2013 Conference of Delegates

By | January 24, 2013 | Legislation | 1 Comment

Dear Members of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association:
Have you ever had occasion to think, “This statute would work better for me and my clients if it said/did  ____ instead”?  This email will describe how you can become involved in effecting changes to California statutory law.

Each year, the Conference of California Bar Associations holds an annual Conference of Delegates in coordination with the State Bar Annual Meeting.   The Conference of Delegates meets to consider and adopt resolutions recommending potential revisions to California statutory law to the California legislature.  The 2013 Conference of Delegates will be held October 11-13, 2013 in coordination with the 2013 State Bar Annual meeting in San Jose.

Each year, the Los Angeles County Bar Association sends a Delegation of LACBA Members to the annual Conference of Delegates.    The 2013 LACBA Delegation will meet during August in advance of the Conference of Delegates to consider and refine resolutions that may be proposed to the Conference of Delegates.  The LACBA Delegation’s August pre-conference meetings are approved for MCLE credit, so participation in the Delegation’s work is an opportunity to be involved with the legislative process, healthy debate, and get MCLE credit.  For more information, visit www.lacba.org/delegation.

In 2012, nine LACBA resolutions were passed by the Conference, and five others were actively negotiated by LACBA to pass in improved amended versions. Four LACBA resolutions from 2008 through 2010 were placed with bill authors, succeeded in the California Legislature and have been chaptered into law, and another three through 2011 are pending.

The Bylaws of the LACBA Delegation provide that each Section may designate a representative as an automatic appointment to the LACBA Delegation.  However, the Bylaws provide further that each such designee must express an interest in serving on the delegation by virtue of having completed an application.   If you wish to serve as a member of the LACBA Delegation to the 2013 Conference of Delegates, please complete, sign and submit the attached application to LACBA in accordance with the instructions on the application form.  If you wish to serve as the Section’s designee, please submit your application and send a copy of the submitted application to me for my receipt on or before March 19, 2013.  The Executive Committee of the Section will select the Section nominee at the Committee’s March 21, 2013, meeting.

Please note that Section designees and all other members of the LACBA Delegation are individually responsible for all expenses incurred as a delegate. LACBA funds may not be used to reimburse volunteers for participation in the Conference of Delegates.

If you are interested in submitting a potential resolution for adoption by the Conference of Delegates, you must send the resolution to Grace Danziger at gdanziger@lacba.org  by January 25, 2013.  See the attached instruction for information on how to format a resolution.

Brian Holman
Section Chair

Click Here for additional information.

2nd Annual Leslie Cohen 5K! – April 27, 2013

By | January 22, 2013 | Community, Current Events | 1 Comment

2nd Annual Leslie Cohen 5K!
Benefiting Public Counsel Debtor Assistance Project and Samohi Cross Country Track Program

Sponsorship Opportunities (Deadline March 1, 2013)
Legal Challenge Division
Where legal firms compete to see who’s fastest!

Gold Level $5,000
2 “10×10” Tents at Race Site
Coffee and Tea Provided
Trestle Table
Unlimited Race Entries
Large Logo on Race shirt, Website, Printed and Promotional Materials
PA Announcements
Marketing Materials placed in Race Packs

Silver Level $2,500
1 “10×10” Tent at Race Site
10 Race Entries
Medium sized Logo on Race Shirt
Logo on Race Website, Printed and Promotional Materials
Marketing Materials in Race Packs

Bronze Level $1,500
Five Race Entries
Small Logo on race website, Printed and Promotional Materials
Small Logo on Race Shirts

Read more…

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.

Another Tip From Aki Koyama

By | January 18, 2013 | Chapter 13 | 1 Comment

Practice tip “Real Property and Adequate Protection Payments”: If you are cramming down real property and wish to offer adequate protection payments to the mortgage lender to head off a motion for relief from stay, please do not use the adequate protection payment section in Section I(D) of the mandatory plan form.  This section is reserved solely for adequate protection payments pursuant to Section 1326(a)(1)(B) and (C) e.g. car creditors.  If you wish to have the Trustee disburse adequate protection payments to a mortgage lender, please provide NOTICE of the intent to enter into a stipulation immediately under Class 3 of the plan and file a separate stipulation with the court.

Aki Koyama

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.”

 

January 17 – How Soon We Forget

By | January 17, 2013 | Community | No comments

January 17, 4:35 a.m., 6.7.  I live in Northridge now and then.  I will never forget that morning.  For a few seconds I thought it was the end of the world.  Then I heard my kids screaming “Mom.”  Took a few minutes to get to their bedrooms.  We survived.

This is also a big day birthday-wise:  Muhammed Ali, Michelle Obama, Jim Carrey, Andy Kaufman, Al Capone (gulp), Betty White, Benjamin Franklin, James Earl Jones.  A full list is here.

American Suzuki Disclosure Statement Approved

By | January 17, 2013 | Cases, Current Events | No comments

From the press release.

Votes on the Plan must be received by the Company’s voting agent, Rust Omni, by February 21, 2013. Solicitation materials are expected to be mailed to all creditors entitled to vote on the Plan no later than January 24, 2013. A hearing to consider confirmation of the Plan is currently scheduled for February 28, 2013, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

The Notice of Federal Tax Lien on Personal Property and Bankruptcy

By | January 16, 2013 | Taxes | 2 Comments

Debtor’s often have Notices of Federal Tax Liens outstanding at the time they file bankruptcy.  How are these handled?

First, a properly-noticed lien survives bankruptcy.  It continues to attach to any property owned at the time of the bankruptcy.  It does not attach to any property acquired after the petition date.

  1. Lien on real property.  If the bankrupt debtor owns a house and the IRS has filed a Notice of Federal Tax Lien against the debtor’s real property (in the county records), the IRS will generally keep that notice in place after bankruptcy.  The house may be underwater and the IRS lien thus worthless, but if the house appreciates in value, the IRS is entitled to the new value.

If, however, the debtor acquires a new piece of land after filing bankruptcy and discharging his taxes, the IRS lien won’t attach to the new piece of land.

  1. Personal property.  If there is a Notice of Federal Tax Lien filed against personal property, it attaches to everything the debtor owns on the day of the bankruptcy petition.  Once the debtor discharges the underlying tax, the IRS still has the right to seize all your personal assets (even those exempted) to satisfy its lien, but it just won’t.  Imagine: you, as a debtor, file for bankruptcy, go through the entire process, get your debts including your tax debts discharged, and then they send the Asset Recovery Team to your house to seize your car and sofas – for which it could get how much at auction?  Also, the lien doesn’t attach to newly-acquired property, so it would need to investigate whether the bracelet it proposes to seize and sell came from Aunt Tammy as a birthday gift after the bankruptcy petition was filed.  The IRS long ago figured out that the PR and legal problems here are huge, so they’ll go ahead and release the lien.

OCBF – Brown Bag Program – Thursday, March 14, 2013

By | January 16, 2013 | Programs | 1 Comment

“Assets That You Thought Were Protected”

Panelists to Include Michael Spector, Richard Marshack, Chapter 7 Trustee

Thursday, March 14, 2013
For More Information:

OCBF – Special Evening Program – Tuesday, February 26, 2013

By | January 16, 2013 | Programs | No comments

“What Can Bankruptcy Courts Decide: The Theoretical and Practical Implications of Bellingham and Other Authorities in the Wake of Stern v. Marshall”

Panelists to Include Hon. Scott Clarkson and Hon. Theodor Albert

Tuesday, February 26, 2013
For more information:
← Older Entries
Newer Entries →