Judge Jury received the cdcbaa award as Judge of the Year at our annual Ashland Awards dinner last month. Her comments were epic and the award so well deserved. Luckily I was able to track down someone who taped her statement on an IPhone (or something). I had the comments transcribed with Judge Jury’s permission and posted on the cdcbaa website. You can read her statement here. It is one of my greatest honors to count her as a friend.
Very Nice Article on Paid Preparers
How to Get Away With Bankruptcy Fraud
This article by Paul Kiel for ProPublica is really nice. We all know it goes on and most of us wish we could help fix the problem. The article shows why Judge Maureen Tighe should be up for canonization.
I sent Paul an email thanking him for the investigative work and the great article. Here is his response:”
Thanks, Jon. I hope it leads to something! Please let me know if you see any evidence of stepped-up enforcement or anything like that, because we publish our stories with the goal that they bring change. There has been some chatter about a kind of task force between the debtor and creditor bar on the CACBA listserv, I think.
Consignment Rules in Bankruptcy
This can be filed under “more stuff I didn’t know.” Is inventory the debtor accepted under a consignment agreement property of the estate? I have had this come up a few times over the years. A new BAP case has laid out the answer very nicely. The answer by the way is probably YES, bankruptcy law can be complicated but that’s why we always suggest getting professional help.
IPC (USA), Inc. v. Ellis (In re Pettit Oil Company), — B.R. — (9th Cir. BAP October 2017)
Issue: Are the trustee’s right to proceeds of the sale of consignment goods senior to the consignor?
Holding: Yes. Under U.C.C. § 9-319(a), the debtor “is deemed to hold rights and title to the [consigned] goods” as if it owned them outright. The consignor must comply with “the rules for the creation and perfection of a security interest contained in Article 9.” Read more…
CFPD Biennial Report on the Credit Card Market (352 pages!)
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) 2017 report on the state of the credit card market is here. Lots of charts and info. The cynic in me wonders how much was spent by the government preparing this report. The CFPB annual budget is $630 million. Its budget report discusses four goals:
1. Prevent financial harm to consumers while promoting good practices that benefit them ($286 million) Read more…
Alberta Stahl RIP
Dear Friends:
I am very sad to tell you that Alberta Stahl passed away yesterday at Cedars Sinai hospital. Although she was receiving treatment for a cancer diagnosis which was also research in the Inspire community website. Her death was unexpected for her family who had recently travelled to Las Vegas with her a month ago. Read more…
Nice Summary of the Tax Law Changes from Reed Smith LLP
President Signs Federal Tax Bill into Law – What You Need to Know Before the End of 2017
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law H.R. 1, the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” The Act, which the House and Senate both passed two days earlier, heralds the most expansive and significant tax legislation enacted in the United States since 1986. The wide-reaching legislation – which generally will apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 – permanently reduces the U.S. corporate income tax rate to 21 percent; creates a new – albeit temporary – schedule of lower individual marginal tax rates; eliminates, limits and/or modifies many corporate, pass-through and individual tax deductions, credits and expenses; dramatically expands the estate and gift tax exemptions; converts the United States to a territorial tax system with significant new barriers to moving operations and payments out of the United States; and imposes a one-time toll charge on offshore earnings, among its many changes. Fist things first, it’s important to get DPS Accounting specially when you don’t understand how taxes work. Read more…
UST After Attorney in Riverside in Chapter 7 Cases for Disgorgement
A thank you and tip of the hat to Keith Higginbotham, always looking out for us.
Dear Colleagues!
I came across an interesting UST adversary complaint filed yesterday that alleges improper Ch7 business practices as it relates to “bifurcating Ch7 atty fees between prepetition and post petition” and then “assigning the debt to a collection agency called BK Billing, Inc., to service the debt”.
The complaint alleges violations of 9th Circuit law as it relates to a novel Ch7 fee arrangement. My intent is to alert you to a company called BK Billing, LLC.
Check out: 6:17-ap-01271-MJ Docket #1
Keith A. Higginbotham
Note from MJH: The docket states “Complaint For Disgorgement Of Fees, Civil Penalties, Sanctions, And Declaratory, Injunctive, And Other Relief Nature Read more…
Occam’s Razor
One of the side benefits of writing all the briefs I write is learning new words and phrases. In her dissent in Henry v. Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (In the Matter of Wlldesign, Inc.), — F.3d —, (9th Cir. Oct. 2017), Judge Jacqueline Nguyen commented (quoting from another case),
“To avoid this result, the court opted to ‘slice these [steps] off with Occam’s Razor and leave a more functional rule’ in their place.” Read more…
Vendor’s Right to Reclaim
Put this in the category of “stuff I didn’t know.” I knew that vendors have a right to reclaim goods from an entity that files a bankruptcy petition. I thought it was goods shipped within 20 days of the petition – typical sort of right.
There are two code sections that deal with this issue.
Section 503(b)(9): A vendor has an administrative claim for “the value of any goods received by the debtor within 20 days before the date of commencement of a case under this title in which the goods have been sold to the debtor in the ordinary course of such debtor’s business.” This is really nice. Read more…
Central District Filing Stats for November 2017
It looks like we are going to just barely miss 40,000 filings for the year.
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |
| Jan | 2,839 | 2,872 | 3,364 | 4,704 |
| Feb | 2,795 | 3,299 | 3,829 | 4,574 |
| March | 3,782 | 3,923 | 4,496 | 5,430 |
| April | 3,209 | 3,584 | 4,486 | 5,364 |
| May | 3,384 | 3,484 | 3,971 | 5,500 |
| June | 3,252 | 3,545 | 3,966 | 4,386 |
| July | 2,953 | 3,239 | 3,731 | 4,701 |
| Aug | 3,387 | 3,543 | 3,544 | 4,540 |
| Sept | 3,071 | 3,168 | 3,493 | 4,317 |
| Oct | 3,170 | 3,235 | 3,751 | 4,554 |
| Nov | 3,004 | 3,025 | 3,531 | 3,642 |
| Dec | 2,902 | 2,718 | 3,733 | |
| Total | 36,863 | 41,835 | 46,895 | 57,459 |
Here are the number of filings per chapter for the 11 months of 2017.
| Non-Commercial | Commercial | Chapter 7 | Chapter 13 | Chapt 11 | Other |
| 32,163 | 2,689 | 25,761 | 8,734 | 350 | 7 |
M. Jonathan Hayes Books
Publisher
Senior Contributor
Contributors
