already adopted in said Royal Decree-Law, this Law adds others, with a triple purpose. First, to maintain the economic continuity of companies, professionals, and self-employed individuals who, prior to the entry into force of the state of alarm, had been regularly fulfilling obligations derived from an agreement, an extrajudicial payment agreement, or a homologated refinancing agreement. Regarding these debtors, the duty to request the opening of the liquidation phase is postponed when, during the validity of the agreement, the debtor learns of the impossibility of fulfilling the committed payments and obligations contracted after its approval; likewise, the modification of the agreement, the extrajudicial payment agreement, or the homologated refinancing agreement is facilitated. Regarding the latter, the presentation of a new request is also allowed without the need for a year to have passed since the presentation of the previous one.

Second, it aims to promote and incentivize the financing of companies to meet their temporary liquidity needs, qualifying as credits against the mass, in the event of liquidation, credits derived from financing commitments or the provision of guarantees by third parties, including persons especially related to the bankrupt, which appeared in the proposal of agreement or in the proposal for modification of the already approved by the judge. In this same sense, to facilitate credit and liquidity for the company, credits of persons especially linked to the debtor in bankruptcies that might be declared within the two years following the declaration of the state of alarm are qualified as ordinary.

Finally, to avoid the foreseeable increase in litigation regarding the processing of creditor bankruptcies in Commercial Courts and Courts of First Instance, a series of rules for the acceleration of the concursal process are established, such as the non-necessity of holding hearings, the confession of insolvency, the preferential processing of certain actions aimed at protecting workers' rights, maintaining the continuity of the company, and preserving the value of assets and rights, as well as the simplification of certain acts and incidents (auctions, challenge of inventory and creditor lists, or approval of liquidation plans).

Finally, within this Chapter II, two norms are established that seek to temporarily and exceptionally attenuate the consequences that the application of general rules on the dissolution of capital companies and on the declaration of bankruptcy would have in the current situation, so as to allow companies to gain time to restructure their debt, obtain liquidity, and compensate for losses, either through the recovery of their ordinary activity or through access to credit or public aid. In this way, the suspension of the duty to request the declaration of creditor bankruptcy is extended until December 31, 2020, and it is provided that for the purposes of the legal cause of dissolution due to losses, the losses of the current fiscal year shall not be counted.

Along these lines, in the repealing provision, Article 43 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, is repealed, which established the suspension of the duty to request bankruptcy during the validity of the state of alarm and provided that judges would not admit to processing requests for necessary bankruptcy until two months had passed since the end of said state.

Ultimately, the aim is to avoid declarations of bankruptcy or the opening of the liquidation phase regarding companies that may be viable under general market conditions (going concern value higher than liquidation value), with the consequent destruction of productive fabric and jobs.

Chapter III regulates organizational and technological measures aimed at continuing to address the consequences, already exposed, that the crisis has had on the Administration of Justice and extending the temporal application of the same until June 20, 2021, trusting that by then all health guarantees against COVID-19 will exist.

Thus, the holding of procedural acts preferably through the telematic presence of participants is established to guarantee the health protection of persons and minimize the risk of contagion, safeguarding the rights of all parties to the process. However, in the criminal jurisdictional order, the holding of trials preferably through telematic presence is excepted in cases of proceedings for serious crimes, or when any of the accusations involves provisional imprisonment or a prison sentence of more than two years is requested, in which the physical presence of the accused is necessary.

cve: BOE-A-2020-10923 Verifiable in https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79105 Justicia must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial headquarters.

II

This Law is structured in three chapters, containing a total of twenty-three articles, seven additional provisions, two transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and thirteen final provisions.

Chapter I regulates procedural measures to establish the preferential processing of certain proceedings in the social, civil, and administrative-judicial orders directly arising from the health crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as those affected by its consequences. Among them, the processing through the procedural modality of collective conflict, which has an urgent character, and the preferential processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, stand out.

