Bankruptcy Law Commons^™

Nothing Left To Tax Or Cut, The Gate To Chapter 9 Is Shut: The Puerto Rico Debt Crisis, Bianca Ko

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Bankruptcy Stay On A Subsequently Filed Appeal, Heather Kolinsky

UF Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disciplinary Legal Empiricism, Lynn M. Lopucki

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article reports on an empirical study of one hundred and twenty empirical legal studies published in leading, non-peer-reviewed law reviews and in the peer-reviewed Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. The study is the first to compare studies by disciplinary empiricists – defined as Ph.D. holders – with those by non-disciplinary empiricists – defined as J.D. holders who are not also Ph.D. holders. Three differences identified in the study suggest that Ph.D. hiring is on a collision course with the demands of legal educators, the organized bar, and students that the law schools better prepare students for practice. First, disciplinary …

Nine Into Eleven: Accounting For Common Interest Communities In Bankruptcy, C. Scott Pryor

Scholarly Works

Ever more Americans live in a common interest community such as a homeowners’ association or condominium. Common interest communities restrict the uses owners may make of their property but provide benefits to the owners. The community association pays for these benefits by levying assessments on the owners’ property. Common interest communities offer a wide variety of benefits that can be divided into two sorts: public and private. Local municipalities typically provide public benefits at taxpayer expense; private entities usually afford private benefits at the consumer’s expense.

Like both public and private entities, common interest communities can experience the problem of …

Very Special Circumstances - The Almost Irrebuttable Presumption Of Abuse Under Section 707(B)(2), Laura B. Bartell

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Soggy Debt—The Seventh Circuit Widens The Split On Fdcpa Liability For Time-Barred Claims In Bankruptcy, Elijah C. Stone

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Guest Editorial: Personal Insolvency – A Fresh Start, Rosalind Mason, Jason Kilborn, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Joseph Spooner

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Consumer Credit In America: Past, Present, And Future (Introduction), Pamela Foohey, Jim Hawkins, Creola Johnson, Nathalie Martin

Scholarly Works

In September 2016, in conjunction with Law & Contemporary Problems at Duke University School of Law, we organized a symposium on Consumer Credit in America. We sought to assess the state of consumer credit in America — to review and examine its recent history, to consider arguments for and against regulation, and to discuss the potential for future innovation. This is the introduction to the volume of articles coming out of that symposium.

When Social Enterprises Fail, Jonathan Brown

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article identifies the conflicts between social enterprise legislation and bankruptcy law and presents a normative argument for a legal regime that would harmonize the two. Focusing on benefit corporations, the most widely adopted social enterprise form, this Article observes that existing law leaves uncertainty as to the role of directors at a time of financial distress and will produce outcomes that are at odds with the core goals of social enterprise legislation. Then, drawing on academic proposals for contract-based systems of bankruptcy, this Article argues that just as a firm may opt out of a corporate governance norm of …

The Triage And Treatment Of Healthcare Institutions In Distress: How To Involve State Regulators In Healthcare Bankruptcies And Receiverships, Brian P. Stern, Christopher J. Fragomeni

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Consumer Bankruptcy Pathologies, Edward R. Morrison, Antoine Uettwiller

Faculty Scholarship

This paper questions several long-standing descriptions of consumer bankruptcy in the United States. We focus on Chapter 13, which discharges debts after consumers pay disposable income to creditors for up to five years. Many studies document pathologies, including high failure rates, racial disparities, low creditor recoveries, and attorney biases. We observe the same patterns in new data drawn from Cook County, Illinois, but show that these pathologies are central tendencies that ignore substantial heterogeneity across consumers. Several pathologies are driven by subsets of consumers; some disappear once we take account of consumer heterogeneity. We present new evidence that some pathologies …

Tripping The Light Fantastic: A Comparative Analysis Of The European Commission's Proposals For New And Interim Financing Of Insolvent Businesses, Jennifer Payne, Janis P. Sarra

All Faculty Publications

The European Commission published a draft Directive in November 2016, with the aim of ensuring that all Member States have in place an effective mechanism for dealing with viable, but financially distressed, businesses. The draft Directive includes provisions designed to encourage financing for the debtor company, both interim financing to “keep the lights on” for a brief period while the debtor negotiates with its creditors for a resolution to its financial distress, and where possible, to finance implementation of a restructuring plan, called “new financing” in the draft Directive. Creating such a financing regime is a complex and difficult issue, …

Lender Discrimination, Black Churches And Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Based on my original empirical research, in this Article, I expose a disparity between the demographics of the roughly 650 religious congregations that have filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy during part of the last decade and congregations nationwide. Churches with predominately black membership — Black Churches — appeared in chapter 11 more than three times as often as they appear among churches across the country. A conservative estimate of the percentage of Black Churches among religious congregation chapter 11 debtors is 60%. The likely percentage is upward of 75%. Black Churches account for 21% of congregations nationwide.

