Cross-border and international

Electronic delivery of documents in bankruptcy and liquidation – continued

In my earlier comments trying to work out why we now have unharmonized drafting approaches and rules for electronic service ...

Corporate Collective Investment Vehicles

The government is consulting on a Bill in line with what it says is its commitment “to establishing a commercially viable ...

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 ...

Australian personal insolvency and small business reform in the wake of Covid

An overseas publisher has asked me to give an update on the latest in small business bankruptcy law in Australia, ...

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 ...

Australia’s review of its insolvency safe harbour – more than a few issues to consider, but in the end, about not much

The terms of reference and what is called a ‘discussion paper’[1] for this review under s 588HA have been released, ...

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 ...

Winding up Forum Finance

In ordering that liquidators be appointed to Forum Finance Pty Ltd on 9 July 2021, the Federal Court explained the ...

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 ...

Employees’ redundancy rights on the insolvency of their employer

There are now a number of decisions from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal reviewing decisions of the Fair Entitlements Guarantee where ...

Cross-border insolvency protection of a ship on its way to Australia

An Italian shipping company – Michele Bottiglieri Armatore SpA – which is subject to Italian restructuring protection, a concordato preventivo ...

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 ...