Chapter II includes measures in the concursal (bankruptcy) and corporate field. The COVID-19 health crisis has constituted an additional obstacle to the viability of bankrupt companies, which may determine either the impossibility of subscribing or complying with an agreement, leading companies to liquidation, or greater difficulty in alienating a productive unit that could prove viable. Therefore, Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, which adopted urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, extended to these companies the possibility of accessing a temporary regulation file for employment under the terms of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

To the measures already adopted in said Royal Decree-Law, this Law adds others, with a triple purpose. First, to maintain the economic continuity of companies, professionals, and self-employed individuals who, prior to the entry into force of the state of alarm, had been regularly fulfilling obligations derived from an agreement, an extrajudicial payment agreement, or a homologated refinancing agreement. Regarding these debtors, the duty to request the opening of the liquidation phase is postponed when, during the validity of the agreement, the debtor learns of the impossibility of fulfilling the committed payments and obligations contracted after its approval; likewise, the modification of the agreement, the extrajudicial payment agreement, or the homologated refinancing agreement is facilitated. Regarding the latter, the presentation of a new request is also allowed without the need for a year to have passed since the presentation of the previous one.

Second, it aims to promote and incentivize the financing of companies to meet their temporary liquidity needs, qualifying as credits against the mass, in the event of liquidation, credits derived from financing commitments or the provision of guarantees by third parties, including persons especially related to the bankrupt, which appeared in the proposal of agreement or in the proposal for modification of the already approved by the judge. In this same sense, to facilitate credit and liquidity for the company, credits of persons especially linked to the debtor in bankruptcies that might be declared within the two years following the declaration of the state of alarm are qualified as ordinary.

Finally, to avoid the foreseeable increase in litigation regarding the processing of creditor bankruptcies in Commercial Courts and Courts of First Instance, a series of rules for the acceleration of the concursal process are established, such as the non-necessity of holding hearings, the confession of insolvency, the preferential processing of certain actions aimed at protecting workers' rights, maintaining the continuity of the company, and preserving the value of assets and rights, as well as the simplification of certain acts and incidents (auctions, challenge of inventory and creditor lists, or approval of liquidation plans).

Finally, within this Chapter II, two norms are established that seek to temporarily and exceptionally attenuate the consequences that the application of general rules on the dissolution of capital companies and on the declaration of bankruptcy would have in the current situation, so as to allow companies to gain time to restructure their debt, obtain liquidity, and compensate for losses, either through the recovery of their ordinary activity or through access to credit or public aid. In this way, the suspension of the duty to request the declaration of creditor bankruptcy is extended until December 31, 2020, and it is provided that for the purposes of the legal cause of dissolution due to losses, the losses of the current fiscal year shall not be counted.

Along these lines, in the repealing provision, Article 43 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, is repealed, which established the suspension of the duty to request bankruptcy during the validity of the state of alarm and provided that judges would not admit to processing requests for necessary bankruptcy until two months had passed since the end of said state.

Ultimately, the aim is to avoid declarations of bankruptcy or the opening of the liquidation phase regarding companies that may be viable under general market conditions (going concern value higher than liquidation value), with the consequent destruction of productive fabric and jobs.

Chapter III regulates organizational and technological measures aimed at continuing to address the consequences, already exposed, that the crisis has had on the Administration of Justice and extending the temporal application of the same until June 20, 2021, trusting that by then all health guarantees against COVID-19 will exist.

Thus, the holding of procedural acts preferably through the telematic presence of participants is established to guarantee the health protection of persons and minimize the risk of contagion, safeguarding the rights of all parties to the process. However, in the criminal jurisdictional order, the holding of trials preferably through telematic presence is excepted in cases of proceedings for serious crimes, or when any of the accusations involves provisional imprisonment or a prison sentence of more than two years is requested, in which the physical presence of the accused is necessary.

cve: BOE-A-2020-10923 Verifiable in https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79106 Justicia must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial headquarters.

II

This Law is structured in three chapters, containing a total of twenty-three articles, seven additional provisions, two transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and thirteen final provisions.

Chapter I regulates procedural measures to establish the preferential processing of certain proceedings in the social, civil, and administrative-judicial orders directly arising from the health crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as those affected by its consequences. Among them, the processing through the procedural modality of collective conflict, which has an urgent character, and the preferential processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, stand out.

Chapter II includes measures in the concursal (bankruptcy) and corporate field. The COVID-19 health crisis has constituted an additional obstacle to the viability of bankrupt companies, which may determine either the impossibility of subscribing or complying with an agreement, leading companies to liquidation, or greater difficulty in alienating a productive unit that could prove viable. Therefore, Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, which adopted urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, extended to these companies the possibility of accessing a temporary regulation file for employment under the terms of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

To the measures already adopted in said Royal Decree-Law, this Law adds others, with a triple purpose. First, to maintain the economic continuity of companies, professionals, and self-employed individuals who, prior to the entry into force of the state of alarm, had been regularly fulfilling obligations derived from an agreement, an extrajudicial payment agreement, or a homologated refinancing agreement. Regarding these debtors, the duty to request the opening of the liquidation phase is postponed when, during the validity of the agreement, the debtor learns of the impossibility of fulfilling the committed payments and obligations contracted after its approval; likewise, the modification of the agreement, the extrajudicial payment agreement, or the homologated refinancing agreement is facilitated. Regarding the latter, the presentation of a new request is also allowed without the need for a year to have passed since the presentation of the previous one.

