Consumer Bankruptcy

This panel will feature discussion, comments and thoughts on the proposed national uniform chapter 13 plan. Participate in an in-depth discussion on the changes coming to your chapter 13 practice.

Since more individuals have been seeking relief under chapter 11, this panel will explore many of the challenging issues surrounding individual chapter 11 cases and things that practitioners need to know to successfully navigate these kinds of cases, including post-petition expenditures, plan requirements and absolute-priority issues, retention and employment issues, fiduciary duties and related items.

Business Debate Resolved: Success fees for financial advisors should be eliminated. (Sides to be chosen by a coin toss at the beginning of the session.) Candace C. Carlyon Shea & Carlyon Ltd.; Las Vegas Frank A. Merola Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP; Los Angeles Judicial Debate Resolved: Claims benefiting from third-party guaranties may be separately classified. Pro: Hon. Barry Russell U.S. Bankruptcy Court (C.D. Calif.); Los Angeles Con: Hon. Eileen W. Hollowell U.S. Bankruptcy Court (D. Ariz.); Tucson Consumer Debate Resolved: Section 523(a)(8) limiting discharge of student loans should be eliminated. Pro: Kasey Cameron Nye Mesch, Clark & Rothschild, PC; Tucson, Ariz. Con: Madeleine C. Wanslee Gust Rosenfeld, PLC; Phoenix

The information you glean from Part I needs to be viewed with the practical approach found in Part II. If you are challenging dischargeability, how do you prove it? All debtors are in a hardship, but what is an undue hardship, and again, what evidence should you have at the ready to prove the debtor’s case. Using a short vignette, this panel will address the evidentiary and practical quandaries that must be overcome in order to plead and prove a case for dischargeability of loans under Section 523(a)(8).

Debtors frequently emerge from bankruptcy still burdened by a burgeoning student loan debt. A private “loan for an educational benefit” can limit the fresh start many debtors need is increasingly being used to test the nondischargeability of might have once been general unsecured claims. This panel will discuss the emerging issues and case law surrounding nondischargeability, as well as strategies for maximizing the benefits of the bankruptcy system for struggling debtors.

Even before the first discussion in Newport at the 2011 ABI Consumer Forum, practitioners have experienced the difficulties inherent with managing a client with a mental illness or impairment. There can be even more challenges to managing any client matter when an opposing party suffers from a mental illness, especially when that party is self-represented. This panel of experienced practitioners and mental health professionals will discuss the evolving legal and practical issues surrounding mental illness and its impact on the bankruptcy system, as well as discuss methods of remaining calm in what can be an unpredictable and increasingly unavoidable storm.

Homeowners and their creditors continue to face variety of emerging challenges in bankruptcy cases. What rights do lien holders have when only one of the obligors files bankruptcy? What potential issues await all owners after only one receives a discharge? Can a debtor modify a mortgage loan without reaffirming the debt, and if not, what are the considerations for all parties? This panel of experienced debtor and creditor attorneys will explore the many obstacles that complicate the goal of preserving a debtor’s interest in real estate and maximizing the return for secured creditors, as well as potential options and considerations for those seeking the relief they need.

This year’s installment of the Boris Badenough ethics play centers primarily around Boris’s romantic problems, rather than his traditional financial woes. Boris’s latest wife, Sophia “Sting” Shire, an up-and-coming photo artist, has just filed for divorce and is seeking to void her prenuptial agreement with Boris so she can get the $100,000 per week in support she believes she is entitled to. Boris isn’t distressed about the loss of his sixth (or is it seventh?) wife, but the fact she wants money and half of his massive snowglobe collection enrages him. However, Boris has a plan to put Sting into an involuntary bankruptcy with two other creditors, have a trustee appointed (Boris does know how to dig up dirt!) and settle any claims that Sting may have with her trustee for a small amount of his hoard. Unfortunately for Boris, Sting and her counsel, Bill “Bo” Baggins, have a few tricks of their own up their sleeves, including the discovery of Boris’s deepest and perhaps most profitable secrets in Hidden Hoard LLC, a company Sting owns 1% of (through Boris’s attempt to make her a minority contractor). Will Baggins and Sting be able to discover the secret Hidden Hoard, or will Boris’s counsel, Tom “Bomber” Dill, prevail and save his client’s “preeciousss”?

Discussion on the chapter 7 trustees’ powers to do a carve-out, the new use of short sales in chapter 7, and the most effective way to sell assets in today’s economic environment. Does the creditor have a say in the trustee’s course of action?