Guardianship and bankruptcy – NSW law reform report misses the point?
A father who suffered a debilitating stroke left his son with the legal difficulty, in a quagmire of state and federal laws, of trying to
20/08/2018
UK’s “small proportion of bankruptcies where there has been misconduct leading up to the individual’s insolvency”
With the Australian parliament about to decide on the reduction of the period of bankruptcy from three years to one, there is some adverse reaction
19/08/2018
Directors’ identities, their home addresses, and more
With Australia having just closed its consultation on allowing company directors to have a director identity number (DIN), it is useful to see the broader
18/08/2018
Gift card reform – “a GIFT, not an investment”? or “there should be NO expiry EVER”?
Federal Treasury has closed its public consultation on an exposure draft of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Gift Cards) Bill 2018 and explanatory materials. Gift
17/08/2018
Bankruptcy Bills to become Law?
The draft legislation program for the Senate for next week commencing Monday 20 August 2018 lists, among other Bills, the Bankruptcy Amendment (Enterprise Incentives) Bill
17/08/2018
Amerind – special leave granted
The story goes that a Supreme or Federal Court that convenes a larger bench than usual to hear a matter of importance is like a
17/08/2018
One year bankruptcy and other changes – updated and corrected
[commentary of 10 August 2018 corrected and updated as at 14 August 2018]. With parliament having resumed on Monday 13 August, we may see the
14/08/2018
Academy of Law – access to justice, free speech on campus, science v law
The second public debate held by the Australian Academy of Law in its series on Access to Justice was held on 26 July 2018. Meanwhile,
12/08/2018
Judicial inconsistency ‘should not be repeated’
The need for judicial consistency, between different appellate courts, was recently reiterated by the High Court in The Queen v Falzon,[1] in relation to the
10/08/2018
Australian Academy of Science and Australian Academy of Law – Joint Symposium
The Australian Academy of Science and Australian Academy of Law are holding what is the first joint symposium between the two academies and their respective
07/08/2018
Insolvency and the environment – some law reform suggestions
While we await some pending developments in the areas of tension between insolvency law and environmental law, including the High Court’s consideration of an application
04/08/2018
Bodies everywhere – the regulation of liquidators and trustees
One of the most unusual reforms introduced by Australia’s 2016 Insolvency Law Reform Act was to give a large number of professional bodies, and government
31/07/2018
Intellectual property in insolvency
QUT Law School and Professor Rosalind Mason hosted a talk by US Professor Jason Kilborn of John Marshall Law School, Chicago, on 19 July 2018,
29/07/2018
A government liquidator, and more
Problems arising from Australia’s lack of a government liquidator have probably been hidden for some years by the choice of the profession to take on
25/07/2018
Winding up a collective investment vehicle – submissions were due by 10 August
The publication of the 2015 book Insolvent Investments, edited by Stewart Maiden QC (LexisNexis), may have been a surprise to those who developed our managed
20/07/2018
The cost of unlawful phoenix activity – yep ….
PWC’s June 2018 report on the cost of phoenix activity – The Economic Impacts of Potential Illegal Phoenix Activity – is interesting but it confirms
17/07/2018
The Chorley exception – barristers included
This is a postscript to an earlier post about the Chorley exception, a legal rule that although self-represented litigants are not entitled to professional costs
16/07/2018
Consultation on director identity numbers – responses by 17 August 2018
In the 2018-19 Budget, the Australian government announced that it would modernise the Australian Business Register (ABR) and the ASIC business registers on a platform
14/07/2018
A bankrupt’s travel overseas
Australia is on the outer internationally in imposing restrictions on those who are bankrupt from travelling overseas; they are required to obtain the permission of
13/07/2018
Overcoming financial barriers to justice – a public debate – 26 July 2018
Dr Warren Mundy, the economist who was the Presiding Productivity Commissioner on the 2014 report on Access to Justice Arrangements, is chairing a public debate
13/07/2018
New Zealand’s changes to its insolvency laws
Proposed changes to NZ insolvency laws through the Insolvency Practitioners Bill, presently before parliament, are open for submissions until 24 August 2018. The changes involve
11/07/2018
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