Consumer Debt

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 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.

A panel of judges, academics and Supreme Court practitioners will lead a discussion regarding the 2016-17 Supreme Court decisions of note for insolvency practitioners, as well as the high court’s most impactful, interesting or problematic decisions on bankruptcy practice to date. Amendments to Rule 37(e) (in effect since December 2015), as well as courts’ and litigants’ experiences with amended Rule 37(e), will also be discussed.

This panel will discuss the discharging of student loan debts, bankruptcy trustees and the avoidance of tuition payments, undue hardship and real life applications of these issues.

Is Technology Creating Liability for Lenders? Stay Now or Pay Later: The Discharge Injunction

Representing public figures whose livelihood depends on their public image presents particular challenges for bankruptcy professionals. This panel of lawyers, each with their own experiences representing celebrities and other prominent figures in their bankruptcy cases, will share their thoughts on the process and the issues that are unique in these cases.

Litigation over what constitutes projected disposable income continues unabated post-BAPCPA. Is Social Security income included? Is a nonfiling spouse’s income included? What about the income of a significant other who is a nondebtor? Can a debtor make voluntary retirement contributions, or are they considered part of projected disposable income? This panel will address some current tricky issues in this area.

This panel will deal with the various issues that arise when a debtor owns a cause of action and the distinctions that occur depending on whether the debtor’s cause of action arose pre-petition, post-petition, post-confirmation, post-discharge or at any other time. How are pre-petition causes of action valued for purposes of confirming a plan? What happens if the debtor’s cause of action pays off during a chapter 13 case (who gets the money)? What obligations do debtors have to amend their schedules to deal with post-petition events that create causes of action? What are the debtor’s obligations to keep the bankruptcy court and the debtor’s creditors informed? Are there potential judicial estoppel arguments that can arise?