Alexandria, Va. — The leadership of the ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy provide insight in the April ABI Journal on the genesis of the Commission and ways that consumer bankruptcy practitioners can participate in its activities. “The legal foundations of the consumer bankruptcy system are creaking,” according to the Commission’s co-chairs, retired Bankruptcy Judges William Houston Brown and Elizabeth Perris, and Commission Reporter Prof. Robert M. Lawless. “There are undoubtedly many diverse views about how the bankruptcy system can be made to work better,” they write. “We hope the Commission will offer not only a forum for vigorous and respectful debate about these views, but also a process by which to reach consensus wherever possible.”
After the executive committee of ABI’s Board of Directors created the Commission in December 2016, ABI’s President-Elect, Retired Bankruptcy Judge Eugene R. Wedoff, tasked the Commission with “recommending improvements to the consumer bankruptcy system that can be implemented within its existing structure.” Recommendations may include amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, changes to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, new administrative rules or actions, recommendations on proper interpretations of existing law, and other best practices that judges, trustees and lawyers can implement, according to the writers. More on the makeup of the Commission, including Commissioner biographies, can be found at http://consumercommission.abi.org/.
“The Commission workhorses will be three committees: the Committee on Chapter 7, the Committee on Chapter 13, and the Committee on Case Administration and the Estate,” Brown, Perris and Lawless write. The committees will identify the issues that the Commission will consider, and committee actions will be forwarded to the Commission for its review, debate and consideration. Committee recommendations that are approved by a two-thirds majority of the Commission will become part of the Commission's final report that will be released at ABI's Winter Leadership Conference in December 2018 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Each committee will be comprised of five commissioners and 10 non-commission members. All commissioners will serve on one of the committees. For each committee, Members’ Advisory Groups will be formed to receive input and provide perspectives from a wide variety of stakeholders. Any member of ABI can join a Members’ Advisory Group, and interested individuals or groups will soon be able to submit information to the Commission’s website, which will also contain committee meeting information and drafts of committee materials. “The Commission process has been designed to be open and communicative,” Brown, Perris and Lawless write.
“The result would be recommendations that will make the system work better for debtors, creditors and the professionals who work within it.”
The first open meeting of the ABI Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Commission will take place on Saturday, May 6, during the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) Annual Meeting being held May 4-7 in Orlando, Fla.
To obtain a copy of “ABI Announces Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy” from the April edition of the ABI Journal, please contact ABI Public Affairs Manager John Hartgen at 703-894-5935 or jhartgen@abiworld.org.
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ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes more than 12,000 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on ABI, visit www.abiworld.org. For additional conference information, visit http://www.abi.org/education-events.