Are you currently working with your attorney or accountant to form a new business entity or make other important business filings in Delaware in the near future? Are you closing a merger or acquisition involving Delaware business entities over the next week or two? If so, be advised that the Delaware Secretary of State's office will replace its current Delaware Corporation Information System (DCIS) with a new computer system during the upcoming Labor Day weekend.
As part of this upgrade process, the DCIS will be unavailable for a total of 4 days beginning on Thursday, September 3, 2015, at 4:30 p.m. EST. All web services, including corporate and UCC filings, document retrievals, and business searches, will be unavailable during this 4 day period. All priority submissions must be received by the state by 12:00 p.m. EST on September 3rd.
The Delaware Secretary of State's office is treating the outage as an "extraordinary event" for corporate filings, meaning that documents received during this period will be not be processed until the office reopens on September 8th but will retain the original filing date. However, be aware that this "extraordinary event" treatment will not apply to UCC filings. The state will offer "emergency filing procedures" for a fee of $7,500, but even with this extra fee, you can expect delays processing these requests.
Here at Fox, we strongly encourage you to adjust any closings or other deadlines that may be affected by this system upgrade accordingly. If you have UCC filings that are scheduled to lapse during the period beginning on September 3rd and ending on September 7th, you should continue them prior to the outage in order to ensure that your lien positions remain in place.
For more information about this upgrade, please visit the Delaware Division of Corporations website.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
