Mass Torts

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.

Most lawyers are very familiar with what SCOTUS decided in the Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P. case. This panel focuses on the issues on which SCOTUS did not decide and that are the subjects of new decisions all over the country.

This panel of bankruptcy judges from the Eighth and Tenth Circuits will discuss several recent decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Eighth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals and Bankruptcy Appellate Panels, and elsewhere that are likely to impact your bankruptcy practice.

This session is a tribute to Judge Koger and the evolution of 3rd Party Releases from Master Mortgage to Purdue Pharma and the future.

Resolved: Opt-out consensual releases are still permissible after Purdue. Resolved: Solvent debtors are required to pay post-petition interest.

This panel will discuss pending and recently decided Supreme Court cases.

This panel will analyze three major Supreme Court bankruptcy decisions (Kaiser Gypsum, Purdue Pharma and John Q. Hammons Fall) issued during its 2023-24 term, and the implications of these decisions for pending and future bankruptcy cases.