Recently, Mr Justice Muir of the New Zealand High
Court in Grant v Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association New Zealand Inc1
heard an application by Mr Grant for judicial review of a decision by the
Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association of
New Zealand (RITANZ) to decline his application for
membership. The grounds for this decision was that
Mr Grant did not satisfy the “good character” requirement for RITANZ membership. Before considering the
judgment, this note outlines the background to the
application and explains how under the new statutory
framework. For some insolvency practitioners, membership of RITANZ is a condition that must be met before
they are eligible to apply to be licensed. The case
highlights that RITANZ in this new gatekeeper role,
when evaluating membership applications, is required to
act in accordance with the principles of natural justice
and in accordance with administrative law principles2
and any decision to decline an application is potentially reviewable by the High Court.
History
Preferred citation
Keeper, P. (2021). RITANZ: Its new gatekeeper role and the intervention of natural justice. Insolvency Law Bulletin, 21(1 & 2), 8-11.