On December 1, 2015, the Official Forms for use in bankruptcy courts will be updated. The changes were made as part of a forms modernization effort. Almost all of the Official Forms are being updated, including the bankruptcy petition, schedules, and statement of financial affairs, as well as the proof of claim form (formerly Form B 10) used to assert a creditor’s claim in a bankruptcy case.

Are you feeling a bit of déjà vu?  We certainly are.  As readers know, here at the Weil Bankruptcy Blog we’ve written extensively about make-wholes.  In two previous posts, What the Future Holds for Make-Whole Claims in Bankruptcy: Examining the Energy Future Holdings EFIH First Lien Make-Whole Decision – 

As part of a modernization project that was begun by the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules in 2008, most of the Official Bankruptcy Forms will be replaced with substantially revised, renumbered and reformatted versions, effective December 1, 2015 (New Forms). The New Forms were approved by the Judicial Conference on September 17, 2015.

Bankruptcy practitioners routinely advise secured creditor clients to file protective proofs of claim in bankruptcy proceedings despite those clients’ ability to ignore bankruptcy proceedings and decline filing claims without imperiling their lien due to the protections afforded by state law foreclosure rights.^[1] But a recent Ninth Circuit decision is causing attorneys and clients to reconsider whether this traditionally conservative approach is simply too risky in Chapter 13 cases. HSBC Bank v. Blendheim (In re Blendheim), No. 13-35412, 2015 WL 5730015 (9th Cir. Oct.

A ruling recently handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit may provide significant flexibility to debtors in that circuit who are implementing sales of substantially all of their assets. In In re LCI Holding Company, Inc., 2015 BL 295784 (3d Cir. Sept.

The recent Great Recession and the wave of bankruptcy filings that accompanied it presented a number of challenges for landlords and tenants. Yet, as the economy has recovered, we still continue to see restaurant and retail chains turn to the bankruptcy court’s for relief. Over the past year, a number of restaurants and retailers filed bankruptcy petitions. For example, American Apparel, Radio Shack, Anna’s Linens and Hot Dog on a Stick have sought protection from the bankruptcy courts.

“Each litigant [in the U.S. legal system] pays [its] own attorney’s fees, win or lose, unless a statute or contract provides otherwise.” Baker Botts LLP v. ASARCO LLP, 135 S. Ct. 2158, 2164 (2015) (6-3), quoting Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 560 U.S. 242, 252-53 (2010). A majority of the U.S.

In the high-profile bankruptcy case of Energy Future Holdings Corp. (“EFH”) a Delaware bankruptcy court recently called into question reliance on structural subordination as a way to protect a borrower’s assets from satisfying claims against an affiliated company. In the EFH bankruptcy case, holders of unsecured PIK notes issued by EFH subsidiary Energy Future Intermediate Holdings Company LLC (“EFIH”) sought to collect post-petition interest at the rate stated in the notes issued by EFIH.

We know you’ve been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to translate “Absolute Priority Rule,” “Equitable Mootness,” and “Make-Wholes” (not to mention “Cramdown”) into Halloween costumes, so you may have missed out on some of the entries the Weil Bankruptcy Blog has posted over the past six weeks.  For our treats to you, we are handing out these entries in convenient (Count Dracula) bite-sized servings.  You can indulge a little today, and we will have more for you next week. 

We hope you are emerging from your sugar coma and ready for some easy to digest morsels of the Weil Bankruptcy Blog.  With this entry, we summarize the blog entries from the second half of October. 

In a Twist, Court Finds That Junior Stakeholders Violated Their Implied Duties Under an Indenture