Second, it aims to promote and incentivize the financing of companies to meet their temporary liquidity needs, qualifying as credits against the mass, in the event of liquidation, credits derived from financing commitments or the provision of guarantees by third parties, including persons especially related to the bankrupt, which appeared in the proposal of agreement or in the proposal for modification of the already approved by the judge. In this same sense, to facilitate credit and liquidity for the company, credits of persons especially linked to the debtor in bankruptcies that might be declared within the two years following the declaration of the state of alarm are qualified as ordinary.

Finally, to avoid the foreseeable increase in litigation regarding the processing of creditor bankruptcies in Commercial Courts and Courts of First Instance, a series of rules for the acceleration of the concursal process are established, such as the non-necessity of holding hearings, the confession of insolvency, the preferential processing of certain actions aimed at protecting workers' rights, maintaining the continuity of the company, and preserving the value of assets and rights, as well as the simplification of certain acts and incidents (auctions, challenge of inventory and creditor lists, or approval of liquidation plans).

Finally, within this Chapter II, two norms are established that seek to temporarily and exceptionally attenuate the consequences that the application of general rules on the dissolution of capital companies and on the declaration of bankruptcy would have in the current situation, so as to allow companies to gain time to restructure their debt, obtain liquidity, and compensate for losses, either through the recovery of their ordinary activity or through access to credit or public aid. In this way, the suspension of the duty to request the declaration of creditor bankruptcy is extended until December 31, 2020, and it is provided that for the purposes of the legal cause of dissolution due to losses, the losses of the current fiscal year shall not be counted.

Along these lines, in the repealing provision, Article 43 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, is repealed, which established the suspension of the duty to request bankruptcy during the validity of the state of alarm and provided that judges would not admit to processing requests for necessary bankruptcy until two months had passed since the end of said state.

Ultimately, the aim is to avoid declarations of bankruptcy or the opening of the liquidation phase regarding companies that may be viable under general market conditions (going concern value higher than liquidation value), with the consequent destruction of productive fabric and jobs.

Chapter III regulates organizational and technological measures aimed at continuing to address the consequences, already exposed, that the crisis has had on the Administration of Justice and extending the temporal application of the same until June 20, 2021, trusting that by then all health guarantees against COVID-19 will exist.

Thus, the holding of procedural acts preferably through the telematic presence of participants is established to guarantee the health protection of persons and minimize the risk of contagion, safeguarding the rights of all parties to the process. However, in the criminal jurisdictional order, the holding of trials preferably through telematic presence is excepted in cases of proceedings for serious crimes, or when any of the accusations involves provisional imprisonment or a prison sentence of more than two years is requested, in which the physical presence of the accused is necessary.

cve: BOE-A-2020-10923 Verifiable in https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79107 Justicia must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial headquarters.

II

This Law is structured in three chapters, containing a total of twenty-three articles, seven additional provisions, two transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and thirteen final provisions.

Chapter I regulates procedural measures to establish the preferential processing of certain proceedings in the social, civil, and administrative-judicial orders directly arising from the health crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as those affected by its consequences. Among them, the processing through the procedural modality of collective conflict, which has an urgent character, and the preferential processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, stand out.

Chapter II includes measures in the concursal (bankruptcy) and corporate field. The COVID-19 health crisis has constituted an additional obstacle to the viability of bankrupt companies, which may determine either the impossibility of subscribing or complying with an agreement, leading companies to liquidation, or greater difficulty in alienating a productive unit that could prove viable. Therefore, Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, which adopted urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, extended to these companies the possibility of accessing a temporary regulation file for employment under the terms of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

To the measures already adopted in said Royal Decree-Law, this Law adds others, with a triple purpose. First, to maintain the economic continuity of companies, professionals, and self-employed individuals who, prior to the entry into force of the state of alarm, had been regularly fulfilling obligations derived from an agreement, an extrajudicial payment agreement, or a homologated refinancing agreement. Regarding these debtors, the duty to request the opening of the liquidation phase is postponed when, during the validity of the agreement, the debtor learns of the impossibility of fulfilling the committed payments and obligations contracted after its approval; likewise, the modification of the agreement, the extrajudicial payment agreement, or the homologated refinancing agreement is facilitated. Regarding the latter, the presentation of a new request is also allowed without the need for a year to have passed since the presentation of the previous one.

