On August 29, 2022, in the PG&E bankruptcy matter, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit became the first circuit-level court to address the question of what is the correct rate of interest to be applied to unimpaired unsecured claims against a fully solvent debtor.[2] In its decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed the bankruptcy court’s and district court’s rulings and held that such creditors are entitled to receive postpe

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently ruled in the Puerto Rico bankruptcy case that Fifth Amendment takings claims cannot be discharged or impaired by a bankruptcy plan. As a matter of first impression in that circuit, the Court disagreed with the Ninth Circuit and held that former property owners affected by prepetition takings must be paid in full.

In re Fin. Oversight & Mgmt. Bd., 41 F.4th 29 (1st Cir. 2022)

The U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s safe harbor provisions provide comfort to financial institutions that transfers made under protected financial contracts will generally not be subject to avoidance or “clawback” if the transferor subsequently files for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

When parties contract for arbitration of their disputes:

Congress must be allowed“to fashion a modern bankruptcy system which places the basic rudiments of the bankruptcy process in the hands of an expert equitable tribunal.”

—from Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg, 492 U.S. 33, 94 (1989) (Blackmun dissent, emphasis added).

Justice Blackmun had a point—back in 1989—that remains true today:

As has been widely reported, Congress recently reauthorized the $7.5 million debt threshold for subchapter V small business debtors, making subchapter V available to a significantly larger number of struggling businesses. With this change, the other requirements for a debtor to be eligible to elect subchapter V, takes on new importance.

On June 6, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, No. 21-441. At issue in the case was whether a temporary fee increase for funding of the U.S. Trustee (UST) program was constitutional. These fees were paid by debtors in chapter 11 cases pending or filed between 2018 to 2021. The Court ruled that the fee increase was not constitutional because the increase did not apply uniformly to all cases, thereby violating the uniformity requirement of the Bankruptcy Clause of the Constitution. According to the Executive Office of the U.S.

The Bankruptcy Protector

On June 6, 2022, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, 142 S. Ct. 1770 (U.S. June 6, 2022) that the increase in fees payable to the U.S. Trustee system in 2018 violated the uniformity aspect of the Bankruptcy Clause of the Constitution because it was not immediately applicable in the two states with Bankruptcy Administrators rather than U.S. Trustees.

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Asbestos Trusts May Leave Insurers Out In Cold

By Shane Dilworth

The major cryptocurrencies have experienced significant declines in 2022; with the crypto market shedding $2 trillion of its peak $3 trillion market capitalization in November 2021. Amid this “crypto winter,” Terra Luna and its algorithmic stablecoin collapsed, triggering a domino effect of losses and illiquidity throughout the crypto industry. The hedge fund Three Arrows Capital was the first big domino to fall, defaulting on $1 billion in loans including $650 million owed to Voyager Digital (“Voyager”).