consumer bankruptcy

Bill Would Let ‘Medically Distressed’ Cast Off Student Loans

08/01/14

A Rhode Island lawmaker slipped a potential gift for debt-laden graduates into his proposal to tweak the consumer bankruptcy rules: a provision allowing those with crushing medical bills to eliminate their student loans, too.

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Delaware Judge Faults Ocwen for Pushing Homeowners to Bankruptcy

07/22/14

It’s not one of the multibillion-dollar settlements or multimillion-dollar jury awards designed to spur reform of such allegedly abusive mortgage-servicing practices as falsified court documents, improper fees and other misconduct. But a recent ruling from a Delaware judge is a step forward for people making a last stand in bankruptcy to hang on to their homes, one attorney says.

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Do Debtors or Creditors Get Undisbursed Chapter 13 Plan Payments Upon Conversion? -- A New Circuit Split

07/11/14

Chapter 13 trustees handle millions of dollars in plan payments every year. At some point in likely a sizable portion of cases, the trustee accumulates these payments instead of distributing the funds to creditors. What happens if a debtor's case is converted while the trustee has this accumulated money in its account? In 2012, the 3rd Circuit, in a majority opinion, held that the trustee must return the funds to the debtor (see decision here).

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The Daily Docket: Nortel’s $1.6 Billion Bond Interest Dispute Fast Tracked

06/25/14

Nortel Networks Corp.'s warring creditors are headed into a July showdown over a $1.6 billion question that creditors outside the U.S. said could be the key to a fast payday in the long running international insolvency. The Wall Street Journal has the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.

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Turning Away From the Dark Side!

06/18/14

Just a quick note to follow up on previous posts (here and here) and report that the First Circuit reversed In re Traverse.  Thanks to

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Daycare Owners Can’t Escape Possible Abuse Damages in Bankruptcy

06/13/14

Owners of a Delaware daycare center whose workers pushed three-year-old boys into a fistfight and then captured the event on a cell phone video can’t use bankruptcy to get out from under a possible damage award, a judge said this week.

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Did Law v. Siegel Sound the Death Knell for the Equity Powers of the Bankruptcy Court?

06/09/14

Did Law v. Siegel Sound the Death Knell for the Equity Powers of the Bankruptcy Court?  Mark Berman thinks so.

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Book Review: Jennifer Taub's Other People's Houses (Highly Recommended)

05/28/14

I just read Jennifer Taub's outstanding book Other People's Houses, which is a history of mortgage deregulation and the financial crisis.  The book makes a nice compliment to Kathleen Engel and Patricia McCoy's fantastic The Subprime Virus.

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