1998-134-4_newSnappy reclines. The Empire State Building looms in the mid-distance. Bitey consults his notes. He clears his throat.

Bitey:    The U.S. Supreme Court's summer break started last week, Snaps, and the time has come for us to look at the . . . uh . . . results of the 2012-13 Term for those commercial cases

People who handle cases in all kinds of civil courts, whether state, federal, or both, get an odd feeling when they wander into a special kind of civil court — the U.S. bankruptcy court. The oddness comes partly from the strange ways bankruptcy law handles disputes. Often, the merits of a claim seem to take a

Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner likes to riff on things that tickle his fancy. He does it a lot in his legal writing, of which he does a great deal. Just this week he wrote about how to tell if you should take an offer to settle:

Determining the reasonableness of a settlement requires comparing

You'd think that a corporation would have to have some gall if it sued its officers and directors for prolonging its life.

Even if they defrauded lenders out of the money that kept the firm chugging far past the point of genuine insolvency.

Does the situation change if the company ends up in chapter 11 and the bankruptcy

Five years ago, Congress clamped down on small-time debtors by passing the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.  The Act helped the consumer credit industry.  No longer could people wipe out credit card and other debt by filing for liquidation under Chapter 7.  They'd instead have to go under Chapter 13