Preserving exempt property for the next generation may justify a bankruptcy filing  for a judgment proof elder. California exemptions protected a generous homestead for my friend’s frail client;  her pension and social security income also enjoyed an exemption.  I was about to question why the woman needed a bankruptcy at this stage of her life […]

Remember the medieval maps that warned “there be dragons”?  In the bankruptcy world, those dragons are post dated checks from your debtor client.  Stay away. Post dated checks in payment of the debtor’s attorneys fees create a prepetition claim, subject to the automatic stay and the bankruptcy discharge,  held the court inWalton v. Clark & […]

There’s only one lesson here:  it all turns on the evidence. It is widely believed that Casey Anthony was responsible for her daughter’s death, but she was acquitted in a court of law because the prosecution didn’t present evidence that proved culpability beyond a reasonable doubt.  Supposition, inference, and logic won’t cut it;  it required […]

  Brendan Sullivan famously explained his role as an attorney in the Iran-Contra hearings by declaring that he was “not a potted plant“, but the witness’ attorney.  “I’m the lawyer.  That’s my job.” Sullivan was defending his repeated objections to questions asked of his client:  that was his job.  I, similarly, see my job as […]

His matter had been called and disposed of earlier in the Chapter 13 calendar.  Yet the young lawyer continued to sit in the courtroom, listening, watching and making notes. Finally I leaned over and asked if he had another matter on the calendar.  No, he replied, I’m just taking it all in. That attitude, coupled […]

The Dodgers’ bankruptcy filing is titillating,   involving big time sports, a feud between team owner McCourt and baseball commissioner Selig, and the messy divorce centered around the Dodgers as marital property.  We’ll all get a primer on Chapter 11’s as we watch the first day motions and the motions to incur enough additional debt […]

Want to make a bankruptcy judge go ballistic?  It’s easy: demonstrate ignorance or indifference to cash collateral. If you are saying, what’s cash collateral, you need to read further or learn to walk over molten lava. Cash collateral is essentially the output of property subject to the security interest of a creditor: rents, offspring, dividends, […]