Blawgletter has the Vague Notion that bankruptcy law dislikes some kinds of contract clauses. Take your ipso factos, which trigger some change in the contract's status simply because a party filed for bankruptcy relief. Don't laws that aim to treat creditors fairly tend to frown on such efforts to get a Leg Up as
Snappy and Bitey Review High Court’s 2012-13 Commercial Cases; “Now Is the Time, Cato!”
Snappy 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
The Weirdness of Bankruptcy Law (Update)
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
Fee Boosts in Bankruptcy Survived Perdue, Fifth Circuit Rules
Say your firm does an awesome job in a bankruptcy case. It helps the debtor come up with a plan to pay its debts, put its balance sheet in order, and emerge from Chapter 11 in near-record time.
Your firm's lodestar — hours times hourly rate — comes to $5.98 million. You ask for a $1 bonus. Only the
How to Value Settlements (By Richard Posner)
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
Guest Post: Jeffrey R. Manning on Stern v. Marshall
As Blawgletter gets ready for a trial that starts Monday, with a glad and grateful heart we welcome our friend, former team-mate, and world class i-banker (at BDO Capital) Jeffrey R. Manning as guest poster.
Jeff always has something well worth hearing to say. He also has, in the realm of humor, what the French
Jarndyce and Jarndyce Meets Anna Nicole Smith; Judicial Snobbery?; Getting a Redo
You know things probably won't turn out well when the first sentence in a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court opinion quotes from a 158 year-old novel.
Dickensian
So begins Chief Justice John Roberts's opus for the majority in Stern v. Marshall, No. 10-179 (U.S. June 23, 2011). It says:
This "suit has, in course of time, become so
Second Circuit Tags Litigation Trustee with Bad Acts He Sued Over
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
Lawyers May Not Advise Debtors to “Load Up” on Debt, Supreme Court Holds; Ads Must Mention “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