In an attempt to make chapter 11 more streamlined and less expensive for debtors, Congress amended the bankruptcy code to add a brand new reorganization chapter: Subchapter V. Subchapter V is available exclusively to small-business debtors and provides a new option that is intended to be quicker and cheaper; it also offers less oversight and fewer reporting requirements than a traditional chapter 11 case. Congress originally made the new Subchapter V option available to all businesses with $2.7 million or less in aggregate secured and unsecured non-contingent and liquidated debt.

Previously published in Bankruptcy Law News, Vol. XXIV, No.28.

Courts possess inherent authority to regulate conduct in their courtrooms and to enforce their orders. All litigants who are unsuccessful in civil litigation are disappointed. Fortunately, after they have exhausted their remedies, virtually all of them recognize the binding nature of the adverse ruling and move on. But not everyone is so sanguine and accepting. Certain litigants refuse to accept the court’s ruling, and indeed, will objectively and affirmatively refuse to abide by such decrees.

Health care bankruptcies are more than a battle over money and control of a company, because they potentially place the health of a debtor’s patients in danger if handled incorrectly. Health care cases present a risk that people without representation in the bankruptcy case could be seriously injured or unnecessarily lose their lives. This risk is particularly acute when the patient group is vulnerable or has few alternative options for care, such as for nursing homes and rural hospitals. Because of this reality, health care bankruptcies impose a distinct calculus and burden on the U.S.