Courts professions and regulation
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, ...
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 ...
Deregistered companies – UK reforms and some Australian comparisons
The UK Insolvency Service is to be given powers to investigate directors of companies that have been dissolved, or in ...
An insolvency safe harbour based on culture and tradition?
For years Australia had no ‘safe harbour’ protection for directors from insolvent trading. In 2017, one was introduced, then three ...
World Bank insolvency principles – how does Australia compare?
The World Bank has released its updated Principles for Effective Insolvency and Creditor/Debtor Regimes (the Principles), emphasising the needs of ...
The UK’s Technical Guidance for Official Receivers – a published resource for Australian practitioners and regulators
The Insolvency Service in the UK has issued an updated version of its Technical guidance for Official Receivers[1] in administering ...
