I investigate how the effectiveness of the judicial system impacts corporate financing policy through the channel of covenant violations across the world. Financial covenant violations trigger creditors to use their contractual acceleration and termination rights to increase interest rates or halt any further supply of credit. Results show that the presence of a strong judicial system in a country, as a proxy for creditor rights enforcement, alleviates the observed decline in net debt issuing activity in the year following a financial covenant violation. In addition, the effect of strong judicial effectiveness is also observable for a number of financial and investment policy variables, including asset growth, capital expenditures and shareholder payouts, implying that strong enforcement reduces financial and investment conservatism following a violation and improves performance.