Mass Torts

This session will cover pending pertinent U.S. Supreme Court and appellate cases, as well as recently decided cases.

This panel will discuss post-Purdue case developments, including what constitutes “consent” and the role of opt-out releases (Spirit and other recent cases), third-party stays and injunctions, solicitations (Red River Talc), and the role of financial distress in chapter 11 and whether it is too restrictive (LTL). The panelists also will provide an update on where we stand regarding prepacks, nonvoting classes when confirming subchapter V plans (SushiZushi), out-of-court solutions and liability-management exercises.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Purdue Pharma has significant implications for cross-border insolvency practice under chapter 15. This panel will examine how the ruling is reshaping the legal landscape for foreign main proceedings, recognition standards, and especially the use of nonconsensual third-party releases. The panelists also will explore emerging questions around comity, enforcement of foreign judgments, and the limits of U.S. bankruptcy courts’ authority in cross-border cases. 

This lively panel of bankruptcy judges will debate the most pressing and controversial issues shaping bankruptcy law today. Gain unique insights from the bench on evolving case law, procedural challenges and emerging trends affecting practitioners across the bankruptcy spectrum.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Purdue Pharma decision, courts and practitioners are navigating new uncertainties around third-party releases in bankruptcy. This panel will examine how courts are distinguishing estate property from third-party claims, the impact on stay provisions and litigation strategy, and the evolving standards for voting mechanisms and plan confirmation in both chapter 11 and chapter 15 cases.

This panel will discuss the scope and impact of the Purdue decision on third-party releases, recent standards and approaches bankruptcy courts have used when considering consent, emerging mechanisms for (and alternatives to) third-party releases in chapter 11 plans, and shifts in attitude and strategies in the post-Purdue landscape, including the use of chapter 15 recognition.

Join ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle for this fun and informative session as he and six judges address recent Second Circuit cases, and predict how the circuit will rule on tough questions on the way up. An attendee favorite!

Insurance carriers are now permitted to participate in the plan-confirmation process, even when a plan is “insurance neutral.” How do recent Supreme Court rulings change the confirmation process, or will the Bankruptcy Code permit debtors to alter the rights of insurance carriers over their objection of insurance and bind them to the terms of the plan? Finally, there are no circuit splits, no nonconsensual third-party releases under a plan — or is the issue still unsettled when the plan “pays claims in full,” and what does it mean to “consent” to a release? Opt-in, opt-out, negative notice: What works? This panel will provide an overview of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc., et al. and Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al. and how they impact a debtor’s ability to confirm a plan. The panelists will discuss how debtors and insurance carriers will need to work to address their competing needs. The panelists also will discuss how debtors will address mass-tort bankruptcies without the third-party-release tool or workarounds, and will look to the case law and confirmed plans in circuits where nonconsensual releases are not permitted.