Business Bankruptcy
What Constitutes the “Legal Rate” in a Solvent Debtor Bankruptcy Case?
Chapter 11 bankruptcies find the debtor generally to be insolvent, but not always. Occasionally, a debtor will emerge from the bankruptcy process as a solvent entity, and in those situations, Bankruptcy Code §726(a)(5) may entitle creditors of the debtor’s estate to post-petition “interest at the legal rate from the date of filing the petition.”[1] In […]
Timing Is Everything: How to Make a Rough Assessment of Potential Preference Action Defenses (PART 2)
Editor’s Note: Part 1 of this article laid out the prima facie case a plaintiff needs to have in order to sue for a preference, outlined the major defenses and explained the importance and use of certain key documents in assessing and maintaining a defense. Part 2 now delves into the major defenses in greater […]
Timing Is Everything: How to Make a Rough Assessment of Potential Preference Action Defenses (PART 1)
Your company has just been served with a preference complaint. The complaint seeks to recover tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars even though your company already has taken a loss on the debtor’s accounts. Your initial response is anger at the unfairness of being sued. Fortunately, Congress included defenses to preference actions so that […]
Chapter 15 Bankruptcy: A Concise Overview
Like commerce in general, bankruptcies are not necessarily restricted by borders. A company that files for insolvency protection in the Caribbean, Europe or the Far East may also have assets or interests elsewhere, like New York or Miami. Under those circumstances, the debtor’s representative may need the assistance of the U.S. bankruptcy courts to achieve […]
Corporate Restructuring 2017: Why Some Attorneys See Rising Rates, but Most Don’t
THE CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING profession has become, much like the broader economy, increasingly a world of few “haves” and many “have nots.” This is not by accident, and it is not going away. Those who see and accept the industry for what it is—and pivot accordingly—will continue to be winners. Those who possess a limited repertoire […]
Reclamation of Reclamation Claims by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court in Reichhold Holdings
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded: reclamation rights are illusory in bankruptcy cases. Where a supplier ships goods to a company that later files for bankruptcy, section 546(c) of the Bankruptcy Code provides reclamation remedies (i.e., supplier getting the goods back) under certain circumstances (there are time limits, etc.) if the supplier has such […]
Life Partners Holdings – A Viatical Settlement Scheme Comes Crashing Down (Part 1)
If you are already familiar with the Life Partners Holdings debacle, you may think that the term “Life Partners” should stand for Brian Pardo and his partners in crime who ran that notorious company serving life sentences (instead of just paying massive fines and having some of their assets seized). Such criminals’ loss of liberty may […]
The “A&P” Chapter 22 Bankruptcy Saga—Anomaly or Canary in a Coal Mine?
A few months ago, on July 20, 2015, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, more commonly known as “A&P,” made history by filing what we in the restructuring industry like to call “Chapter 22”—that is, a Chapter 11 restructuring bankruptcy part deux. A chapter 22 in and of itself is not that unique, but […]
“Don’t Pass Me By”—The Jevic Case and Bypassing the Absolute Priority Rule
It’s an all-too-familiar situation: a debtor files for chapter 11 bankruptcy and an asset sale takes place, but there is not enough money at the end of the day to fund a plan confirmation process, or adequately pay off all creditors who come first in line according to the bankruptcy code. That “line” is defined […]
There Ought to Be a Law, and There Is: When the Insolvent LLC’s Manager Distributes Cash But Does Not Pay Creditors
Editor’s Note: The scenario discussed below was present in many respects in Vieira v. Harris (In re JK Harris & Co. LLC), 512 B.R. 562 (Bankr. D. S.C. 2012). Let us suppose that a provider of tax resolution services to a large number of customers borrows cash secured by accounts receivable (the cash borrower can […]