News Topic: ATexasBankruptcyLawyersBlog

When the Supreme Court struck down the Bankruptcy Reform Act's grant of authority to bankruptcy judges in 1982, it took it took them 29 years to return to the issue.    This allowed bankruptcy law to develop and mature without constantly fretting ... Read full article

Recently I attended a CLE seminar in which the learned professor discoursed on the difference between a metaphor and a simile.   A metaphor is a statement which is not literally true but (for example, you never see a wolf actually wearing sheep's ... Read full article

While the Fifth Circuit has yet to definitively address the quirky Pro-Snax opinion, a new decision provides some helpful guidance on recovering attorneys' fees in bankruptcy.    ASARCO, LLC v. Jordan Hyden Womble Culbreth & Holzer, P.C. (Matter ... Read full article

Most Americans don’t save enough money for retirement.    However, the Supreme Court recently dealt with the opposite situation—what happens when someone saves more than they need and their heirs receive the money (and then file bankruptcy). ... Read full article

In the follow-up to Stern v. ... Read full article

The Fifth Circuit has reversed a Bankruptcy Court's decision to impose death penalty sanctions against a creditor where the lower court found that "the very temple of justice has been defiled." The Bankruptcy Court had found that the ... Read full article

Several hundred people, including many members of the bankruptcy bar, judges and former judges gathered to remember the life of Larry Kelly at First United Methodist Church on March 22, 2014.   I counted at least ten current or former bankruptcy judges in ... Read full article

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The case of self-proclaimed "investigative blogger" Crystal Cox took another turn as the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded the case against her.   The decision gives greater First Amendment protection to bloggers than the stingy view taken by ... Read full article

Lately there has been a lot of attention focused on venue reform including an ABI Commission hearing.   I have a simple proposal that would eliminate this problem once and for all.    My suggestion is to let each of the circuits compete for the big cases, ... Read full article

Saturday was the final day of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.    The panels focused on ethics issues of the future, the role of empirical research and international insolvency. ... Read full article

A failed bid to reap a Beanie Baby bonanza, which resulted in a fifteen year legal odyssey for a chapter 13 debtor and his attorneys, will live on a while longer as a result of the Fifth Circuit’s recent interpretation of Stern v. Marshall . ... Read full article

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It is a much misunderstood truism that  a "secured creditor ‘with a loan secured by a lien on the assets of a debtor who becomes bankrupt before the loan is repaid may ignore the bankruptcy proceeding and look to the lien for satisfaction of the ... Read full article

The ABI Commission studying reform of Chapter 11 met for its seventeenth and final time at the UT Bankruptcy Conference in Austin, Texas on Friday November 22, 2013.   The Commission heard from a total of eight witnesses on a variety of topics.   Seven of ... Read full article

Recently, the Fifth Circuit has authored two opinions in which it opined that parties could not consent to entry of a final order in a case governed by Stern v. Marshall.   In one of these cases, BP RE, LP v. RML Waxahachise Dodge, LLC , 735 F.3d 279 (5th ... Read full article

The life of an appellate court judge is largely occupied by consideration of criminal appeals and prisoner petitions.    In FY2012, these cases made up 64% of the Fifth Circuit's docket.   (By contrast, bankruptcy appeals made up only 1.7% of cases ... Read full article