It is a familiar issue for in-house counsel and credit managers: though you try to ensure that your key customers are stable, credit-worthy businesses, occasionally one of them will encounter financial trouble and you will hear rumors in the market that your customer is considering filing for bankruptcy protection. This is never good news, of course, but there are several steps you can take to minimize the adverse impact a customer’s bankruptcy filing may have on your business.
Exercise State Law Rights
Two recent decisions from large and highly contested chapter 11 cases add to the developing body of case law on the treatment of make-whole claims in bankruptcy. First, in a two-part post, we discuss the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware’s decision in Energy Future Holdings, and later, in a follow-up post, we discuss the United States District Court for the Southern District of
Rule 2004 Examination in Bankruptcy
On May 4, 2015, in the case Bullard v. Blue Hills Bank, the United States Supreme Court held that debtors in chapter 13 (and presumably chapter 9 and 11 as well) are not entitled as of right to immediately appeal bankruptcy court orders denying confirmation of a proposed plan of reorganization. This ruling, although consistent with a majority of circuit courts of appeal that have considered the issue, reversed governing precedent in several circuit courts—including the Third Circuit, which reviews Delaware bankruptcy court decisions.
“A boy’s best friend is his mother.” – Norman Bates
“Let’s have a family gathering for the remaining family members who still speak to each other” – Someecards, Inc.
The following Middle Market insight* originally appeared in the Spring 2015 edition of Disclosure Statement, the official publication of the Bankruptcy Section of the North Carolina Bar Association.
In re Betchan, 524 B.R. 830 (Bankr. E.D. Wash. 2015) –
A mortgagee was the highest bidder at a foreclosure sale that took place shortly before the debtor filed bankruptcy. The lender requested relief from the automatic stay in order to evict the debtor on the basis that transfer of the property was completed prepetition so that it was not part of the debtor’s bankruptcy estate.
In yesterday’s post, we published a speech in which Harvey Miller discussed how he got started practicing bankruptcy law. Today, we are publishing the text of a speech that Harvey gave in March of 2014 on the 40th anniversary of the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute, at which Harvey was a frequent speaker. In this speech, Harvey looked back at the evolution of bankruptcy law over the past 50 years.
Introduction
On April 20, 2015, the United States Supreme Court denied Defendants’ petition for certiorari in Crawford v. LVNV Funding, declining to take up the issue of whether liability under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., may be premised on the filing of a proof of claim in bankruptcy.