Law reform
“Shock horror – insolvent people don’t have many assets”
While we wait for the useful annual statistics from AFSA as to dividend returns in bankruptcies in 2022-2023,* an insolvency ...
Bankruptcy Act restructure – when statements of affairs are accepted
AFSA advises that the Bankruptcy Amendment (Discharge from Bankruptcy) Act 2023 (Cth), came into force on Thursday 23 November 2023. ...
Australia on a slide? [continued]
While I need to update my February 2022 comments below, and note for example that the government has now given ...
Slow pace of litigation and incomprehensible laws
Former Federal Court judge Steven Rares is reported in the AFR[1] as having made several comments about the justice system ...
Defining bankruptcy
The Bankruptcy Amendment (Discharge from Bankruptcy) Bill 2023 has been introduced into parliament. It has presumably been drafted by the ...
Insolvent trading in context
Insolvent trading is one of the many items for review recommended by the Parliamentary Joint Committee report on Corporate Insolvency. ...
Bankruptcy by mistake – who pays?
What started out as a minor dispute over plumbing work for $2,880 descended into the plumber obtaining a judgment for ...
Regulation of firms offering insolvency services
Further to my earlier post on insolvency practitioner (IP) regulation in the UK, and contrary to expectations,[1] the UK government ...
Insolvent Trading and Minimal Returns to Creditors in Liquidations
This is a brief response to a well-researched and thoughtful article by Associate Professor Mark Wellard – Insolvent Trading: Director ...
Some insolvency law reform ideas from Scotland and New Zealand
“ … the state is, effectively, paying insolvency practitioners to end the life of small companies … a sub-optimal solution ...
The cross-border regulation of insolvency practitioners – insights from INSOL Tokyo
I was invited to present at the INSOL International Academic Colloquium on 12 September 2023 in Tokyo on the panel ...
Public interest supports time extension for insolvency recovery action
Litigation claims brought by insolvency practitioners (IPs) are not like the usual commercial claims on behalf of a commercial, or ...
ASIC v Jones [GD Pork] – insolvency practitioner independence and pre-insolvency advice
A court decision concerning insolvency practitioner independence and pre-insolvency advice usefully raises issues recommended for law reform review by the ...
The government halts its Modernising Business Registers Program after an independent review
The federal government has announced it will stop its Modernising Business Registers (MBR) program following independent review findings that the ...
NZ Supreme Court confirms Mainzeal directors’ liabilities for over NZ$39 million
The Supreme Court of New Zealand has dismissed directors’ appeals from a finding that they must pay over NZ$6 million ...
PJC Recommendation – Pre-Insolvency Advisers – Part 1: summary
The full article on this topic of 1800 words, for those interested, looks that the PJC Report recommendations about “untrustworthy ...
PJC recommendation – pre-insolvency advisers – Part 1
The PJC Report on Corporate Insolvency 2023 has responded to concerns expressed about “untrustworthy pre-insolvency advisers”, those that are said ...
Sunlight on pre-insolvency advisers
Updated 14.8.23: While pondering the 2023 Parliamentary Joint Committee’s recommendations about pre-insolvency advisers, I am reminded to go back to ...
UK personal insolvency reforms – summary of responses and next steps
In my comments of July 2023 following, I reviewed the 2022 call for evidence in the UK on reform of ...
Businesses are rarely neatly arranged when insolvency strikes
While the government is thinking about the various recommendations of the PJC Report[1] about improving our current corporate insolvency laws, ...
Liquidator remuneration is “a perfect example of the many competing interests that arise in a liquidation” …
and is “indicative of broader systemic factors within the insolvency system itself …”. The recent PJC Report on corporate insolvency ...
What does our insolvency system produce? [re-issued July 2023]
31 March 2022 Many of us who call for a major review of our insolvency laws must know that the ...
Looking more at deregistered companies
“Enforcement agencies have long been aware of the role that the abandonment [deregistration] of companies plays in illegal phoenix activity. ...
Thoughts on the PJC’s Corporate Insolvency Report
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (‘PJC’) handed down its Report into Corporate Insolvency in Australia on ...
