Bill on Bankruptcy: Detroit Shows Need for Amending Bankruptcy Law
Municipal Bankruptcies – Interview with Bill Kannel, Member, Mintz Levin
Bill on Bankruptcy: Detroit Judge Might Lose Grip on the Case
Harvey Miller: Detroit Will Be In Bankruptcy "For A Long Time"
Bill on Bankruptcy: Stockton May Win the Battle, Lose the War
Bill on Bankruptcy: Rakoff Reverses Himself in Madoff Case
The Bankruptcy Code bars certain individuals or entities from filing for bankruptcy protection, generally because they do not reside or have a place of business or property in the United States, fail to satisfy certain debt...more
Health Care Provider Bankruptcy Update: Patient Care Ombudsman Not Necessary In Every Health Care Business Bankruptcy Case - Recent headlines have starkly illuminated the headwinds facing health care providers struggling...more
On March 14, 2023, Judge Ashely M. Chan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (the “Court”) ruled that the City of Chester, Pennsylvania (the “City” or “Chester”) was eligible for municipal...more
Last Thursday, November 10, 2022, a court-appointed receiver threw the City of Chester, Pennsylvania into bankruptcy. At its most basic, a chapter 9 bankruptcy case is a rarely used provision of the Bankruptcy Code which is...more
To encourage creditors, equity interest holders, indenture trustees, and unofficial committees to take actions that benefit a chapter 9 or chapter 11 estate, the Bankruptcy Code confers administrative expense status on claims...more
Yes, says the First Circuit. The First Circuit recently affirmed the District Court’s decision to deny a group of bondholders’ (the “Bondholders”) motion to have a trustee appointed for the Employees Retirement System of the...more
Last year many states and municipalities across our country as well as the elected officials who led them celebrated our nation’s low unemployment, increasing tax revenue and the zenith moments of what was the longest...more
Except for disastrous fires that sparked the largest bankruptcy filing of the year, liabilities arising from the opioid crisis, the fallout from price-fixing, and corporate restructuring shenanigans, economic, market, and...more
The title III debt-adjustment proceedings for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its agencies have yielded several important and, in some cases, groundbreaking rulings by the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto...more
At the very end of a recent opinion, the First Circuit seemingly provided guidance on how bondholders can attack the constitutionality of Puerto Rico’s debt restricting act, PROMESA (The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and...more
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has upheld a controversial ruling by a U.S. District Court in a case involving special revenue bonds issued by the Puerto Rico Highway Transportation Authority (PRHTA). • The...more
On March 26, 2019, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming a decision by the District Court emanating out of the Puerto Rico Title III bankruptcy cases, found that Sections 928(a) and 922(d) of the Bankruptcy Code...more
In Bennett v. Jefferson County, Alabama, 899 F.3d 1240 (11th Cir. 2018), a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled as a matter of first impression that the doctrine of equitable mootness applies in...more
The consummation of a plan of reorganization typically involves a series of complex actions by the debtor and its stakeholders (for example, existing debt and equity are extinguished and new debt and equity issued in their...more
Last week, President Trump unveiled his proposal to fix our nation’s aging infrastructure. While the proposal lauded $1.5 trillion in new spending, it only included $200 billion in federal funding. To bridge this sizable gap,...more
Municipal bankruptcies under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. §§ 901-946 (Chapter 9), are rare. These cases are often filed to adjust bonded indebtedness and pension obligations. Congressional authorization for...more
In Assured Guaranty Corp. v. Fin. Oversight & Mgmt. Bd. for Puerto Rico, 872 F.3d 57 (1st Cir. 2017), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that section 1109(b) of the Bankruptcy Code gave an unsecured...more
On May 3, 2017, the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (the “Oversight Board”), on behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (“Puerto Rico”), filed a petition for relief under Title III of the Puerto...more
Although not intended to be classics of literature, we have found tales of two municipalities and their Chapter 9 bankruptcies. One was warm and prosperous and on the West Coast, whose housewives we have followed in the age...more
On December 1, 2016, something extraordinary happened. No, it was not president-elect Trump visiting another Carrier air conditioning factory in Indianapolis. It was an event that made no headlines and caused no stir. The...more
Puerto Rico’s financial woes have recently been front and center in financial news. Although a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed Puerto Rico’s ability to enact its own legislation to address its debt...more
On June 30, 2016, President Obama signed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) into law. The most significant portions of PROMESA are found in titles I and II, which establish an...more
In a 5-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States in Commonwealth of Puerto Rico et al. v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust et al., 579 U.S. ___ (2016), rejected the Puerto Rico Public Corporation Debt Enforcement...more
A few thoughts on Tuesday’s oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the litigation over whether Puerto Rico’s Public Corporations Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act, an insolvency statute for certain of its government...more
While secured creditors are entitled to special rights in bankruptcy, those rights may differ depending on whether creditors have a statutory or consensual lien on their collateral. This is primarily because section 552(a)...more