Second, it aims to promote and incentivize the financing of companies to meet their temporary liquidity needs, qualifying as credits against the mass, in the event of liquidation, credits derived from financing commitments or the provision of guarantees by third parties, including persons especially related to the bankrupt, which appeared in the proposal of agreement or in the proposal for modification of the already approved by the judge. In this same sense, to facilitate credit and liquidity for the company, credits of persons especially linked to the debtor in bankruptcies that might be declared within the two years following the declaration of the state of alarm are qualified as ordinary.

Finally, to avoid the foreseeable increase in litigation regarding the processing of creditor bankruptcies in Commercial Courts and Courts of First Instance, a series of rules for the acceleration of the concursal process are established, such as the non-necessity of holding hearings, the confession of insolvency, the preferential processing of certain actions aimed at protecting workers' rights, maintaining the continuity of the company, and preserving the value of assets and rights, as well as the simplification of certain acts and incidents (auctions, challenge of inventory and creditor lists, or approval of liquidation plans).

Finally, within this Chapter II, two norms are established that seek to temporarily and exceptionally attenuate the consequences that the application of general rules on the dissolution of capital companies and on the declaration of bankruptcy would have in the current situation, so as to allow companies to gain time to restructure their debt, obtain liquidity, and compensate for losses, either through the recovery of their ordinary activity or through access to credit or public aid. In this way, the suspension of the duty to request the declaration of creditor bankruptcy is extended until December 31, 2020, and it is provided that for the purposes of the legal cause of dissolution due to losses, the losses of the current fiscal year shall not be counted.

Along these lines, in the repealing provision, Article 43 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, is repealed, which established the suspension of the duty to request bankruptcy during the validity of the state of alarm and provided that judges would not admit to processing requests for necessary bankruptcy until two months had passed since the end of said state.

Ultimately, the aim is to avoid declarations of bankruptcy or the opening of the liquidation phase regarding companies that may be viable under general market conditions (going concern value higher than liquidation value), with the consequent destruction of productive fabric and jobs.

Chapter III regulates organizational and technological measures aimed at continuing to address the consequences, already exposed, that the crisis has had on the Administration of Justice and extending the temporal application of the same until June 20, 2021, trusting that by then all health guarantees against COVID-19 will exist.

Thus, the holding of procedural acts preferably through the telematic presence of participants is established to guarantee the health protection of persons and minimize the risk of contagion, safeguarding the rights of all parties to the process. However, in the criminal jurisdictional order, the holding of trials preferably through telematic presence is excepted in cases of proceedings for serious crimes, or when any of the accusations involves provisional imprisonment or a prison sentence of more than two years is requested, in which the physical presence of the accused is necessary.

cve: BOE-A-2020-10923 Verifiable in https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79108 Justicia must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial headquarters.

II

This Law is structured in three chapters, containing a total of twenty-three articles, seven additional provisions, two transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and thirteen final provisions.

Chapter I regulates procedural measures to establish the preferential processing of certain proceedings in the social, civil, and administrative-judicial orders directly arising from the health crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as those affected by its consequences. Among them, the processing through the procedural modality of collective conflict, which has an urgent character, and the preferential processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, stand out.

Chapter II includes measures in the concursal (bankruptcy) and corporate field. The COVID-19 health crisis has constituted an additional obstacle to the viability of bankrupt companies, which may determine either the impossibility of subscribing or complying with an agreement, leading companies to liquidation, or greater difficulty in alienating a productive unit that could prove viable. Therefore, Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, which adopted urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, extended to these companies the possibility of accessing a temporary regulation file for employment under the terms of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

To the measures already adopted in said Royal Decree-Law, this Law adds others, with a triple purpose. First, to maintain the economic continuity of companies, professionals, and self-employed individuals who, prior to the entry into force of the state of alarm, had been regularly fulfilling obligations derived from an agreement, an extrajudicial payment agreement, or a homologated refinancing agreement. Regarding these debtors, the duty to request the opening of the liquidation phase is postponed when, during the validity of the agreement, the debtor learns of the impossibility of fulfilling the committed payments and obligations contracted after its approval; likewise, the modification of the agreement, the extrajudicial payment agreement, or the homologated refinancing agreement is facilitated. Regarding the latter, the presentation of a new request is also allowed without the need for a year to have passed since the presentation of the previous one.

