The avoidance powers contained in chapter 5 of the Bankruptcy Code permit the recovery of certain prepetition “transfers” made by the debtor – either as a preference under section 547 or as a fraudulent transfer under either section 548 or state common law, made applicable under section 544 of the Bankruptcy Code.  Typically, the “tran

The recent decisions in Re MF Global UK Ltd and Re Omni Trustees Ltd give conflicting views as to whether section 236 of the Insolvency Act 1986 has extra-territorial effect. In this article, we look at the reasoning in the two judgments and discuss a possible further argument for extra-territorial effect.

The conflicting rulings on section 236

Rare is the decision finding that bid rigging occurred.  Recently, though, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut uncovered a bid rigging scheme in connection with the sale of property in a Canadian arrangement proceeding.  In re Sagecrest II LLC, et al., Case No. 08-50754 (Bankr. D. Conn. Dec.

Typically, when an individual debtor files for bankruptcy, all of his or her belongings become part of the big “property of the estate” pot that the court ladles up pro rata among hungry creditors.  But debtors need to eat too.  Exemption law allows individual debtors and their families to keep some basic property, such as the clothes on their backs and roofs over their heads.

We all learned the first day of our Bankruptcy 101 class in law school that just because a debtor files for bankruptcy doesn’t mean those entities who have guaranteed the debtor’s obligations are off the hook.  Doesn’t ring a bell?  Well if you were sleeping during this part of the lecture, allow us to elaborate.  Unless a guarantor has itself filed for bankruptcy, it will not be afforded protections under the Bankruptcy Code and creditors will not be stopped from looking to the guarantor for payment if the debtor fails to fulfill its obligation.  But what if the debtor&

When a bankruptcy case is dismissed for cause pursuant to section 1112(b) of the Bankruptcy Code, the effect of the dismissal on orders entered during the case is not always clear.  A recent District of Delaware decision, 

In resolving a motion for leave to file an amended complaint to add new claims, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Hosking v.

We have previously discussed default-rate interest and late fees in connection with a secured creditor’s claim.  Can a secured creditor choose to waive one in favor of the other if both are not available?  And when is a secured creditor entitled to default-rate interest in the first place

It has been a few years since we at the Blog have discussed the Barton doctrine, the common law bankruptcy rule requiring a party to seek leave from the appointing court before suing a court-appointed receiver (see here and 

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