Top Insolvency Cases and Highlights from 2017 With the passing of another year, McCarthy Ttrault's National Bankruptcy & Restructuring Group takes a look at the trends, leading cases and other insolvency highlights from 2017. This publication puts at your fingertips a summary of the year's biggest insolvency cases and developments from across the country and highlights some of the most talked-about cases and issues from 2017, including deemed trusts, the monitor's role in oppression actions, equitable subordination and more. This report was authored by Heather L.

On February 21, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report on the Orderly Liquidation Authority (OLA) and Bankruptcy Reform.

On February 21, the Department of Education published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking feedback on whether there is a need to clarify the threshold for “undue hardship” when evaluating bankruptcy cases in which borrowers seek to discharge student loans. According to the RFI, current U.S.

On February 16, FDIC Chairman, Martin J. Gruenberg, spoke at an event hosted by The Wharton School in Philadelphia about the challenges associated with managing the orderly failure of a systemically important financial institution.

On February 12, following a four-day trial, the U.S.

2017 saw a number of interesting and important developments in Canadian insolvency and restructuring matters. Some of the highlights (which, in certain instances, will continue as issues in 2018 and beyond) are set forth below:

1) Trends: Fewer CCAA Filings and Retail Insolvencies in the News

On January 19, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) does not cover non-judicial foreclosures in Colorado.

Introduction

Before July 2016, in order to wind-up a strata corporation voluntarily through a liquidator in B.C., unanimous approval of the strata owners was generally required. The unanimity requirement made strata wind-ups a rare event, and consequently it was exceedingly difficult for owners to sell a strata complex in its entirety for redevelopment. In an influential 2015 report, the B.C. Law Institute (“BCLI”) identified some of the problems with the unanimity requirement:

Joint venture partners commonly enter into operating agreements which grant operators a security interest, referred to as an operator’s lien. Operator’s liens are, for the most part, consensual and contractual security interests subject to the provisions of the Personal Property Security Act, RSA 2000, c P-7 (the “PPSA”) and the priority regime set out therein.

This fall, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois (“Bloc”) have both introduced private member’s bills seeking to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act(“BIA”) and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”).