The Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 ("SBRA"), the Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need ("HAVEN") Act, and the Family Farmer Relief Act were enacted into law on August 23, 2019. This alert summarizes these changes to the law and when they take effect. For a fuller discussion of the SBRA, please see Joe Ammar's recent article in the Michigan Bankruptcy Journal.

On October 8, after two days of hearings, the judge overseeing the Sears Holdings Corp., et al. bankruptcy cases orally confirmed their joint plan even though he acknowledged that the Sears estates currently do not have enough money to fund it. How does Sears expect to fund its plan and pay its suppliers? By filing approximately 2,000 preference lawsuits to recover some of the estimated $1.345 billion the Sears debtors paid out prior to filing their bankruptcy petitions.

On May 2, 2017, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals clarified whether a bankruptcy debtor retains any property rights in rents after defaulting on a loan that includes an assignment of rents.