Cross-border and international
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 ...
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 ...
Why do we have preference recoveries in insolvency?
In finding that the ‘peak indebtedness rule’ did not in fact exist, the Full Federal Court[1] in Badenoch v Bryant ...
Electronic delivery of documents in insolvency law
Some belated concern has been raised about the potential for new corporate insolvency law allowing a winding up demand to ...
Insolvent trading convictions set aside on mental health grounds
Following convictions and imprisonment for insolvent trading arising from the 2009 collapse of Kleenmaid, its founder, Andrew Young, has succeeded ...
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 ...
Why has the Australian government not yet decided on any further insolvency law changes for small business?
Australia MSE insolvency reform process seems to have halted, perhaps because of a poor reception to its January 2021 small ...
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, ...