The Court of Appeal has resolved previously conflicting case law to confirm that a bankrupt cannot be obliged to crystallise his pension benefits in order to produce income to pay off creditors.

Liability insurance policies typically exclude coverage for obligations arising out of the insured’s “assumption of liability in a contract or agreement.”  Earlier this year, the Texas Supreme Court took a narrow view of this exclusion:  in the landmark decision in Ewing Construction Co. v. Amerisure Insurance Co., 420 S.W.3d 30 (Tex.

In Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, No. 13-12389 (July 10, 2014), the Eleventh Circuit held that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibits filing a proof of claim on a time-barred debt in bankruptcy court, where the party attempting to collect knows the debt is time barred. The appellate court observed that a “deluge has swept through U.S. bankruptcy courts” of consumer debt buyers attempting to collect expired debts from debtors in Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

The recent Court of Appeal decision in Rawlinson and Hunter Trustees SA & others v Akers & another [2014] serves to emphasise that third party reports commissioned by liquidators to enable them to consider whether litigation should be commenced in order to make recoveries for the benefit of creditors will not always attract litigation privilege.