Debt Recovery

A recent Federal Circuit Court decision has reinforced that the Court will hold any creditor who seeks to serve a bankruptcy notice on a debtor by post to an extraordinarily high standard of proof.

Mr Kenyon was made bankrupt on 16 January 2017 on the application of Lavan Legal. Mr Kenyon sought to have the creditor’s petition, and his bankruptcy, set aside on a number of grounds. One of those grounds was that Lavan could not rely upon Kenyon’s failure to comply with the bankruptcy notice issued by Lavan because it had not been properly served on him. [...]  READ MORE →

By Renee Smith a Solicitor of Matthews Folbigg, in our Insolvency, Restructuring and Debt Recovery Group

So you have been successful in receiving a default judgment in relation to the Judgment Debtor. So how do you go about enforcing that judgment debt and collecting the money owed?

One option is to apply to the Court for a garnishee order.  A garnishee order is an order by a court which directs payment of the judgment debt from any of the following:

• The debtor’s wages – usually taken in instalments payable by the judgment debtor’s employer;
• The debtor’s bank account/s (usually collected in a lump sum or instalments); or
• People who owe money to the debtor (usually collected in lump sums unless arrangements are made otherwise).

Failure to comply with a garnishee order can be a contempt of the court, and as the debts are payable by a third party, garnishee orders can be a great advantage to creditors in debt recovery. One disadvantage to the use of garnishee orders can be not knowing what assets may be available to be the subject of a Garnishee order. However in the right matter, garnishee orders can be extremely effective as a debt recovery tool. . [...]  READ MORE →

A common obstacle thrown in the path of a creditor seeking to recover a judgment debt is an application to Court to pay the debt by instalments. If the order is made, it acts as a complete barrier to any further attempts to recover the debt (provided the instalments are paid on time).
It is often difficult to advise creditors on whether it is worth the time and cost of opposing such an order. Creditors could easily be forgiven for thinking that each Court has its own view of what constitutes a fair and reasonable proposal. Opposing an instalment order involves filing documents and making submissions to the Court, adding to the time and cost of chasing the debt.
Before committing more of your businesses resources to fighting an instalment order, it is worth considering these issues: [...]  READ MORE →