Second, it aims to promote and incentivize the financing of companies to meet their temporary liquidity needs, qualifying as credits against the mass, in the event of liquidation, credits derived from financing commitments or the provision of guarantees by third parties, including persons especially related to the bankrupt, which appeared in the proposal of agreement or in the proposal for modification of the already approved by the judge. In this same sense, to facilitate credit and liquidity for the company, credits of persons especially linked to the debtor in bankruptcies that might be declared within the two years following the declaration of the state of alarm are qualified as ordinary.

Finally, to avoid the foreseeable increase in litigation regarding the processing of creditor bankruptcies in Commercial Courts and Courts of First Instance, a series of rules for the acceleration of the concursal process are established, such as the non-necessity of holding hearings, the confession of insolvency, the preferential processing of certain actions aimed at protecting workers' rights, maintaining the continuity of the company, and preserving the value of assets and rights, as well as the simplification of certain acts and incidents (auctions, challenge of inventory and creditor lists, or approval of liquidation plans).

Finally, within this Chapter II, two norms are established that seek to temporarily and exceptionally attenuate the consequences that the application of general rules on the dissolution of capital companies and on the declaration of bankruptcy would have in the current situation, so as to allow companies to gain time to restructure their debt, obtain liquidity, and compensate for losses, either through the recovery of their ordinary activity or through access to credit or public aid. In this way, the suspension of the duty to request the declaration of creditor bankruptcy is extended until December 31, 2020, and it is provided that for the purposes of the legal cause of dissolution due to losses, the losses of the current fiscal year shall not be counted.

Along these lines, in the repealing provision, Article 43 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, is repealed, which established the suspension of the duty to request bankruptcy during the validity of the state of alarm and provided that judges would not admit to processing requests for necessary bankruptcy until two months had passed since the end of said state.

Ultimately, the aim is to avoid declarations of bankruptcy or the opening of the liquidation phase regarding companies that may be viable under general market conditions (going concern value higher than liquidation value), with the consequent destruction of productive fabric and jobs.

Chapter III regulates organizational and technological measures aimed at continuing to address the consequences, already exposed, that the crisis has had on the Administration of Justice and extending the temporal application of the same until June 20, 2021, trusting that by then all health guarantees against COVID-19 will exist.

Thus, the holding of procedural acts preferably through the telematic presence of participants is established to guarantee the health protection of persons and minimize the risk of contagion, safeguarding the rights of all parties to the process. However, in the criminal jurisdictional order, the holding of trials preferably through telematic presence is excepted in cases of proceedings for serious crimes, or when any of the accusations involves provisional imprisonment or a prison sentence of more than two years is requested, in which the physical presence of the accused is necessary.

cve: BOE-A-2020-10923 Verifiable in https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79109 Justicia must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial headquarters.

II

This Law is structured in three chapters, containing a total of twenty-three articles, seven additional provisions, two transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and thirteen final provisions.

Chapter I regulates procedural measures to establish the preferential processing of certain proceedings in the social, civil, and administrative-judicial orders directly arising from the health crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as those affected by its consequences. Among them, the processing through the procedural modality of collective conflict, which has an urgent character, and the preferential processing of the challenge to temporary regulation files for employment referred to in Article 23 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, stand out.

Chapter II includes measures in the concursal (bankruptcy) and corporate field. The COVID-19 health crisis has constituted an additional obstacle to the viability of bankrupt companies, which may determine either the impossibility of subscribing or complying with an agreement, leading companies to liquidation, or greater difficulty in alienating a productive unit that could prove viable. Therefore, Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, which adopted urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to address COVID-19, extended to these companies the possibility of accessing a temporary regulation file for employment under the terms of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19.

To the measures already adopted in said Royal Decree-Law, this Law adds others, with a triple purpose. First, to maintain the economic continuity of companies, professionals, and self-employed individuals who, prior to the entry into force of the state of alarm, had been regularly fulfilling obligations derived from an agreement, an extrajudicial payment agreement, or a homologated refinancing agreement. Regarding these debtors, the duty to request the opening of the liquidation phase is postponed when, during the validity of the agreement, the debtor learns of the impossibility of fulfilling the committed payments and obligations contracted after its approval; likewise, the modification of the agreement, the extrajudicial payment agreement, or the homologated refinancing agreement is facilitated. Regarding the latter, the presentation of a new request is also allowed without the need for a year to have passed since the presentation of the previous one.

