All posts in Judges Corner

Breyer sometimes poses questions for Thomas during oral arguments

By | February 22, 2013 | Judges Corner, Supreme Court | 1 Comment

A little off-topic, but fascinating! 

By Debra Cassens Weiss, from ABAJournal.com

About seven years have passed since Justice Clarence Thomas has posed a question in oral arguments, though he did recently make a rare remark that appeared to be a joke about the quality of Harvard Law School.

But some of Thomas’ questions are still being aired, despite his silence, the Washington Post reports. Thomas sometimes writes down a question and passes it along to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Thomas’ “friend and seatmate on the bench,” the story says.

In a recent appearance at Harvard Law School, Thomas confirmed Breyer’s assistance, according to the Post. “I’ll say, ‘What about this, Steve,’ and he’ll pop up and ask a question,” Thomas said. “So you can blame some of those [Breyer questions] on me.”

Thomas told the Harvard law students he doesn’t ask questions because “I think we should listen to lawyers who are arguing their case and I think we should allow the advocates to advocate.”

Thomas said in the speech that he is “quite introverted,” though he makes regular appearances at law schools. The Post described Thomas as “warm and effusive” in his Harvard visit and said that, if he did ask questions in arguments, the public could learn more about his personality on display in the speeches.

And More Helpful Tips From Aki

By | February 13, 2013 | Chapter 13, Judges Corner | 1 Comment

With respect to the “mortgage payment declaration” and “car payment” declaration which are now combined on form F3015-1.4.DEC.PRECONF.PYMTS, Judge Klein does not require the form to be filed for her cases.  Judge Bason does not require the the form to be filed for mortgage payments and our office will find out shortly if he requires the form to be filed for postpetition car payments.  Although the filing of the form is not required, both Judges do require that your client make the postpetition mortgage and car payments.

Aki Koyama, Staff Attorney to Chapter 13 Trustee Kathy Dockery

February 20, 2013 – Judge Wayne Johnson Seminar on “Standing Order Regarding Procedures for Chapter 13 Cases Assigned to Judge Johnson

By | February 11, 2013 | Judges Corner, Programs | No comments

February 20, 2013, Wednesday

Bankruptcy Court
3420 12th Street
Riverside, CA 92501
12:00 p.m.

Judge Johnson is going to host a free seminar on his rules.  Come early as the Courtroom will fill up quickly.

Judge Riblet on the Absolute Priority Rule

By | January 18, 2013 | Absolute Priority Rule, Chapter 11, Judges Corner | 1 Comment

The Absolute Priority Rule is an arcane part of the Bankruptcy Code (see 11 USC § 1129(b)(2)(B)(ii)).  It basically says that in a Chapter 11 plan, lower classes of creditors cannot be paid anything unless higher classes have either been paid in full or consent to their treatment.  As an example, I have a debtor who is trying to confirm a plan that pays $200,000 to his unsecured creditors, but allows him to keep all his properties.  Because one of the unsecured creditors strenuously objects to the $200,000 payment as too little, the plan violates the Absolute Priority Rule – the debtor is a lower class of creditor than the unsecured creditors.

In 2005, Congress passed BAPCPA, which changed some of the language regarding this rule in an ambiguous (and again arcane) way.  Some courts have found that the change abrogates the rule with respect to individual debtors; others have found that it did nothing of the sort.  See here for a discussion of how the language change worked.

I had a hearing on a disclosure statement before Judge Riblet, of Santa Barbara, today.  In the past, she has always talked as if the Absolute Priority Rule applies to debtors – “why on earth wouldn’t it?” she once asked me at a hearing where the rule was not yet at issue.

Today, she came down firmly on the fence.  She said that she had only discovered the Friedman case (In re Friedman, 466 B.R. 471 (9th Cir. BAP 2012) in the last month, and read the Fourth Circuit’s take on the Absolute Priority Rule (In re Maharaj, 681 F.3d 558 (4th Cir. 2012)) even more recently.  She pointed out that neither was precedential for her.  She insisted that, when the issue comes up, counsel be well-versed in both cases.  She did not tip her hand in suggesting which she found more persuasive.

So unfortunately we still do not know which way this judge, one of the last in the Central District to deal with the issue, will rule.

Great Daily Journal Article on Judge Neil Bason

By | January 17, 2013 | Judges Corner | 1 Comment

This is a great article about a great judge.  I didn’t realize his father was a bankruptcy judge.

The article says he traces “his West Coast career to one pivotal point in his young adult life.  ‘I went on vacation,’ he recalled, ‘and I came back, and I found out that I had no job, no girlfriend and no apartment.'”

Reminds me of a Buddy Guy song, “Came home this morning, and oh! what a shock – when I found out my key, no longer fit the lock.”

 

An Evening with our Judges – January 15, 2013 – Riverside

By | January 4, 2013 | Courts, Judges Corner, Programs | 1 Comment

REGISTER NOW!

