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Safe harbour – some inherent behavioural issues to overcome
While the new safe harbour law[1] is the end result of some years of torturous debate, still on-going, it is ...
“The human importance of bankruptcy”
The significance of bankruptcy and the need for its law to be clear and predictable is emphasized in a recent judgment of the ...
Banks in [financial] crisis; dispute resolution; farm debt mediation, and more
My preparation for a major banking and financial services conference[1] has prompted this quick review of where Australia is at ...
Liquidators – have your “policies and procedures” handy, or “propose to put them in place”, soon
New section 30B of the ASIC Act allows ASIC to ask a liquidator to produce the ‘policies and procedures’ relating to external administrations and ...
International insolvency regulation – London 2017
The annual meeting of the International Association of Insolvency Regulators, IAIR, is being held in London, from 4 to 7 ...
Very leviable liquidators
In anticipating the funding bases for the government meeting ASIC’s costs of regulating insolvency practitioners (IPs), I wrote that there “should ...
Director charades continued
After giving directors the benefit of protection from liability for insolvent trading, through the ‘safe harbour reforms’, the government has ...
Getting rid of liquidators
While no-one in business likes losing a client or customer, usually, it happens all the time, as a matter of ...
Advanced Business Law Conference – the major insolvency reforms: 3 October 2017
I am presenting at the Advanced Business Law Conference at the College of Law in Sydney on Tuesday 3 October 2017. ...
Ordinary course of post – seven business days not four
Section 160 of the Commonwealth Evidence Act 1995 is proposed to be amended to change the day when posted letters are presumed ...
Is “outrageous” too strong a term to describe some of our new insolvency laws?
The question as to what parts of the Insolvency Law Reform Act 2016 have commenced may be unclear to some but ...
A safe harbour from our harsh insolvency laws?!
The “safe harbour” reform bill has been introduced into federal parliament to address directors’ “medium risk” of liability for insolvent trading. ...
Creditor’s examination summons of a liquidator upheld
A creditor’s summons for the section 596A public examination of the liquidator about his sale of company property has been found ...
Penalty privilege – one says hello, the other says goodbye
There are at least two unsatisfactory stories in this. The first one first. The High Court’s decision in Rich v ...
What work was involved in this liquidation and why did it take the time and resources claimed?
A liquidator’s remuneration claim of over $350,000 for conducting the winding up a country dental practice involving 24 of his staff ...
Is the end result of Sakr Nominees continued “institutionalised time billing”?
While the insolvency profession might be satisfied with the final approval given to the liquidator’s remuneration, by Justice Ashley Black, in Sakr ...
External dispute resolution and complaints framework, and “debt managers”
Whether or how to regulate “debt management” firms comes up in the government’s decision to accept all 11 recommendations of the ...
Penalising insolvent companies – a King Charles I comparison
Regulators seeking penalties against companies in liquidation often reveal, as I have recently commented,[1] some serious signs of frustration that ...
“Straw directors”? no kidding!
The federal government is putting through laws that would give directors of companies greater latitude to incur debts that cannot ...
Friendly and ‘friendly’
With the rather confusing term ‘friendly liquidator’ continuing to be used: by the media: Dirty Deeds: Inside Australia’s Biggest Tax ...
APES 110 – accountants, whistleblowers and safe harbour advisers to note
Increased professional obligations of accountants, and insolvency practitioners, to refer breaches of the law to the authorities, are being considered at ...
INSOL’s Directors in the Twilght Zone – Australia’s “medium risk” for its directors
INSOL International has released the 5th edition of its excellent review of the international laws regulating director conduct in the ‘twilight ...
The fees of insolvency lawyers – increased scrutiny under the new law
Liquidators and trustees in bankruptcy are more accustomed to seeing their own fees come under judicial scrutiny than the fees ...
Government’s response to the 2015 Productivity Commission Report – “Business … closure”
That part of the Productivity Commission’s report on insolvency – or “closure” – was not one of its better efforts, ...
