The respective complexities of corporate and personal insolvency
A question on notice of 1 March 2023 was asked by the chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporate Insolvency in relation to what
15/05/2023
Anti-money laundering laws to be improved, including registers of beneficial owners
The 2023 budget has allocated funds for action on Anti‐Money Laundering and Counter‐Terrorism Financing (AML) laws, including a beneficial ownership register to “record who ultimately
11/05/2023
World Bank’s B-Ready Report on country business systems, including on the efficiency of corporate insolvency systems
This explains the World Bank’s new Business Ready initiative, which will report on the business systems of up to 180 country economies including their insolvency
05/05/2023
Insolvency practitioner independence – how commercial is the fair-minded observer?
A pending WA appeal decision may address the issue of the extent to which commercial considerations surrounding the appointment of insolvency practitioners can be relevant
04/05/2023
Personal insolvency statistics – March 2023 – beginnings of an increase?
The latest personal insolvency statistics released by AFSA for March 2023 show an increase in number over February but still well below past figures. New
28/04/2023
Insolvency law reform in Australia – three underlying concerns
With over 70 submissions from a wide variety of stakeholders and numerous answers to questions on notice, the parliamentary joint committee[1] inquiry into corporate insolvency
06/04/2023
Personal insolvency numbers – an increase or a decrease?
While AFSA reports that personal insolvencies increased in number in February 2023, to 796, from 772 in January, this was hardly significant – in fact,
05/04/2023
Now we have three Part 5.3B restructuring practitioners
One more person has been appointed as a restructuring practitioner to conduct administrations under Part 5.3B of the Corporations Act bringing the total to three
01/04/2023
ASIC’s insolvency law enforcement role
The Senate Economics References Committee is loading up submissions received on its reference into ASIC’s capacity and capability to “undertake proportionate investigation and enforcement action
27/03/2023
Attorney-General’s Roundtable on Personal Insolvency
A summary of priority issues discussed at the Attorney-General’s personal insolvency law reform roundtable held on 2 March 2023 has been released by the Attorney-General’s
23/03/2023
Liquidator discipline outcome – reasons unknown
A discipline committee has cancelled the registration of a liquidator but declined to publish its reasons for doing so. ASIC has advised by media release
17/03/2023
Bankrupt succeeds in gaining access to trustees’ notice to produce
A bankrupt has successfully obtained a copy of a s 77A notice to produce served by his trustees on the police which resulted in 600,000
21/02/2023
Breach of an undertaking not to enter insolvency, an undertaking that was “not worth the paper it was written on”
In a penalty judgment against GetSwift, Justice Michael Lee had some comment to make about GetSwift’s entry into voluntary liquidation in 2022 despite undertakings earlier
17/02/2023
Peak indebtedness and preferences – an Australian authority now “offering a considered analysis of the rule”
The High Court of Australia has found that the peak indebtedness rule has no place in Australian law in the calculation of the amount claimable
08/02/2023
Personal insolvency reform in Australia
The government is convening a “national roundtable with key stakeholders” on 2 March 2023 in relation to personal insolvency law under the Bankruptcy Act. This
03/02/2023
DOCAs – should ‘not much of a return to creditors but better than the liquidation alternative’ be enough?
Issued June 2021, re-issued January 2023 The WA Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to deeds of company arrangement (DOCAs) that offered ‘not much of
22/01/2023
How low can we go – funding the insolvencies of assetless estates
Obvious as it is to say, insolvency involves limited or no money, and how to fund its existence as a legal regime is an issue
20/01/2023
ASIC’s report on small business corporate restructurings under Part 5.3B
I am dubious about many of the outcomes touted for insolvency “restructurings”, or at least without the negative outcomes reported as well, to put the
17/01/2023
Bankruptcy data 2021-2022 – rates of return, fees etc
At the end of 2022, AFSA quietly released detailed data on the operation of the personal insolvency system in 2021-2022. Some extracted figures and comments
07/01/2023
Business bankruptcies – 6,000 to 9,000 each year
Given that ‘small business’ itself is defined in various ways, none of which is based on the legal structure of the business, it may not
04/01/2023
Failing fast … five hundred and something days to wrap up a business?
At the PJC inquiry into corporate insolvency, in the context of the 2015 Productivity Commission (PC) Report on Business Entries and Exits, the point was
04/01/2023
Parliamentary insolvency inquiry – the business model of insolvency firms
Some fundamental issues about the operation of insolvency law and practice are being raised in the joint parliamentary committee inquiry into corporate insolvency,[1] more so
02/01/2023
Relationships of a liquidator and conflicts of interest
A general purpose liquidator has been found to have had a conflict of interest because a former legal adviser to several of the companies in
30/12/2022
Repair and maintenance
The operating system of Murrays Legal is undergoing repair and maintenance, to address a slow-down in its usual thoughtful articles appearing in recent times. Readers
20/12/2022