Administrative Expense Claims

Aug 2022

Supreme Court Won’t Rule on Remedies for Overpayments and Violation of Rule 3002.1

The Supreme Court on June 13 declined to hear two bankruptcy cases in the term to begin next October.

2018 Increase in U.S. Trustee Fees Held Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion avoids saying whether the dual system of U.S. Trustees and Bankruptcy Administrators is itself unconstitutional.

From its inception, the National Ethics Task Force [1] was charged with answering the question of whether there is a need for national ethics rules, standards and general practice guidance in the bankruptcy context.

Bankruptcy courts have not always favored post-petition retainers to debtor’s counsel. [1] But does the Bankruptcy Code prohibit them? That is exactly the question Judge David D. Cleary answered in In re Golden Fleece Beverages Inc., in which he held that the Code indeed supports post-petition retainers. [2]

On January 14, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit in In the Matter of Sharon Sylvester (Sylvester vs Chaffe McCall LLP) held that a trustee’s attorney is entitled to compensation under Bankruptcy Code § 330(a) “only for services requiring legal expertise that a trustee would not generally be expected to perform without an attorney’s assistance.” [1]

June 2022

Supreme Court Hears Argument on Constitutionality of 2018 Increase in U.S. Trustee Fees

At oral argument, the justices seemed more concerned about the remedy to give if the dual fee system was unconstitutional.

‘Once a Creditor, Always a Creditor,’ Even if the Claim Is Paid, Judge Phillips Says

Being branded as a creditor is like a tattoo; it won’t ever come off.