Automatic Stay

Misleading Ads to Poach a Debtor’s Customers Is No Stay Violation, Circuit Says

The Second Circuit gives competitors license to mount false advertising unless it’s ‘virtually certain’ to affect a debtor’s customer contracts or goodwill.

Discharge Injunction Violations Can’t Be Heard in Federal District Court

Circuits are split on whether claims for contempt of the discharge injunction must be brought in the bankruptcy court that issued the discharge.

Early Edition with Bill Rochelle

Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Judges Disagree on Allowing Emotional Distress Damages

One day apart, bankruptcy judges in the Ninth Circuit disagreed on emotional distress damages for violations of the discharge injunction.

Recoupment of Social Security Benefit Overpayments Is Barred as a Setoff

Medicaid overpayments may be recovered as ‘recoupment’ while Social Security overpayments are attempted setoffs barred by discharge, Bankruptcy Judge Harwood says.

Big Stuff on Chapter 11 from the Second Circuit and Elsewhere

Fifth Circuit Reaffirms the Use of ‘Gatekeeping’ Orders

As a follow-up to Highland Capital Management, the Fifth Circuit explained when gatekeeping orders are appropriate.

ERISA Claims Resolved in Bankruptcy Court, Not Through Arbitration

With two federal statutes in conflict, Delaware’s Judge Goldblatt found a rebuttable presumption in favor of enforcing arbitration.

A False Certificate of Payment (Temporarily) Barred a Landlord from Evicting

New York’s Judge David Jones explored the intricacies of Section 322(b)(22)’s bar to using bankruptcy to halt eviction.

Actual Notice Is Required for a Plan Injunction to Bind a Creditor

A creditor’s actual knowledge that a bankruptcy case exists isn’t enough for the creditor to be bound by a plan injunction, Delaware’s Judge Silverstein says.