Second, it aims to promote and incentivize the financing of companies to meet their temporary liquidity needs, qualifying as credits against the mass, in the event of liquidation, credits derived from financing commitments or the provision of guarantees by third parties, including persons especially related to the bankrupt, which appeared in the proposal of agreement or in the proposal for modification of the already approved by the judge. In this same sense, to facilitate credit and liquidity for the company, credits of persons especially linked to the debtor in bankruptcies that might be declared within the two years following the declaration of the state of alarm are qualified as ordinary.

Finally, to avoid the foreseeable increase in litigation regarding the processing of creditor bankruptcies in Commercial Courts and Courts of First Instance, a series of rules for the acceleration of the concursal process are established, such as the non-necessity of holding hearings, the confession of insolvency, the preferential processing of certain actions aimed at protecting workers' rights, maintaining the continuity of the company, and preserving the value of assets and rights, as well as the simplification of certain acts and incidents (auctions, challenge of inventory and creditor lists, or approval of liquidation plans).

Finally, within this Chapter II, two norms are established that seek to temporarily and exceptionally attenuate the consequences that the application of general rules on the dissolution of capital companies and on the declaration of bankruptcy would have in the current situation, so as to allow companies to gain time to restructure their debt, obtain liquidity, and compensate for losses, either through the recovery of their ordinary activity or through access to credit or public aid. In this way, the suspension of the duty to request the declaration of creditor bankruptcy is extended until December 31, 2020, and it is provided that for the purposes of the legal cause of dissolution due to losses, the losses of the current fiscal year shall not be counted.

Along these lines, in the repealing provision, Article 43 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to address the economic and social impact of COVID-19, is repealed, which established the suspension of the duty to request bankruptcy during the validity of the state of alarm and provided that judges would not admit to processing requests for necessary bankruptcy until two months had passed since the end of said state.

Ultimately, the aim is to avoid declarations of bankruptcy or the opening of the liquidation phase regarding companies that may be viable under general market conditions (going concern value higher than liquidation value), with the consequent destruction of productive fabric and jobs.

Chapter III regulates organizational and technological measures aimed at continuing to address the consequences, already exposed, that the crisis has had on the Administration of Justice and extending the temporal application of the same until June 20, 2021, trusting that by then all health guarantees against COVID-19 will exist.

Thus, the holding of procedural acts preferably through the telematic presence of participants is established to guarantee the health protection of persons and minimize the risk of contagion, safeguarding the rights of all parties to the process. However, in the criminal jurisdictional order, the holding of trials preferably through telematic presence is excepted in cases of proceedings for serious crimes, or when any of the accusations involves provisional imprisonment or a prison sentence of more than two years is requested, in which the physical presence of the accused is necessary.

cve: BOE-A-2020-10923 Verifiable in https://www.boe.es

OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 250 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Sec. I. Page 79110 Justicia must prepare not only to respond to it, but to become a determining factor in the economic recovery process.

Therefore, in a joint exercise of dialogue with all involved sectors and seeking broad parliamentary consensus, this Law introduces important improvements regarding Royal Decree-Law 16/2020, adapting the measures provided therein, extending in some cases the deadlines for their application, and introducing new aspects, such as the launch of the Single Judicial Edict Board for the publication and consultation of resolutions and communications when established by law.

Likewise, during the time that passes until we exceed this new normality and have effective measures against COVID-19, it is essential to continue adopting necessary organizational and technological measures to avoid contagion situations. The Administration of Justice, the personnel serving in it, the professionals, and even citizens, have adapted quickly to the existing technological instruments, with their provision notably expanded and their use optimized during the pandemic. This health crisis has made us more aware of the need to adapt our Justice to the digital reality, as a means to favor proximity, agility, and sustainability of the public service, but also as a means for health protection.

Therefore, this Law includes organizational measures to guarantee safety distance in the development of public hearings and trials, safeguarding in certain cases the physical presence of the investigated or accused in the criminal field or medical-forensic examinations, and promotes measures to incorporate new technologies into procedural actions and, in general, into the relations of citizens with the Administration of Justice, which avoid, as much as possible, excessive concentrations in judicial