A college of lawyers and others dedicated to the study of bankruptcy and insolvency

An Evening with our Judges

The Honorable Meredith A. Jury – U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
The Honorable Deborah J. Saltzman – U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
The Honorable Scott C. Clarkson – U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
The Honorable Mark S. Wallace – U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
The Honorable Wayne Johnson – U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
The Honorable Mark D. Houle – U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
Moderator: Arnie Wuhrman, Serenity Legal Services

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

No Host Cocktails 6:00 p.m. ~ Dinner 6:15 p.m. ~ Program 7 p.m.

Hyatt Place Riverside
3500 Market Street, Riverside, CA 92501

Read more…

Immigrants, minorities especially vulnerable to bankruptcy scams

By | December 5, 2012 | Chapter 7, Judges Corner | 6 Comments

Hi everyone,

Attached hereto is a link to the story we worked on with KPCC to highlight both the identity theft in the bankruptcy court and “bankruptcy hijacking.” It came out yesterday.

Have a great week!

Maggie Bordeaux

Public Counsel Press Clips – December 4, 2012
Ajamu Azibo realized he had a problem when someone filed a bankruptcy in his name. Then he became a victim of another scam: it’s called “bankruptcy hijacking,” and it’s a problem we’re seeing more and more these days. Public Counsel’s Magdalena Reyes Bordeaux, who directs our Debtor Assistance Project, calls Azibo’s case a prime example of how creative some notarios, or fake lawyers, have become. “I think for many individuals, they are intimidated by the legal system generally, and there’s a lot of advertising out there by notaries…It’s only compounded by the fact that a lot of these individuals are friends, maybe friends of family, and so they trust them sometimes more than they trust the legal system.”

Immigrants, minorities especially vulnerable to bankruptcy scams

Ruxandra Guidi with Take Two | December 4th, 2012, 9:08am

Software systems engineer Ajamu Azibo seems to have it all. He’s young and healthy, with a great job at UCLA, a happy marriage, and dreams of owning a house someday.

Read more…

Bankruptcy Highjacking on NPR

By | December 4, 2012 | Judges Corner | No comments

I heard this story on KPCC while returning from court this morning. It features Judge Tighe of CDCA and Maggie Bordeaux from Public Counsel.

Though we all deal with these issues regularly, thank you for bringing this matter to light for others.

http://www.scpr. org/programs/ take-two/ 2012/12/04/ 29526/immigrants -minorities-especially- vulnerable- to-ban/

Desiree Causey, Esq.

Judge Clarkson to Mediate San Bernardino Firefighters Union Dispute

By | November 28, 2012 | Chapter 9, Judges Corner | 1 Comment

BLOOMBERG
Nov. 21, 2012

San Bernardino Agrees to Mediation With Firefighters

By Steven Church

San Bernardino, the bankrupt California city, and its firefighters union agreed to seek court-supervised mediation of their labor contract disputes, the city said in court papers.

The two sides will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott Clarkson to oversee talks aimed at resolving their disagreements, which were not specified in the court filing today in Riverside, California.

Two weeks after the city filed for bankruptcy protection on Aug. 1, the union threatened to try to have the case dismissed.

San Bernardino was the third California city to file bankruptcy in less than three months. The city of about 209,000 people lies about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. A fiscal emergency, brought on by a $46 million budget shortfall, forced it to stop paying some creditors and seek court protection, the city said.

The case is In re San Bernardino, 12-28006, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California (Riverside).

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware at schurch3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net

Judge Scott Clarkson – Photographer

By | November 20, 2012 | Community, Judges Corner | 1 Comment

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned to you that Judge Scott Clarkson is a pretty talented guy.  Between packed hearing days, a busy voluntary mediation schedule, and overseing the Central District’s newly filed mega-case American Suzuki Motor Company, he has continued his remarkable “other career” as a documentary photographer.  On the occasion of the October 22, 2012 passing of former U.S. Senator George McGovern, the 1972 candidate for the Presidency, and one of my personal heroes, the national and international media scrambled for current photographs of McGovern.  That’s when Judge Clarkson’s work stepped in.

It turns out that during McGovern’s 2009 book tour of his “Lincoln” biography, Judge Clarkson, then in private law practice, was invited by the Richard M. Nixon Library & Museum inYorba Linda to document the McGovern lecture that took place in the Museum’s packed replica of the White House East Room.  While Judge Clarkson had posted some of the photographs on his web page, not much else came from the photo-shoot at that time.  But upon McGovern’s passing, the flurry of efforts to find more modern era photos of McGovern lead, of course, to Judge Clarkson.  Releases and credits provided, various McGovern photos by Judge Clarkson have populated hundreds of international web sites over the last three weeks.

Some of his photos of McGovern appear here: Read more…

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