Case and statute law
Liquidator’s fees were too low
Adverse findings have been made against a liquidator by a disciplinary committee, one being that he accepted fees that were ...
Cross-border insolvency – the Canberra session
I was pleased to have been involved with others in giving a presentation on UN Day 24 October 2019 to ...
Insolvency developments in the 2018-19 annual reports – ASIC, AFSA, AGD and ATO
Annual reports nowadays are more marketing publications as to various achievements of the relevant agencies and their compliance with statutory ...
Fair Entitlements Guarantee – powers to demand information
The Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business’ Annual Report 2018-2019 provides some information about the Fair Entitlements Guarantee ...
A bankrupt and ‘one rooster, one peacock, three ducks, and 22 chickens …’
A person’s bankruptcy can arise from a host of circumstances, disputes with neighbours and non-compliance with local council requirements being ...
Do old emails ever die?
A respondent car hire company being sued by the ACCC for unconscionable conduct has claimed that what the ACCC alleges ...
A trustee’s interest in a bankrupt’s interest in trust property – Boensch v Pascoe
A seven member bench of the High Court was convened for the hearing in Boensch v Pascoe on 11 October ...
The evolution of bankruptcy and insolvency laws and the case of the deed of company arrangement
This is a thoughtful and instructive article on the process of the historical development of the bankruptcy and insolvency laws ...
‘A good idea’ – assignment of a liquidator’s recovery rights
A liquidator has transferred, with court approval, potential recovery claims to the ATO, as the major and only creditor in ...
Use of referees in insolvency litigation
Justice Michael Lee of the Federal Court of Australia has called for a more proactive response from liquidators and trustees ...
ASIC’s period of external scrutiny
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is properly subject to parliamentary oversight, apart from the on-going scrutiny it receives from ...
Climate change and the law
Here are details of two recent events on climate change and the law, followed by details of a range of ...
Regulation of Australian insolvency practitioners – UK and NZ compared
I am pleased to be soon presenting to various groups on the regulation of Australian insolvency practitioners, with some comparisons ...
A liquidator found liable for breach of confidence and invasion of privacy
“To say there is bad blood between David Henderson and Robert Walker is an understatement. From the time Robert Walker ...
A legal ‘affront’ – the Chorley exception – has gone
In raising the fundamental equality of all before the law in the context of a lawyer’s costs in their own ...
Accountants’ insolvency code updated
A new standard for insolvency practitioners – APES 330 – has just been issued written in APESB’s unique style and ...
A policy question with insolvency preferences
Is the essence of a preference payment in insolvency that the pool of the debtor’s assets are lessened by the ...
Flying low – an airline’s ‘extraordinary’ response to a $19m penalty
A major international airline turned up to court to seek a stay of a A$19m penalty with evidence so inadequate ...
Choosing courts in cross-border insolvency applications
As a federation, Australia has a mix of state and territory and federal courts, each with their own jurisdictions. Jurisdiction ...
Cafés and restaurants – at a tipping point, in 2018, and now?
In light of current (July 2019) reports about restaurants’ tax [non] compliance, my article of a year ago, 15 July ...
“Shortcomings of the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (just some)”
Professor Martin Davies of Tulane Maritime Law Center recently offered a critique of the Model Law on Cross Border Insolvency ...
How to become an insolvency practitioner in Australia
The ‘new’ process of selecting by interview who should be an insolvency practitioner (IP) was the subject of a presentation ...
Bankrupt trustees coming before the High Court
While the focus of the High Court’s trust law decision in Carter Holt[1] is in the context of corporate insolvency, ...
Delayed payment of a receiver’s bill – by 400 days?
Delayed payment of bills is said to be a significant problem facing small to medium enterprises in particular, with ‘cash ...
