O Conselho Nacional de Justiça (“CNJ”) aprovou, na 307ª Sessão Ordinária, realizada de forma virtual no dia 31 de março de 2020, orientações para os juízos competentes para processamento de recuperações judiciais, diante do estado de calamidade pública e severo impacto econômico gerados pelo COVID-19.

As orientações foram aprovadas pelo CNJ por meio do Ato Normativo nº 0002561-26.2020.2.00.0000, sob relatoria do Conselheiro Relator Henrique Ávila.

A pandemia acarretada pelo Covid-19 impactou severamente a atividade econômica, diante da necessidade de adoção de medidas cada vez mais restritivas com o objetivo de diminuir a curva de propagação do coronavírus.

O impacto econômico está sendo sentido por diversos setores da economia, sendo que a mudança abrupta no cenário financeiro surpreendeu o mercado como um todo e tem tornado cada vez mais difícil o cumprimento de obrigações pelas partes contratantes.

Arthur C. Clarke famously observed: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Our regulatory, legislative, and judicial systems illustrate this principle whenever new technology exceeds the limits of our existing legal framework and collective legal imagination. Cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, has proven particularly “magical” in the existing framework of bankruptcy law, which has not yet determined quite what bitcoin is—a currency, an intangible asset, a commodity contract, or something else entirely.

Arthur C. Clarke famously observed: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Our regulatory, legislative, and judicial systems illustrate this principle whenever new technology exceeds the limits of our existing legal framework and collective legal imagination. Cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, has proven particularly “magical” in the existing framework of bankruptcy law, which has not yet determined quite what bitcoin is—a currency, an intangible asset, a commodity contract, or something else entirely.

While significant energy here at the Bankruptcy Cave is devoted to substantive bankruptcy matters, not all aspects of a general insolvency practice are always fun and litigation. Oftentimes insolvency lawyers add the most value by helping clients avoid a bankruptcy filing, or by successfully resolving a case through a consensual transactional restructuring.

Individual debtors with old tax debts relating to late-filed tax returns may be surprised to find that those tax debts may not be dischargeable under section 523(a) of the Bankruptcy Code due to the lateness of the tax filing. There is a current Circuit split regarding whether a late tax filing constitutes a “return” at all, which is critical to the dischargeability inquiry. The Ninth Circuit weighed in last week in In re Smith, 2016 WL 3749156 (9th Cir. July 13, 2016), further cementing the split.

A recent Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Franklin v. McHugh, 2015 WL 6602023 (2d Cir. 2015), illustrates the dire consequences of failing to comply fully with all electronic filing requirements for a notice of appeal.

Who Should Read This? Anyone that deals in distressed debt, and in particular anyone that acquires distressed or defaulted bond debts.