You are the administrator of a company that regularly extends credit. You document those receivables through promissory notes, invoices, and contracts.
One of your clients has failed to pay you for several months, and one day you see in Mexico’s Federal Official Gazette (DOF) that it has initiated commercial insolvency proceedings.
From that moment on, time starts running against you, often without many of your client’s creditors even realizing it.
On May 14, the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico (the Court) upheld the constitutionality of Article 122 of the Commercial Insolvency Law when resolving Amparo en Revisión 16/2026.
That provision establishes deadlines for creditors of a debtor declared in insolvency proceedings to request recognition of their claims. According to the Court, those deadlines are fixed, reasonable, and do not admit any exceptions.
If you fail to request recognition of your claim within the timeframes established in that article, you will not be able to argue that the provision is unconstitutional in order to obtain recognition of your claim.
One of the primary objectives of insolvency proceedings is the preservation of the company. For that reason, creditors cannot automatically enforce their claims. Before doing so, they must obtain recognition as allowed creditors by the insolvency court.
Through that recognition, the existence of your claim, as well as its amount and payment priority, will be validated.
Article 122 grants you three opportunities to request such recognition: within twenty calendar days following the publication of the judgment in the DOF; within the five-day period to object to the preliminary list of claims prepared by the conciliator; and within the nine-day period to file an appeal against the judgment on recognition, ranking, and priority of claims.
Conversely, if a creditor does not request recognition within the statutory deadlines, even if they hold invoices, promissory notes, or contracts, they will not be able to participate in the distribution of the debtor’s estate in bankruptcy.
This criterion arises from a case in which a creditor failed to timely request formal recognition before the court. When challenging the constitutionality of Article 122, the Court concluded that the deadlines do not restrict access to justice, as they provide the creditor with three distinct opportunities to appear in the proceeding.
The Court also held that the existence of prior litigation against the debtor does not suspend the creditor’s obligation to appear in the insolvency proceeding.
However, the fact that you appear before other creditors in the proceeding does not mean you will have priority in payment. Priority is determined by law.
Secured credits with pledges and mortgages that have been duly created will be paid in preference to other creditors. For this to apply, the relevant agreements or instruments must comply with all legal formalities and be properly registered with the Public Registry of Real Estate Property or in the Single Registry of Personal Property Security, as applicable.
Failure to comply with any required formality for the valid creation and registration of secured credits will result in the loss of that priority status.
Unsecured credits (invoices, promissory notes, contracts, and purchase orders) are classified as common claims and are paid last, that is, after preferred labor claims; duly perfected and registered secured credits (mortgages and pledges); and tax or ordinary claims.
What steps should you take if you suspect your client may face financial distress?
A company does not enter commercial insolvency proceedings overnight. It typically shows clear warning signs of impending liquidity issues: payment delays, delivery delays, requests to renegotiate commercial terms, or credit restrictions imposed by other suppliers. When these signs appear, that is the moment to review how your receivables are documented, not when the judgment is published in the DOF.
Each receivable should be properly documented in writing, regardless of whether it is reflected in the debtor’s accounting records, since the latter is beyond your control.
Where the nature of the credit justifies it, you should consider requesting additional collateral and ensure that such security interests are properly created and registered.
There may be creditors whose secured claims were registered before yours and therefore have higher payment priority. However, your secured credits, if properly structured as pledges or mortgages, will still be paid before unsecured claims. That alone represents a significant advantage.
A designated person within your organization should continuously monitor the Official Gazette, particularly when a key client shows signs of insolvency. The twenty-day period begins to run from the date of publication of the judgment, not from when you become aware of it.
Many companies discover their exposure in their receivables portfolio only after losses have materialized. If you want to assess whether your current operations carry risks that are not yet visible, I can provide a written diagnostic within seven business days, with a defined scope and fixed fee. Contact me at acervantes@ceglegal.com.