Why are Black …

Attorneys' Fees And Chapter Choice: Exploring "No Money Down" Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In a forthcoming article in the Southern California Law Review, the authors use new data from the ongoing Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP) to explore the "no money down" bankruptcy. This article summarizes that article and discusses the law that influenced the creation of "no money down" chapter 13s, which households are more likely to file with "no money down," and why this type of chapter 13 case might be less than optimal for the consumer bankruptcy system. Both studies draw data from a debtor's bankruptcy court records and written questionnaires mailed to the debtors to collect demographic information and details …

Giving And Creating: The Legacy Of Keith J. Shapiro, G. Ray Warner

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Some take; others give. Tonight’s honoree, Keith J. Shapiro, is a giver.

Many of the giants in our field have received this award during its almost 20-year history, and each of them richly deserved it. But of all the recipients, Keith is the person most deserving of this particular award. This is, after all, the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal lifetime achievement award and Keith and the Journal are inextricably linked. Not only did this journal launch Keith’s lifetime of stellar bankruptcy achievement, but one of his achievements was pushing this Journal to the success and preeminence that it now …

Reexamining The Doctrine Of Equitable Mootness In Light Of The Detroit Bankruptcy, Nicole Langston

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Garnering debate, and sometimes harsh criticism, the doctrine of equitable mootness has been a focal point for academic debates among legal scholars for decades. "Unlike the constitutional doctrine of mootness, which bars consideration of appeals because no Article III case or controversy remains, the doctrine of equitable mootness is a pragmatic judicially-created principle, grounded in the notion that, with the passage of time after a judgment in equity and implementation of that judgment, effective relief on appeal becomes impractical, imprudent, and therefore inequitable. Applied principally in bankruptcy proceedings because of the equitable nature of bankruptcy judgments, equitable mootness is often …

Predictors Of Municipal Bankruptcies And State Intervention Programs: An Exploratory Study, Laura N. Coordes, Thom Reilly

Kentucky Law Journal

Why do some struggling cities file for bankruptcy while others, facing simiar circumstances, do not? This Article builds on the literature examining the causes and consequences ofmunicipal fiscal distress by exploring specific factors that lead municipalities to seek help from the state and federal government. Viewing municipal opportunities and constraints through political, economic, and legal lenses, this Article helps to explain the nuances ofmunicival decision making.

After identifiing eight factors that may serve as predctors of municipal insolvency, the authors studied cities in Fiscal distress with an eye toward uncovering the circumstances that led each of these cities into and—if …

Lender Discrimination, Black Churches, And Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey

Scholarly Works

Based on my original empirical research, in this Article, I expose a disparity between the demographics of the roughly 650 religious congregations that have filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy during part of the last decade and congregations nationwide. Churches with predominately black membership — Black Churches — appeared in chapter 11 more than three times as often as they appear among churches across the country. A conservative estimate of the percentage of Black Churches among religious congregation chapter 11 debtors is 60%. The likely percentage is upward of 75%. Black Churches account for 21% of congregations nationwide.

Why are Black …

'No Money Down' Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne

Scholarly Works

This Article reports on a breakdown in access to justice in bankruptcy, a system from which one million Americans will seek help this year. A crucial decision for these consumers will be whether to file a chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy. Nearly every aspect of their bankruptcies — both the benefits and the burdens of debt relief — will be different in chapter 7 versus chapter 13. Almost all consumers will hire a bankruptcy attorney. Because they must pay their attorneys, many consumers will file chapter 13 to finance their access to the law, rather than because they prefer …

Critical Differences Between Key Employee Retention Plans And Key Employee Incentive Plans, Sumaya Ullah Restagno

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Section 503(c) of the United States Bankruptcy Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) imposes strict limitations on companies in chapter 11 who want to make bonus payments to retain employees. In particular, section 503(c) limits a chapter 11 debtor’s ability to favor employees over the interests of the estate to ensure that any bonus payment is designed for the overall benefit of the bankrupt estate. This memo details the differences between bonus payments under sections 503(c)(1) and 503(c)(3) and explains how a chapter 11 debtor should design bonus payments to employees to ensure those payments pass scrutiny under these provisions.