“Round and around and around and around we go // Oh now tell me, now tell me, now tell me now you know // … It takes me all the way // I want [to extend the automatic] stay” – Rihanna (as modified)
Many courts recognize that a corporation's constituent (such as an audit committee or a group of independent directors) can own the privilege and work product protection covering the constituent's internal corporate investigation. Under this approach, the company's bankruptcy trustee cannot access or waive that privilege or work product protection. See, e.g., Ex parte Smith, 942 So. 2d 356 (Ala. 2006) (denying a bankruptcy trustee's attempt to access pre-bankruptcy communications between the company's independent directors and its Skadden Arps lawyers).
As of December 1, 2015, many of the Official Forms for use in Bankruptcy Courts were updated. The changes were made as part of a forms modernization effort. Among the forms updated was the Official Proof of Claim Form (formerly Form B 10) used to assert a creditor’s claim in a bankruptcy case. The new Proof of Claim Form (Form 410) is particularly worth noting.
As of December 1, 2015, a new bankruptcy form for filing proofs of claim has gone into effect.
The form has undergone a number of non-substantive, cosmetic changes, which should make it easier to complete. The only substantive change is the addition of a new Item 10, which asks whether the claim is based on a lease and, if so, the amount necessary to cure defaults outstanding as of the petition date. Finally, the name of the form has been changed to Form 410.
Typically, when an individual debtor files for bankruptcy, all of his or her belongings become part of the big “property of the estate” pot that the court ladles up pro rata among hungry creditors. But debtors need to eat too. Exemption law allows individual debtors and their families to keep some basic property, such as the clothes on their backs and roofs over their heads.
The Texas Supreme Court is poised to consider a significant fraudulent transfer case stemming from the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme. The origins of Janvey v. Golf Channel date back to 2009. In the wake of Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme, the Northern District of Texas appointed a receiver for Stanford and his related entities. The receiver sued the Golf Channel (among others), claiming the nearly $6 million Stanford paid for advertising was a fraudulent transfer under the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (“TUFTA”).
Most loan contracts include provisions allowing the collection of attorneys’ fees in the event the borrower defaults. These attorney fee provisions are routinely enforced in collection suits brought in state courts.
Several of the Official Bankruptcy Forms will be replaced on December 1, 2015. For creditors, the most notable changes will be to two forms: the Proof of Claim form, Form 410, and the Mortgage Proof of Claim Attachment, Form 410A. These changes reflect an effort by the Bankruptcy Courts to elicit a clear and complete picture of what the debtor owes and how much must be paid to cure a pre-bankruptcy arrearage. Due to the Bankruptcy Court’s focus on clarity, creditors are well advised to closely follow the claim forms and accompanying instructions.
An essential element to any cramdown plan is the presence of at least one impaired accepting class. Even when a plan proponent purports to satisfy this requirement, objecting parties will often challenge the plan’s classification scheme or whether a particular class is truly impaired. A recent decision from the Southern District of New York,