Business Bankruptcy
Cash collateral: why a bank balance is not a spending budget
How lien rights, consent, court orders, and a cash forecast fit together after a filing.
THE REFERENCE DESK
The library.
Find your bearings. Follow the argument. Go back to the source.
Business Bankruptcy
DIP financing: read the conditions as carefully as the interest rate
A guide to borrowing authority, liens, priority, and the operating constraints in a financing proposal.
Business Bankruptcy
Assume or reject? Understanding the contract decision in bankruptcy
The difference between keeping a contract, assigning it, and treating it as breached.
Business Bankruptcy
A commercial lease in Chapter 11: three calendars to track
Rent obligations, the assumption decision, and cure disputes can follow different timelines.
Business Bankruptcy
Operating after a Chapter 11 filing: what management needs to change
Continued operations come with court oversight and a different approach to spending and records.
Business Bankruptcy
Utility service in Chapter 11: plan for adequate assurance
Why protection against a bankruptcy-based shutoff still requires attention to deposits and deadlines.
Business Bankruptcy
The unsecured creditors’ committee: representation beyond one invoice
What a committee does, who appoints it, and why individual creditors still need their own case records.
Business Bankruptcy
Reading a disclosure statement: follow the assumptions behind the recovery
A practical method for evaluating the information supplied with a Chapter 11 plan.
Business Bankruptcy
Claim classification: why the plan’s groups matter
Class labels affect treatment and voting, but their legal basis must be examined.
Business Bankruptcy
Chapter 11 plan voting: amounts, headcounts, and the ballot order
Why a class vote is more precise than a simple majority of all creditors.
Business Bankruptcy
Plan confirmation: support is only one part of the test
How feasibility, creditor treatment, and statutory requirements fit into a confirmation hearing.
Business Bankruptcy
Confirmation and the effective date: what changes, and when?
Why the court’s approval, implementation conditions, and first distribution should be tracked separately.
Business Bankruptcy
When Chapter 11 changes course: conversion or dismissal
What the statutory grounds reveal about reporting, cash management, and the prospects for rehabilitation.
Business Bankruptcy
Hiring estate professionals: approval and compensation are separate questions
Why a signed engagement letter does not settle employment authority, conflicts, or the eventual fee award.
Business Bankruptcy
Small business debtor duties: records that keep the case moving
Financial statements, insurance, taxes, and reporting are part of the reorganization work.
Creditor Resources
Administrative expenses: a priority request still needs a legal basis
How to distinguish an ordinary invoice from a request for administrative-expense treatment.
Creditor Resources
The priority ladder: why an unsecured claim may have special treatment
A way to read statutory priorities without mistaking them for a promise of recovery.
Creditor Resources
Secured-claim valuation: one asset can have more than one relevant value
Why the purpose, date, and proposed use of collateral matter to the calculation.
Creditor Resources
A claim objection arrived: organize the response around the actual issue
Duplicate claims, amount disputes, enforceability, and priority require different evidence.
Creditor Resources
Preference demands: preserve the trading history before discussing repayment
Why an authentic prepetition payment can still be challenged, and which records help evaluate defenses.
Creditor Resources
Fraudulent transfers: intent and value are different routes of inquiry
How to organize the evidence without assuming that every challenged transfer involved deliberate deception.
Creditor Resources
Setoff in bankruptcy: two balances do not automatically cancel each other
Mutuality, timing, and the automatic stay all matter before a creditor nets accounts.
Creditor Resources
Reclamation of goods: a written demand is only part of the analysis
Receipt dates, identifiable goods, and prior security rights can shape a seller’s position.
Creditor Resources
Postpetition transfers: check the authority before accepting estate property
Section 549 addresses a different problem from a prepetition preference.
Creditor Resources
Avoidance and recovery: follow the transfer through the recipients
Why a transfer’s invalidity and a particular recipient’s liability are separate questions.
Creditor Resources
Adequate protection: focus on the interest that may lose value
Payments and replacement liens are tools, not a standard package for every secured creditor.
Creditor Resources
Relief from the automatic stay: the motion is not permission to proceed
Understanding the requested grounds, the hearing, and the scope of an eventual order.
Creditor Resources
Selling or transferring a claim: keep the transaction and court record aligned
Rule 3001 distinguishes transfers before and after filing, and transfers made as security.
Creditor Resources
Involuntary bankruptcy: a collective remedy with strict conditions
Why an unpaid bill is not enough to justify putting another business into bankruptcy.
Creditor Resources
The meeting of creditors: prepare factual questions, not a trial speech
What the section 341 meeting is for and how a creditor can make participation useful.
Bankruptcy Basics
What belongs to the bankruptcy estate?
An inventory starts with legal interests, including property that is not sitting in your home or bank account.
Bankruptcy Basics
Bankruptcy exemptions: choosing the applicable rules
Why residence history, ownership, and equity matter before comparing exemption amounts.
