Checklist · Insolvency, Restructuring & Bankruptcy
Deed of company arrangement: key terms and execution checklist (s 444A and s 444DA)
A checklist for preparing or reviewing a deed of company arrangement: the matters s 444A requires the instrument to specify, the s 444DA employee priority rule, the commercial terms of the proposal, release and creditors’ trust issues, and the execution and lodgement steps.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 2 authorities it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when an administrator, proponent or creditor prepares or reviews a DOCA proposal before the second creditors’ meeting, and again when the instrument is prepared after creditors resolve that the company execute a deed.
Used for these tasks
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may check a draft deed or proposal against this list and extract the commercial terms into a comparison table, but the administrator and the lawyers settle the terms and the administrator decides what to recommend to creditors.
AI may
- Mark each s 444A matter as present, partly present or missing in a draft deed or proposal, quoting the clause
- Extract the proponent’s contribution, timing, conditions, distribution order and releases into a table comparing the proposal with a liquidation
- Check that defined terms, dates and the claims cut-off date are used consistently through the draft
AI must not
- Must not estimate the return to creditors under the deed or in a liquidation; those figures come from the administrator
- Must not decide whether employee priority may be excluded or whether the deed should be recommended
- Must not process creditor or employee data in a tool that retains or trains on it
The lawyer checks
- Every matter in s 444A(4) is specified, including the claims cut-off date (not later than the day the administration began)
- The s 444DA employee priority provision is included, or the employee meeting resolution or Court order relied on to exclude it is in place
- Releases, the treatment of secured and owner creditors, and any creditors’ trust structure are effective and properly explained to creditors
- The deed is executed by the company and the deed administrator within the time the Act allows after the creditors’ resolution
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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