In bankruptcy, certain specified types of debts are forgiven or “discharged”, releasing the debtor from personal liability for those debts. Debt discharges are permanent, and when granted, the debtor is no longer required to...more
The latest amendments to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (the “Bankruptcy Rules”) took effect on December 1, 2022. This collection of modifications may be broadly divided into two categories: (i) amendments and a...more
On February 19, 2020, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA) took effect after being signed into law in mid-2019. Among other things, the SBRA created a new subchapter (Subchapter V) to chapter 11 of title 11 of...more
On June 7, 2022, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously held that the exceptions to discharge found in section 523(a) of the Bankruptcy Code, which ordinarily exclusively apply to individual debtors, also apply to...more
For both debtors and creditors, the numbers are important in a bankruptcy proceeding. The Judicial Conference of the United States has announced that certain dollar amounts and dollar limitations in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code...more
In the case of In re Ricky L. Moore (19-01228), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Iowa taught an important lesson in the context of Chapter 12 bankruptcy cases: do not rely on repeated assurances...more
My most recent post surveyed situations in which a debtor might lose assets, or see their value drop to zero, during a bankruptcy case. This article addresses the opposite circumstance: how might a debtor’s estate gain new...more
Somewhere in our rough memories of high school science, we should recall the general principle that a gas will always expand to fill a given void. Although the Bankruptcy Code diverges markedly from scientific principles,...more
Our February 26 post reported on the first case dealing with the question whether a debtor in a pending Chapter 11 case may redesignate it as a case under Subchapter V, the new subchapter of Chapter 11 adopted by the Small...more
Lenders should view as cautionary tales two recently handed down decisions regarding UCC-1 financing statements and the perfection of security interests. On December 20, 2019, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of...more
Agricultural bankruptcies present special and specific issues. The nature of the collateral and the seasonality of the business present a host of questions that need to get answered in order to preserve any value in the...more
Running a family-owned farm is not easy work under the best of economic circumstances, and it can be nearly impossible when times are tough. More than 30 years ago, during the mid-1980s, John Cougar Mellencamp’s mournful song...more
On August 23, 2019, the President of the United States of America signed three new bankruptcy amendments into law. The first bill, H.R. 3311, ratifies The Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, creating a new option for...more
On August 23, President Trump signed into law two new pieces of legislation—the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019 and the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019—that will likely lead to an increase in bankruptcy filings...more
On Friday, August 23, 2019, the President signed into law the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019. The Act increases the debt limit used to determine whether a family farmer is eligible for relief under Chapter 12 of the...more
Chapter 12 Bankruptcy was a common topic in the 1980’s-- the days of the Farm Aid concert and farmers driving tractors to Washington D.C. However, current difficulties are again raising the value of Chapter 12’s as a tool for...more
The latest federal bankruptcy statistics contain more bad news for Wisconsin’s farmers. Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies continue to rise even though overall bankruptcies continue to fall....more
Low grain and milk prices have negatively affected Wisconsin’s ag economy for a few years now. As further evidence of the financial stress on Wisconsin farmers, the national bankruptcy statistics show that, in 2017, more...more
On December 1, 2017, several important changes to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure will be implemented. Those changes will impact creditors who have secured claims, judgment liens, and unsecured claims against...more
When a chapter 7, 11, 12 or 13 case is filed, two key items spring into life. The first is a new entity called the bankruptcy estate which is comprised of all of the debtor’s non-exempt legal or equitable interests in...more