Courts professions and regulation
UK insolvency practitioners – “evidence of intimidation, deception, dishonesty and even misappropriation of assets”?
A very critical report on the insolvency profession in the UK – Resolving-Insolvency-APPG-on-Fair-Business-Banking-and-Humphries-Kerstetter.pdf (appgbanking.org.uk) has come from the All Party …
Reinventing the Australian Insolvency System
At a seminar on 4 August 2021, Jason Harris and I presented our ideas on reform of the insolvency system …
Judicial impartiality report awaits the High Court decision in Charisteas – more dancing on pinheads
Following a recent Australian Law Reform Commission seminar – Impartiality from both sides of the Bench | ALRC – held …
Objections to a bankrupt’s 3 year discharge in Australia – mixed messages and unfair law
Apart from Australian law imposing a long period for a person to be subject to the restrictions and stigma of …
You call that a lockdown? Australia’s bankruptcy laws
If those in small business think the lockdowns are tough, for weeks or even months at a time, the government …
ASIC’s corporate plan, and the 27 August hearing before the PJC
With ASIC having appeared before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services on 27 August 2021, ASIC’s Corporate …
Review of Australia’s safe harbour protection from insolvent trading – remember s 588HA [updated]
The federal government has finally made arrangements to have Australia’s “safe harbour” from insolvent trading law reviewed – s 588GA, …
Fees of insolvency practitioners and lawyers
After Jason Harris and I wrote about Justice Michael Lee’s comments on the high charge out rates of insolvency practitioners, …
What do creditors get from ‘successful’ recovery actions by insolvency practitioners?
A Judge has ordered that Trustees in bankruptcy file “evidence that identifies the benefits the creditors of the bankrupt estate …
Cleaning up after failed oil and mining operations – new New Zealand laws, and other ideas
The cost of environmental clean-up of mining and other resource projects where the company has gone into liquidation is a …
The contributions of bankruptcy trustees to AFSA’s regulation of criminal conduct
Bankruptcy trustees, and liquidators, and creditors in insolvencies, contribute much to the government, in effect for free. In a recent …
Bankruptcy – transfer of files from the Official Receiver to private registered trustees, with 20% to women
Australia’s AFSA has announced that since 29 July 2021, it has changed the way it allocates bankrupt estates to bankruptcy …
The high cost of ASIC’s regulation of liquidators, in a deregulatory environment
The proposed annual ASIC ‘industry levies’ imposed on liquidators in Australia, to fund the cost of their regulation, prompts this …
Assigning bankruptcy claims to a former trustee
A 5 day bankruptcy hearing was cancelled in March 2021, in relation to matters occurring in 2012, being challenged in …
Insolvency practitioner charge-out rates – the cost of carrying the State
In making a winding up order against Forum Finance,[1] Justice Michael Lee made this comment about the hourly fees of …
The insolvency rule in ex parte James – another in a series of cases ‘dancing on pinheads’
A trustee in bankruptcy in England rejected a £5.7m proof of debt lodged by the revenue authority [HMRC][1] on what …
Australian small business insolvency law – a review
Several stars aligning at the end of 2020-2021 prompt this review of where Australia is at in the area of …
Regulatory penalties
Sanctions imposed by courts for breaches of competition or regulatory laws have to tread a line between being so severe …
Australian High Court – special leave sought in bankruptcy Ponzi case – 139ZQ
An application for special leave to appeal to the High Court[1] has been made in a bankruptcy matter involving a …
Insolvency services for sale
There seem to be some rather unhappy insolvency practitioners at the moment bemoaning the low levels of insolvencies – yes, …
Trustee “entirely blameless” in his dealings with a mentally infirm bankrupt
While there is now greater training available in dealing with those suffering mental illness for professionals working in debt counselling …
Licensing of insolvency practitioners – decision making principles from New Zealand [updated post 13 June 2021]
Mr Damien Grant, the New Zealand insolvency practitioner who successfully challenged RITANZ’s decision to deny him the right to practice …
Employees’ loss of FEG redundancy payments through their misguided “acts of decency and loyalty” to assist
The AAT has described its decision confirming a lack of government assistance under fair entitlements guarantee (FEG) for “two dedicated, …
Costs against ASIC in its [“illegal phoenix activity”] claim against a liquidator
ASIC has been unsuccessful in resisting a costs order against it in its “illegal phoenix activity” proceedings against a liquidator …
