Payments made by a debtor within 90 days of a bankruptcy petition are generally avoidable as preferences under section 547 of the Bankruptcy Code.  Many exceptions and defenses exist, however, to ensure that creditors are not discouraged from conducting business with companies that may be at risk of filing

When your company receives notice from a customer that the customer has filed for bankruptcy protection, what do you do? What should you do? First, DO NOT ignore it. The bankruptcy most likely will not go away. Instead, take these five steps to ensure you do not end up sideways in the bankruptcy.

1. Notify your Accounts Receivable Department not to send further collection notices or seek to collect the debt.

A bankruptcy court’s characterization of a debtor’s pre-petition conveyance of an overriding royalty interest (“ORRI”) has an important effect on whether that ORRI is part of an oil and gas debtor’s bankruptcy estate and, in turn, what rights the ORRI holder has with respect to that interest. If an ORRI conveyance is characterized as the transfer of a real property interest, the conveyance is generally excluded from the debtor’s bankruptcy estate and the ORRI holder’s interest may not be affected by the bankruptcy.

In its opinion in Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S.

In the latest chapter of the New Century bankruptcy cases, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated a district court’s decision on the sufficiency of the debtors’ publication notice and remanded the case back to the district court to determine the critical issue of whether the plaintiff-appellees were known creditors entitled to actual notice. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently held, in a case of first impression, that a creditor violates the bankruptcy discharge injunction by filing a proof of claim on a debt that was previously discharged in another bankruptcy proceeding.

A copy of the opinion is available at: Link to Opinion.

It’s not an uncommon sight, especially in light of the burst of the housing bubble in recent years: a debtor in bankruptcy has two mortgages on a property with a fair market value of less than the amount of the senior mortgage. The junior mortgage lien is then wholly underwater, so that creditor would receive nothing from the sale of the property. The question then becomes, can the debtor void those liens in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding? The Supreme Court, in an increasingly rare show of unanimity, said “No.”

Trade creditors often face the issue of whether they are required to continue providing goods or services on credit to a customer that has filed chapter 11 bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the Bankruptcy Code fails to specifically address the rights and obligations of a trade creditor facing this dilemma, resulting in a tug-of-war created by the debtor’s need for continued goods and services and the creditor’s need for assurance of payment.

UCC Financing Statements Must Contain the Debtor’s Correct Name

This is the fifth in a series of Alerts regarding the proposals made by the American Bankruptcy Institute Commission to Reform Chapter 11 Business Bankruptcies. This alert covers the Commission’s recommendations regarding the now predominant practice of selling substantially all of the debtor’s assets as a going concern, free of all claims, at the outset of a bankruptcy case. The process, known as a “363 Sale” for the Bankruptcy Code section that applies, has been hailed as a job-saving measure and condemned for giving all value to lenders and none to other creditors.