In a perfectly-executed world, clients who do business via an entity like a corporation or LLC would arrive with their business life neatly separated from their personal lives. However, that’s not the world I practice in. It’s probably not yours, either. Instead, I have to sleuth out the facts, and compare them to the individual’s […]
Sole Proprietorship In Chapter 7 In Trustee’s Cross Hairs
Why would a bankruptcy trustee shut down a sole proprietorship business with no value? That question comes up again and again from newish bankruptcy lawyers who can’t imagine that a trustee would demand the closing of the debtor’s proprietorship business. After all, goes the argument, the debtor needs to make a living and the business […]
Reasons Not To Choose Business Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy preference avoiding powers constitute a serious reason not to choose a corporate bankruptcy to close a failing business. Yet, preferences and the trustee’s ability to recover them have to be one of the hardest concepts to convey to business clients. Clients gag at the thought that paying a genuine debt before a bankruptcy filing […]
Assessing the Ailing Business Post Pandemic
Long after the human patients recover from the coronavirus, small businesses will still be ailing. And long nights will be spent deciding whether to try to stay in business. As bankruptcy lawyers, we’re going to see people in pain trying to assess what to do next. Business owners may see the exit heading through the […]
Corporate Bankruptcy: So We Can Start Over
Thou shalt not file bankruptcy for a corporation. It’s almost a commandment from on high in my practice. But for every rule, there is an exception and the man sitting in front of me called on the exception. He wanted, (or really “needed”) to stay in the same line of construction work. But business was […]
Fleshing Out Incorporation Before Bankruptcy
As Miss Manners might say, you, Gentle Reader, have a secret fan. A fairy god-lawyer, so to speak. She’s my law partner who watches the new bankruptcy lawyers around us, and pokes me: “You’ve got to tell them ….” Fill in the blank for the topic du jour. Renee thinks there’s more you should know […]
Business Bankruptcy and The Bingo Effect
The lives of business bankruptcy clients are peopled with a less than obvious cast of creditors. You need to flush them out and herd them in line before the case is filed. Near miss I had a close call, or rather my client had a close call, this week when some new information just slipped […]