Lenders make secured loans expecting to recover the collateral in the event of a default. The collateral is sold to satisfy the debt. Experienced secured lenders understand that the automatic stay in bankruptcy stops recovery of collateral recovery without permission of the court. However, many secured lenders do not understand rights related to the statement of intention every debtor is required to send to each secured creditor.

Bankruptcy courts in the U.S. are widely viewed as favorable fora for debtors, trustees and creditors’ committees to pursue creative and difficult causes of actions against deep-pockets lenders and others in an attempt to augment the resources available for distributions to creditors. In yet another case, however, the District Court for the Southern District of New York (after withdrawing the litigation from the bankruptcy court), recently dismissed many of the claims asserted by the Lehman debtors against J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

An insolvent corporate subsidiary’s payment of its parent’s contractual obligations was not a fraudulent transfer when “the [subsidiary] Debtor received reasonably equivalent value in exchange for [its cash] transfers,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Sept. 4, 2015. In re PSN USA, Inc., 2015 WL 5167803, at *7 (11th Cir. Sept. 4, 2015) (per curiam).

Is a debtor required to pay default rate interest when it reinstates a loan under a plan of reorganization? According to a recent Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision, In re Sagamore Partners, Ltd., 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 15382 (Aug. 31, 2015), the answer depends upon the underlying loan documents and applicable non-bankruptcy law.

On June 1, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett, 135 S. Ct. 1995 (2015) in a unanimous opinion—except for a footnote—authored by Justice Thomas, and determined that a chapter 7 debtor may not void a junior lien under § 506(d) of the Bankruptcy Code even when the debt owed on the senior lien exceeds the present value of the property.

Restructurings are all about alternatives. It is one thing for a creditor to hold an instrument that entitles it to payment of $X on Y date. But if the debtor does not have the cash to satisfy the obligation when due, some type of restructuring must occur.

The first step to defending a debtor's objection to proof of claim is knowing one was filed.   Debtors are required to provide notice to creditors.  The Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure contain numerous rules governing notice, each describing the form, content and time periods for establishing their adequacy.  Deviating from these rules could result in the relief requested being denied, despite an otherwise justifiable claim.  Conversely, a creditor's untimely recognition and response to a debtor's properly noticed objection may result in harsh consequences, wh

When you start planning to leave your firm for greener pastures, lots of ethics issues can crop up (bad pun). One of the most acute issues is if you get an offer to join a firm that is on the opposite side of a matter you are already handling. That was the situation in a recent bankruptcy case, In re US Bentonite, Inc., and it led the court to order the firm representing a Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession to disgorge several months’ worth of fees.

In Del. Trust Co. v. Energy Future Intermediate Holding Co. LLC (In re Energy Future Holdings Corp.), 527 B.R. 178 (Bankr. D. Del. 2015), the bankruptcy court ruled that, even though a chapter 11 debtor repaid certain bonds prior to maturity, a "make-whole" premium was not payable under the plain terms of the bond indenture because automatic acceleration of the debt triggered by the debtor's chapter 11 filing was not a "voluntary" repayment.

Prior to September 1, 2015, procedures in consumer chapter 13 bankruptcy cases varied greatly across the divisions of the Middle District of Florida, creating vastly different workflows for creditors and attorneys with cases pending in multiple divisions across the District. (The Middle District of Florida comprises four divisions, including Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville and Fort Myers.) As part of the U.S.