“Consistently, the highest percentage of filings in the federal docket is bankruptcy cases, which can be up to 75% of filings.”

That’s a conclusion by the authors of a 2014 study.[Fn. 1]

Bankruptcy-Specific

Here are bankruptcy-specific details and explanations from that same study:

Key Points:

On January 13, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court grants the Petition for a writ of certiorari in Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. Coughlin, Supreme Court Case No. 22-227, and on January 31, 2023, the Supreme Court enters this order therein: “Set for Argument on Monday, April 24, 2023.”

Johnson & Johnson (“J&J”) has, for a very long time, produced and sold a baby powder product containing talc—a mineral milled into fine powder that includes traces of asbestos.

In recent years, that baby powder product has spawned a torrent of lawsuits alleging that it causes ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.

Currently, over 38,000 ovarian cancer actions and over 400 mesothelioma actions are pending against J&J. Expectations are for thousands more to be filed in decades to come.

The phrase “projected disposable income” is a plan confirmation standard in all reorganization chapters of the Bankruptcy Code for individuals and businesses:

Bankruptcy benefits for individual debtors are a tough sell—always have been. That’s because no one likes bankruptcy—unless they need it.

But relieving people from debts in unfortunate circumstances is essential to our collective way of life in these United States. That’s always been true.

What follows is the third of three installments on some history of bankruptcy laws through the ages, beginning with ancient times—and to the present in these United States.

Bankruptcy Code

近年来，越来越多的企业面临债务困境，由于该等企业较多成立时间久、体量巨大，且存在经营多元化、债权债务形式多样化的情形，企业资金链的断裂易引发债务风险，实践中迫切需要进行债务重组，使债权人得到受偿，让企业重获新生。从目前情况来看，信托工具越来越多地被应用于债务重组中，包括在破产重整前的债务重组阶段，也包括在破产重整阶段。根据中国信托业协会于2022年12月12日发布的《2022年3季度中国信托业发展评析》，截至2022年3季度末，我国信托资产规模余额约为21.07万亿元。另根据建信信托有限责任公司（“建信信托”）发布的《建信信托2021年年度报告》，截至2021年12月31日，建信信托破产重整服务信托规模超2,300亿元[1]；根据中信信托有限责任公司（“中信信托”）发布的《中信信托二〇二一年年度报告》，截至2021年12月31日，中信信托特殊资产服务信托业务受托规模近160亿元[2]。

Remember the old saying, “Grab what you can get, when you can get it”?

Well . . . that old saying is now the federal law of the land, applying exclusively to bankruptcy laws in Alabama and North Carolina.

Here’s how. Congress imposed bankruptcy fee increases on Chapter 11 debtors in every state and territory of these United States, other than Alabama and North Carolina. As to similar fees in Alabama and North Carolina, the U.S. Supreme Court recently observed:

Bankruptcy benefits for individual debtors are a tough sell—always have been. That’s because no one likes bankruptcy—unless they need it.

But relieving people from debts in unfortunate circumstances is essential to our collective way of life in these United States. That’s always been true.

What follows is the second of three installments on some history of bankruptcy laws through the ages, beginning with ancient times—and to the present in these United States.

Federal Bankruptcy Act of 1841

Bankruptcy benefits for individual debtors are a tough sell—always have been.  That’s because no one likes bankruptcy—unless they need it.

But relieving people from debts in unfortunate circumstances is essential to our collective way of life in these United States.  That’s always been true.

What follows is the first of three installments on some history of bankruptcy laws through the ages, beginning with ancient times—and to the present in these United States.

Ancient Days