Demands by liquidators – trying their luck, or “no ifs, buts or maybes”?
If anyone receives a letter from a liquidator of a company requesting, or demanding, important information, or payment of a sum owing, the recipient should
10/07/2018
The perils of loud letters of demand
A creditor being paid its debt following a letter of demand can be a Pyrrhic victory, if the debtor ends up in insolvency and the
09/07/2018
The Internationalisation of Directors’ Duties – Melbourne seminar – 30 July 2018
Directors of companies that trade overseas, and directors of subsidiaries of overseas companies, may have duties imposed upon them by foreign law and be subject
09/07/2018
Fallout from a shipping trillision – Part 2
In Part 1 of this case report, the outcome of a three ship collision – a trillision – causing the total loss of a cargo
07/07/2018
Structural weaknesses in the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency?
Cross-border insolvency law necessarily tries to ensure that insolvency proceedings about a debtor in different jurisdictions are co-ordinated and fully disclosed to the court. The
05/07/2018
Family law and bankruptcy – ‘creditors should be expected in these times to be aware’…
The Civil Law and Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 is before parliament, one purpose of its many amendments being both to fill a gap in
04/07/2018
ASIC’s annual ‘Dashboard’ report
With the 2018 financial year over, government agencies need to prepare their annual reports, which, commonly, are becoming increasingly opaque. But two interesting reports will
02/07/2018
ASIC’s fees – how high and counter-productive
The article in the Australian newspaper of 2 July 2018, although typically low-brow in its heading – how ASIC gouges fees for business – gives
02/07/2018
Litigation funding of liquidators – the ALRC inquiry
The current law reform inquiry into class actions and their funding may also need to look at the funding of another type of collective litigation
02/07/2018
NZ insolvency practitioner co-regulation – new law proposed
In a forthcoming article, I examine an aspect of Australia’s new regime for the (over) regulation of insolvency practitioners, which involves an unsatisfactory system of
29/06/2018
Australia’s insolvency regime (in administration) – ideas for its restructure
In my preparation for a panel discussion at the major AIIP Insolvency Conference in Canberra on the future of insolvency, my conclusion is that our
27/06/2018
ASIC “pointing to scalps and easy wins … might satisfy a shallow media day” but …
In the appearance of ASIC before the House Economics Committee today, 22 June, inquiring into ASIC’s 2016-2017 annual report, Mr Trevor Evans questioned ASIC about
22/06/2018
The exploitation of cleaners
The Senate Education and Employment References Committee is to conduct an inquiry into the exploitation of general and specialist cleaners working in retail chains for
22/06/2018
Review of ASIC’s Annual Report 2016-2017 – 22 June 2018
The House Standing Committee on Economics is conducting an inquiry into ASIC’s 2017 annual report, this Friday 22 June, in Canberra. An inquiry report on
17/06/2018
The government is really serious this time – law reform protecting employee entitlements
Following the government’s public consultation process on the Reforms to address corporate misuse of the Fair Entitlements scheme consultation paper in 2017, an exposure draft
12/06/2018
Registration of a liquidator, on conditions – Mansfield
The AAT has confirmed that a corporate insolvency practitioner’s ‘exposure’ to bankruptcy as being one criterion required to be met for liquidator registration, means what
08/06/2018
No responsibility for the folly of her purchase …’They knew I couldn’t afford it’.
Craig Emerson has pointed out that, despite the stories coming from the Banking Royal Commission, ‘not every poor decision of a customer is the bank’s
08/06/2018
Bankruptcy by the hour
The ‘median’ hourly rates for trustees in bankruptcy are from $470 to $600, according to the Australian Financial Security Authority, with outlier rates potentially well
07/06/2018
Questions of advantage and efficiency in assessing insolvency practitioner independence
In a further indication of the changing views of the judiciary in relation to the need for the independence of insolvency practitioners, the Federal Court
06/06/2018
Review of insolvency practitioner regulation
A review of aspects of the disciplinary process for insolvency practitioners that was introduced by the Insolvency Law Reform Act 2016 is being conducted. That
02/06/2018
The tax stories – history regurgitates
Australia’s new 2017 insolvency laws – described by one respected academic as the worst insolvency reforms he has seen in 30 years, and by another,
31/05/2018
Access by victims of crime to the perpetrator’s superannuation
Just as moneys in a bankrupt’s superannuation fund can in certain cases be used to pay their creditors, under the Bankruptcy Act, so too would
28/05/2018
Beautifully written analysis of a single word in the English language
Beautifully written judicial analysis of language from Justice Jonathan Beach in ASIC v Westpac (No 2) [2018] FCA 751 [references added]. Fifth, let me now
26/05/2018
Ponzi investigations and their cost
Free liquidator investigations into failed Ponzi schemes are raised as an idea in a New Zealand government discussion paper on proposals to deal with the
26/05/2018