Bankruptcy Basics
The discharge injunction and collection after bankruptcy
How personal liability changes after discharge, and what to preserve if collection continues.
Bankruptcy Basics
Why some debts survive an individual bankruptcy discharge
Read the specific exception and the applicable chapter before assuming a balance will disappear.
Bankruptcy Basics
Financial records and the risk of losing a Chapter 7 discharge
Disclosure failures can affect the discharge itself, beyond a dispute about one debt.
Bankruptcy Basics
The Chapter 7 means test: what the calculation can and cannot tell you
Understand the abuse framework before treating an online calculation as a filing decision.
Bankruptcy Basics
Credit counseling before filing: timing and exceptions
The prefiling briefing and the later financial management course serve different statutory requirements.
Bankruptcy Basics
Changing a confirmed Chapter 13 plan
Section 1329 permits specified changes before payments are complete, subject to continuing legal limits.
Bankruptcy Basics
Chapter 13 hardship discharge: three questions to examine
Relief before all plan payments are made has a demanding test and a more limited scope.
Bankruptcy Basics
Reopening a closed bankruptcy case
An order reopening the file and an order granting the desired relief answer different questions.
Case Reviews
Taggart v. Lorenzen: the standard for discharge contempt
A creditor’s subjective good faith does not alone resolve civil contempt for violating a discharge order.
Case Reviews
City of Chicago v. Fulton: retaining property and the automatic stay
The Court distinguished passive retention under section 362(a)(3) from other possible turnover or stay obligations.
Case Reviews
Czyzewski v. Jevic: priority cannot be skipped through structured dismissal
A final distribution attached to dismissal cannot bypass affected creditors’ priority without their consent.
Case Reviews
Bartenwerfer v. Buckley: liability for a partner’s fraud and discharge
Section 523(a)(2)(A) can apply even when the debtor did not personally commit the fraud giving rise to the debt.
Case Reviews
Lamar, Archer & Cofrin v. Appling: one asset can describe financial condition
A statement about a single asset can trigger the writing requirement in the financial-condition fraud exception.
Case Reviews
Mission Product v. Tempnology: rejection is a breach
Rejecting an executory contract does not itself rescind rights already granted to the counterparty.
Case Reviews
Truck Insurance v. Kaiser Gypsum: an insurer’s right to be heard
Financial responsibility for bankruptcy claims can make an insurer a party in interest under section 1109(b).
Case Reviews
Rodriguez v. FDIC: deciding who owns a consolidated tax refund
The Court rejected a federal common-law allocation rule without deciding the refund’s ultimate owner.
Case Reviews
Merit Management v. FTI: identify the transfer before applying the safe harbor
A financial intermediary’s participation did not replace analysis of the transfer the trustee sought to avoid.
Case Reviews
Law v. Siegel: equitable powers cannot override an exemption rule
Serious debtor misconduct did not authorize payment of administrative expenses from protected homestead value.
Business Bankruptcy
Chapter 11 and Subchapter V: a path forward for a small business
The framework, the tradeoffs, and the questions to bring to an adviser before a reorganization.
Creditor Resources
Your customer filed for bankruptcy. Where do you start?
Organize the notice, the account, and the questions that need a prompt legal answer.
Case Reviews
Purdue Pharma and the limits of nondebtor releases
What the Supreme Court decided about a Chapter 11 plan releasing claims against nondebtors.
Case Reviews
MOAC: a sale appeal restriction is not a jurisdictional bar
Why the classification of section 363(m) matters, and what the decision did not guarantee.
Bankruptcy Basics
How to read a bankruptcy court opinion
A repeatable method: identify the question, find the holding, then test its limits.
Creditor Resources
The automatic stay: the pause is only the starting point
Why a bankruptcy notice should trigger a review of collection activity.
Creditor Resources
A proof of claim starts with the records
What to assemble before completing Official Form B 410.
Business Bankruptcy
Chapter 7 and a business wind-down
Understand the difference between liquidation of assets and a personal fresh start.
Bankruptcy Basics
Why Chapter 13 is a different conversation
A repayment-plan framework for eligible individuals with regular income.
Business Bankruptcy
Subchapter V: work backward from the plan
The 90-day framework makes early preparation a practical priority.
Bankruptcy Basics
The language of bankruptcy, in plain English
Eight terms that make a notice or case review easier to follow.
Bankruptcy Basics
From filing to outcome: reading the case process
A simple orientation to a process whose details depend on the chapter and the case.
Business Bankruptcy
Questions to ask before hiring bankruptcy counsel
Make the first consultation useful, specific, and grounded in your situation.
Business Bankruptcy
Your first consultation: a document checklist
An organized starting pack for a conversation about business distress.
Bankruptcy Basics
Where to find the source behind a bankruptcy article
A short route to official forms, court explanations, and the actual decision.