Consumer Bankruptcy

This session will feature a discussion regarding the various bear traps and pitfalls of dealing with nonbankruptcy-related claims in the bankruptcy context. Issues will include how to avoid the bankruptcy court from dismissing your claim, the reasons that you would be estopped from challenging a claim, and when you should ask for relief to return to state court.

This panel will present a detailed look at filing foreclosures, state law defenses and post-judgment foreclosure matters, and when to file bankruptcy in the process.

Join Hon. Eugene R. Wedoff (ret.), ABI President and member of the ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy, for a discussion of the Commission’s recommendations for improving the consumer bankruptcy system within the existing structure. Attendees will have the opportunity to offer ideas and feedback on key issues, in advance of the Commission’s December 2018 release of its recommendations. To learn more about the ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy, visit consumercommission.abi.org.

This panel will review constitutional issues under § 1115 and the appointment of chapter 11 trustees, as well as debate whether conversion from chapter 7 to chapter 11 violates the 13th Amendment.

This panel will discuss means of improving the chapter 13 process, including how to reduce abuses and thereby accelerate chapter 13 cases, as well as the new Rule amendments going into effect Dec. 1, 2017, and will contrast plans under chapters 11 and 13.

This panel will discuss recent case law highlighting the fallout from failing to reaffirm, what “surrender” really means, and what you need to know when advising your client on the benefits and burdens of reaffirmation and surrender.

This panel will discuss the growing practice of the pre-petition transfer of business assets to insiders to allow for an individual filing, and the resulting issues for the debtor and its creditors. Is it fraud per se, or is it a creative way to get your individual client and their business assets into one case? Join us as we discuss this inspired, but precarious, practice.

Does an approved fee application shelter counsel from malpractice claims brought by the client? If it does, how do you advise your client about how the application and its approval affects a client’s future claim against you? Does asking for it to be paid pit you against your client and create an unavoidable conflict of interest? Get the tools to navigate these murky ethical considerations.

Balloon payments, assets acquired post-petition, student loan classifications and discharged debts related to criminal activity: Can these issues be navigated without throwing a debtor’s plan upside down? Catch up on strategic tips and considerations that will help you get your debtor to the other side of a chapter 13.

This panel will discuss recent case law highlighting the fallout from failing to reaffirm, what “surrender” really means, and what you need to know when advising your client on the benefits and burdens of reaffirmation and surrender.