Courts professions and regulation
Diversity beyond gender in insolvency practice
The law was changed in 2021 to allow greater flexibility for a selection committee to allow a person to be ...
Insolvency regulation – of the practitioners, and the regulators?
Revised 17.7.26 Insolvency practitioner regulation has had its annual review in the UK under a co-regulatory regime that Australia thought ...
Firm regulation of insolvency practitioners
Insolvency practitioners (IPs) are regulated as individuals, not through their firm. In fact, the practitioner’s independence within the firm is ...
Legislative evidence of a barrier to business dynamism – s 588GAAC?
There must be some irony in the government asking the Productivity Commission, on the one hand, to inquire into “barriers ...
Anti-money laundering guidance for insolvency practitioners …
How designated services apply to insolvency practitioners | AUSTRAC This guidance from AUSTRAC explains how Anti-Money Laundering obligations under the ...
Anti-money laundering and insolvency – who pays?
I was closely involved with the introduction of the anti-money laundering legislation back in 2008 that included the first tranche ...
Are costs “approaching $20,000” high in resolving a bankruptcy filing oversight?
In a creditor’s petition for a sequestration order, a consent to act of a private registered trustee had been signed ...
Corporate mergers, acquisitions etc and restructuring – need to notify ACCC
ARITA, TMA [1] and others in the business restructuring field have protested about the impact of the new merger laws ...
Over $56 million in creditor claims; directors out for 5 years
An ASIC media release reports that “the husband-and-wife directors behind a group of collapsed agriculture businesses linked to a NSW ...
Liquidator’s 5 year suspension
In July 2023, I reported the cancellation of a liquidator’s registration by a disciplinary committee in relation to unauthorised drawings ...
Removal of a liquidator and referral to ASIC
A very long running claim by a liquidator for insolvent trading and other insolvency-based claims was defended on the basis ...
Personal business liabilities and the World Bank’s B-Ready review of our insolvency laws
The World Bank’s B-Ready review process will be applied this year, 2026, to Australia’s business laws, including “business insolvency”, according ...
AFSA and Mr Leroy, and now Mr King
23 December 2025 The story below that Mr Leroy has been found is now added to by the Inspector-General in ...
How were moneys stolen by a liquidator and a trustee?
Back in 2010 the criminal misconduct of a liquidator led to a Senate inquiry and a recommendation for a new ...
Ways to deregister a company
While ASIC reports its success in having a former company director convicted for trying to deregister his building company without ...
ASIC’s 60 liquidators to wind up how many abandoned companies?
ASIC reports that it has appointed 60 suitably qualified and experienced liquidators to its Abandoned Company Liquidator Panel, effective from ...
Jailing for criminal bankruptcy conduct – in 2011
Both AFSA and the Australian Federal Police have issued ‘media releases’ about the sentencing of a lawyer to jail for ...
A judge’s decision might be just “wrong” – no need to add “vituperative epithets”
In a recent patents law case, concerning veterinary pharmaceuticals, and processes for determining the novelty of a process the subject ...
Insolvency practitioner regulation – 20++ adjournments later
The Paul Leroy former bankruptcy trustee “millions of dollars in missing funds” matter in the Federal Court continues, and continues, ...
Bankruptcy law prevails …
Some time ago, in what may have been a marketing or plain English push, the bankruptcy regulator, AFSA, determined that, ...
Gambling or hazardous speculations prior to bankruptcy
AFSA is seeking feedback on draft guidance concerning the offence of gambling or hazardous speculations prior to bankruptcy, under s ...
Former liquidator – $2.5m – 4/2 years jail
The long awaited, and long, sentencing decision of 13 December 2024 in respect of former liquidator Peter Amos has now ...
$93m? and 300 creditors? over 20 years? Director disqualified
ASIC has disqualified a director from managing corporations for 5 years in relation to companies trading for over 20 years ...
Medium neutral citations of cases – a welcome change
I once caused some consternation at a law librarians’ conference by predicting that the authorised law reports would fade away ...