Cross-border and international
Service of insolvency documents by email
With law well into the process of change to accommodate electronic communications and dealings, following COVID-19 in particular, we should ...
Is bankruptcy a life and death issue?
I was startled to be reminded of a regular question in the well-known US General Social Survey whether contemplating or ...
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 ...
Peak indebtedness and other insolvency law views from New Zealand
The decision of the Full Federal Court in Badenoch Integrated Logging v Bryant[1] agreeing with New Zealand’s view about the ...
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 ...
Australia’s limited insolvency reforms for small business
With our international trading partners recently meeting to examine ways to handle micro to small enterprise (MSE) insolvency impacted by ...
Bankruptcy trustee independence
The Australian personal insolvency regulator and government trustee, AFSA, has produced a useful report – Practitioner Independence in the Personal ...
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 ...
Australian lawyers attending UNCITRAL’s Working Group V on MSME insolvency – May 2021
UNCITRAL’s Working Group V – Insolvency is reconvening this week 4-7 May 2021, following its last meeting in December 2020. ...
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 ...
Penalties and bankruptcy
A person in breach of consumer protection laws concerning the hire of 4 wheel drive vehicles has been ordered to ...
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 ...
Litigation representatives and bankruptcy
A daughter’s evidence that her mother’s litigation and bankruptcy proceedings had become her mother’s “entire life” with her house “full ...
NSW registered clubs (law) in trouble, again
What are described as the “arbitrary powers of the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA)” are the subject of ...
Virgin Airlines – special leave to appeal granted by the Australian High Court on a matter of the interpretation of the Cape Town Convention
Further to my report of 4 April 2021 below, the High Court of Australia has granted special leave to appeal ...
The new Attorney-General and business bankruptcies
As the new Attorney-General, Senator Michaelia Cash[1] will find her portfolio encompasses the current law reform debate about whether and ...
Move bankruptcy from the Attorney-General to Treasury?
In light of the Attorney-General’s need to transfer some matters of his responsibility, a worthy area to transfer is the ...
Neither a borrower nor a lender be – at least to a friend or a relative …
A guarantee given by a mother to a friend of her son for the son’s business debts ended up in ...
Appeals from sequestration orders made by registrars – continued
An appeal from a sequestration order made by a registrar in 2016 is being heard, in 2021. In bankruptcy litigation ...
Review of the English Insolvency Rules 2016
The 2016 insolvency rules of England and Wales are being reviewed, in accord with a statutory requirement to do so ...
‘The Vanishing Criminal – Causes of Decline in Australia’s Crime Rate’ – a book review
This is a very interesting and useful book, trying to explain why Australia’s crime rate has fallen in many areas, ...
Double suspension as a liquidator and as a trustee
An experienced Australian insolvency practitioner (IP) has had his right to practise as a liquidator suspended by a Court for ...
Apprehensions of the fair-minded lay observer – a law reform review of judicial impartiality
The Australian Law Reform Commission has been asked to undertake a review of the laws relating to impartiality and bias ...
Should a person be subject to restrictions after an insolvency?
The default period of restriction on a person following their personal insolvency is under consideration in Australia. It prompts the ...