As all entrepreneurs can confirm, the road to success is littered with failures. The trick is to distinguish between a business that’s beyond recovery, and one that just needs some help to get back on track. When financial distress looms, you need to choose between the finality of liquidation and the second-chance option of business rescue. 

As a creditor, liquidation is unlikely to hold anything but bad news for you. But even worse perhaps is a director’s misuse of a business rescue application to delay an inevitable failure. Let’s see what you can do about that… 

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, time to remind ourselves of the ever-growing danger of Business Email Compromise (BEC) frauds.

If you are party to any high-value transaction involving electronic invoices and EFTs – particularly if you are party to a property sale, which is always a favourite target of these fraudsters – note that the latest SCA ruling has made it crystal clear that it’s the debtor who carries the can if there’s a loss. 

The debtor must verify the creditor’s bank details before paying. So “verify, verify, verify!”  Or pay the price.

“Abuse of Process”

"Abuse of process" is the use of our court system to improperly delay, harass, or obstruct another party. Some examples: repeatedly litigating on the same matter without justification, launching meritless cases for ulterior motives, taking unnecessary legal steps purely to frustrate the other side, or dishonestly using a legal process merely as a tactic to block or delay lawful action by another party.

To deter such behaviour and keep our legal system fair and efficient, courts can impose punitive costs orders or even declare offenders “vexatious litigants”, thereby limiting their ability to launch further proceedings without court permission.