News Topic: ATexasBankruptcyLawyersBlog

Judge Tony Davis has authored an opinion which should be recommended reading for anyone litigating preference issues.   The opinion encompasses the court’s rulings on both summary judgment and trial on the merits and touches on both procedural and ... Read full article

For chapter 11 debtor's lawyers, Matter of Pro-Snax Distributors, Inc. , 157 F.3d 414 (5th Cir. 1998) is like the sword of Damocles--constantly hanging over counsel's head and threatening to deny compensation when a case goes south.   While 11 ... Read full article

After the PACER  and CM/ECF outage on Friday January 24, I asked the PACER service center if they had any comment.   They were kind enough to respond on January 27.   Here is the latest information:   ... Read full article

On Friday January 24, 2014, attorneys trying to access the federal courts' electronic records and filing systems were unable to get through for almost four hours.   While occasional local outages for maintenance or technical problems are not unknown, ... Read full article

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

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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

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

Venue occupied the second half of the commission hearing held on November 22, 2013 and produced some of the liveliest discussion.  While there were five panelists slated to discuss venue, Judge Greendyke and Buzz Rochelle added their comments as well.   ... 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

This is continuing coverage of the 2013 National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.   Today I was able to attend a program on blogging, listen to an economist prognosticating and observe a hearing of the ABI Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11. ... Read full article

I am at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges in Atlanta.    The conference includes some of the best bankruptcy continuing education in the country.    There is no way to report on it all, so I will be offering some random observations.    ... 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

The first post in this series discussed successful and (largely) unsuccessful claims brought against mortgage servicers.   In Ashley Martins v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP , No. 12-20559 (5th Cir. 6/26/13)(also discussed in part 1 of this series) and ... 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

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

Who would have thought that abstention could be so interesting? Judge Leif Clark has written an opinion on abstention which jabs at some of the boilerplate language found in motions to abstain and contains a footnote destined to become a Clark-classic. ... Read full article

From 1989 to 2007, Judges Larry Kelly and Frank Monroe occupied the bankruptcy bench in Austin, providing a period of judicial continuity rivaled only by their colleagues in San Antonio (Judges Leif Clark and Ronald King served at the same time from 1988 ... Read full article