Facts: Appellee Brough (“Brough”) executed a contract for a loan to purchase a mobile home through Appellant Green Tree Servicing, LLC’s (“Green Tree”) predecessor. The contract contained a mandatory arbitration provision. Brough defaulted on the contract and later filed for bankruptcy. After the bankruptcy was discharged, Green Tree filed suit against Brough. Brough filed a counterclaim alleging that Green Tree violated the FCRA by reporting the debt to the consumer reporting agencies (“CRAs”) even though it was discharged in bankruptcy.

Standard & Poor's issued an update (the "Update") last week indicating that it could issue a de-linked, asset-based credit rating for securities issued in a securitization sponsored by an insured depository institution ("Bank") that qualifies as a sale under GAAP, even if the transaction fails to comply with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's new securitization safe harbor rule (the "Rule").

In the W.R. Grace bankruptcy, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently reaffirmed its prior rulings on the controversial issue of a bankruptcy court's power to enjoin actions by third parties against non-debtors. Resting on prior precedent, the Third Circuit held that bankruptcy courts lack subject matter jurisdiction to enjoin third party actions that have no direct effect upon the bankruptcy estate.

On July 13, 2010, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously held that auto-parts supplier Visteon Corporation could not terminate health and life insurance benefits for approximately 2,100 retirees during its chapter 11 bankruptcy unless Visteon followed the specific requirements laid out in section 1114 of the Bankruptcy Code, even if Visteon would have had the unilateral right to terminate these benefits outside bankruptcy.

When selling assets under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code or pursuant to a plan, debtors typically conduct auctions, selecting the highest or best bidder as the purchaser. Section 363 auctions are intended to enable debtors to maximize the value of their assets, while ensuring "finality and integrity in the process . . . ."Read more

In the approximately five years since the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act's ("BAPCPA") amendments to the Bankruptcy Code took effect, one general consensus has emerged: the effects of BAPCPA on distressed retailers have been profound. The combination of a truncated timeline for dealing with leases, a limited ability to extend plan exclusivity, and expanded rights of vendors to assert administrative priority claims all work together to create a rushed process with very little room for error.

In a case that may limit the rights of lenders and other creditors against managers of Delaware LLCs, and provides added protections for insiders of Delaware LLCs, the Delaware Court of Chancery this month held that a creditor of an insolvent LLC lacked standing to bring derivative claims under the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act. In re CML V v. Bax points out an important difference between available remedies for creditors of Delaware corporations and Delaware LLCs.

James Carville, an advisor to Bill Clinton, famously once said he would like to be reincarnated as the bond market, because then "you can intimidate everybody", The Economist reported in a reader poll. In 2010 two of the euro zone's smaller economies, Greece and then Ireland, were so intimidated by the punishing interest rates that the bond-market vigilantes imposed on them that they had to turn to their richer neighbours for bail-outs.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Jaffé v. Samsung Electronics Co. (In re: Qimonda AG), No. 12-1802, 2013 WL 6388591 (4th Cir. Dec. 3, 2013) (the “Opinion”) held that a German debtor could not use a chapter 15 proceeding to enforce the termination of the debtor’s licenses of U.S. patents under German insolvency law without providing the protections afforded to licensees under section 365(n) of the Bankruptcy Code.