Receiverships are a flexible, court-supervised tool that can help troubled companies and individuals with business debts avoid a lengthy bankruptcy proceedings. A receiver acts much like a bankruptcy trustee by assuming responsibility for the property or assets of an entity or individual owing business debts. A receiver can assist companies in their return to profitability by quickly liquidating assets and restructuring debt efficiently. Receivers can also be useful to preserve property, enforce judgments, and dissolve insolvent businesses.
In turbulent economic times, clients often ask us how they can find out whether a particular company or person is in bankruptcy. While we can run quick searches for this information, there are ways you can find this information on your own. If a quick Google search does not yield results, two resources maintained by the U.S. federal courts are the Multi-Court Voice Case Information System (McVCIS) and Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER). The first resource is free, and the second requires setting up an online account for payment of relatively small fees.
When a creditor is the target of a bankruptcy trustee or debtor’s claim to take back money paid before bankruptcy on a legitimate debt, it’s bitter justice. The concept is fair enough: pulling funds back into the bankruptcy estate so they can be redistributed to creditors in accordance with the Bankruptcy Code’s priority scheme and on a pro rata basis. In practice, though, it’s hard to see the fairness of giving back money you were entitled to receive. Two statutory amendments that will take effect in late February of 2020 have the potential to put a damper on some preference claims.
Signing the Family Farmer Relief (FFR) Act of 2019 was like opening a pressure release valve. American farmers have suffered increasing financial stress this year from numerous sources, so a change in the law making Chapter 12 available to more farmers is likely to push the number of bankruptcy filings higher.
LEGAL CHANGES
Decision is a Win for Trademark Licensees
Last week, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware (the “Court”) reversed a 2015 decision by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court (the “Bankruptcy Court”) disallowing the portion of an unsecured claim filed by appellant Wilmington Trust Company (“WTC”) for postpetition attorneys’ fees and costs incurred under an indenture in connection with the In re Tribune Media Co. chapter 11 cases.
Indenture trustees and agents participate in the administration of chapter 11 cases in a number of ways, including by protecting holders’ rights, ensuring compliance with the applicable indenture and other agreements, and fulfilling their duties and responsibilities under applicable law.
If you have ever been a creditor concerned about a debtor not paying debts as they become due or paying other creditors while ignoring your demands, then forcing the debtor into an involuntarily bankruptcy may be an option. An involuntary petition can be filed only under Chapter 7 (liquidation) or Chapter 11 (reorganization) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
The current, ultimate dilemma in the health care reimbursement legal arena is the catastrophically long wait for a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) with the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (“OMHA”). The estimated wait time for an ALJ hearing after completing the first two levels of appeal is now more than 1,200 days, and the debt being appealed accrues interest at 10.5% the entire time. Moreover, CMS will continue to recoup against new Medicare claims during the three-year wait for a decision-maker that overturns far more decisions than the first two levels.