EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
BANKRUPTCY ACT 1966
BANKRUPTCY RULES (AMENDMENT)
1987 NO. 54
Sub-section 315(1) of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make rules prescribing matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act and particularly for or in relation to the practice and procedure of courts having jurisdiction under the Act, including costs and the taxation of costs.
Sub-rule 162(1) of the Bankruptcy Rules provides that, subject to rule 162 and except where otherwise ordered, in all proceedings, solicitors are entitled to charge and be allowed costs as set forth in Schedule 3 to the Rules.
Sub-rule 162(2) of the Bankruptcy Rules specifies the costs to be allowed to the solicitor for the petitioning creditor (if the solicitor so desires) where a sequestration order is made in a proceeding instituted by a petition based on non-compliance with a bankruptcy notice.
The purpose of the amendments to sub-rule 162(2) and Schedule 3 of the Bankruptcy Rules is to adopt the recommendation by the Federal Costs Advisory Committee that the scale of solicitors’ costs in the Bankruptcy jurisdiction be increased by 2.8 per centum. That recommendation was the third made by the Committee to the Attorney-General.
The scale was last increased on 31 October 1986 by Statutory Rules 1986 No. 323 after consideration of an earlier report by the Committee.
The Committee advises the Attorney-General at regular intervals on variations in the quantum of costs for solicitors under the Bankruptcy Rules, having regard, among other factors, to government policy in relation to prices and incomes and in particular to paragraph 28 of the National Economic Summit Communique.
That paragraph states -
“If restraint is to be exercised then such restraint should be exercised universally. As such, it is important that non-wage incomes are not increased faster than movements in wages.”
The increases are consistent with paragraph 28 of the Communique. They are based on movements in the Consumer Price Index in the first six months, and in the Award Rates of Pay-Index in the first seven months, of 1986. The extra month was included in the case of the Award Rates of Pay Index so that the effects of the National Wage Case decision in May 1986 could be taken into account.
Authorised by the Attorney-General