All publications relating to ‘Esther Khoo’
Changes to statutory demands from 1 January 2021
The temporary insolvency protections relating to statutory demands, which apply to all companies, are due to end on 31 December 2020. In the normal course, under section 459E of the Corporations Act, a creditor can issue a statutory demand against a company demanding payment of a debt of at least $2,000 (the Statutory Minimum) that…
COVID-19 | Advocacy Alert | Loan relief measures for commercial landlords | 30 March 2020
Further to our updates on 26 March 2020 and earlier today, the Prime Minister announced last night that the National Cabinet agreed to a moratorium on evictions over the next six months for commercial and residential tenancies in financial distress who are unable to meet their commitments due to the impact…
Insolvency Update | Statutory Demands, Bankruptcy and Insolvent Trading | 26 March 2020
With COVID-19, the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Bill 2020 (the Bill) has some sweeping changes to statutory demands, bankruptcy and insolvent trading including: Statutory Demands: the minimum debt for a statutory demand will be $20,000 (instead of $2,000)the time for compliance by a debtor company is now 6 months (instead of 21 days)This will apply…
Contracts in the time of the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
There has been unprecedented disruptions to businesses and the economy with the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. With the restrictions being placed on the movement of people and gatherings, COVID could have very real implications for a range of industries like construction, which require a large workforce to be mobilised to work on…
International Women’s Day 2019: Reflections by the (female) lawyers of Swaab
Gender, pay and job insecurity Nicole Cini, Associate The gender pay gap for full time workers in Australia is currently 14.1%, but this number does not tell the entire story. Women comprise approximately 47% of employees in Australia, account for 68% of primary carers for older people and people with a disability and…
Cross all t’s, dot all i’s: Personal guarantees gone wrong
Introduction There are occasions, especially for small to medium size enterprises, where the company’s director or directors have to provide a personal guarantee in order to obtain finance and/or goods and services on credit. A personal guarantee empowers the lender or supplier to make the guarantor pay, on demand, all or part…
Why your business needs a company power of attorney — Five things to know
A complete estate plan for a family in business must consider a power of attorney for all companies in the group. A power of attorney is an instrument that gives authority to another person to act on behalf of the principal. An individual power of attorney gives your attorney legal authority to manage…
Unusual wills and where to find them: What makes a valid will?
With the advent of technology, courts have had to grapple with difficult questions of whether to accept new forms of “documents” as wills. In New South Wales, the Court has previously held a DVD recording was a valid codicil (see our analysis of the case here). More recently, in Nichol v Nichol [2017]…
No ring, not binding? De facto relationships and family law
When parties separate, whether they be married or in a de facto relationship, the same laws apply in relation to the division of their property. Since 1 March 2009, de facto couples and married couples have been able to apply to the Family Courts for Orders for the division of property. Here…
What happens when the sole director and shareholder of a company dies?
A successful business can come to a crashing halt if the sole director and shareholder dies. If there is no director or shareholder, the company may become paralysed, face cash flow problems if the deceased was the sole signatory of bank accounts, be unable to pay its employees; or, at worst…