ATexasBankruptcyLawyersBlog

Counsel's Retention of "Wet Signatures" Overcomes Debtor's "Faulty" Memory

12/02/22

Sometimes debtors get buyer's regret after filing a bankruptcy petition.  However, once a bankruptcy petition is filed, it remains on the debtor's credit for ten years. One debtor sought to throw his attorney under the bus by claiming that the bankruptcy filing had never been authorized. Fortunately the debtor's attorney had retained his client's wet signatures and text messages which protected him from the Court's Order to Show Cause. In re Wilson, 2022 Bankr. LEXIS 3378 (Bankr. D. N.J. 11/30/22).  

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Judge Gargotta Nixes Non-Dischargeability Claim Against Corporate SubV Debtor

11/28/22

 Distinguishing a precedent from his own district and disagreeing with the Fourth Circuit, Judge Craig Gargotta has ruled that non-dischargeability only applies to human Subchapter V debtors. Adv. No. 22-5052, Avion Funding, LLC v. GFS Industries, LLC (Bankr. W.D. Tex. 11/10/2022).  The decision can be found here.

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NCBJ 2022: Post-Pandemic Ethics

10/27/22

Besides sweeping away the competition in ballroom dancing competitions and having been a law school dean at a young age, Prof. Nancy Rapoport is known as the teacher who can make ethics interesting.  She gave the keynote address for the Commercial Law League luncheon titled Brave New World--Ethics Issues That We Never Knew We Had. 

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NCBJ 2022: Five Secrets to a Magical Sub-V

10/24/22

Judge Catherine McEwen (Bankr. M.D. Fla.) and panelists David Mawhinney (Bowditch, Framingham, Mass.), Amy Denton Mayer (Stichter Riedel Blain Postler, PA, Tampa, Fl) and Kirk Burkley (Bernstein-Burkley, P.C., Pittsburgh, PA) donned their wizard's hats to present 5 Secrets to a Magical Sub-V. Both David and Amy serve as Subchapter V trustees and represent SubV debtors, while Kirk offered the creditors' viewpoint. Their program covered five areas of Subchapter V law and practice.

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NCBJ 2022: What's Hot

10/22/22

When the nation's bankruptcy judges, academics and practitioners get together for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, there are certain topics that tend to dominate. This year mass torts were a through line in many of the presentations.  A presentation on pushing the boundaries of chapter 11 suggested that mass tort cases did not have the same urgency as melting ice cube operating businesses.

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