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The 447 commercial chapter 11 filings in June represented a 29 percent increase from the 347 filings in June 2021, according to data provided by Epiq Bankruptcy, the leading provider of U.S. bankruptcy filing data. Overall commercial filings decreased 7 percent in June 2022, as the 1,864 filings were down from the 1,999 commercial filings registered in June 2021. Small business filings, captured as subchapter V elections within chapter 11, experienced an 8 percent decrease from 106 in June 2021 to 98 in June 2022. Total bankruptcy filings were 32,175 in June 2022, a 6 percent decline from the June 2021 total of 34,291. Noncommercial bankruptcy filings totaled 30,311 in June 2022, also registering a 6 percent decrease from the June 2021 noncommercial total of 32,292. Read more.

Total filings in the first half of 2022 point to a pace for the full year that could be the lowest since the 348,521 bankruptcies recorded by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in calendar year 1984. Will total, business and consumer filings remain on this pace for the second half?

In partnership with Epiq, an abiLIVE webinar on July 12 will feature experts looking at filing trends through June 30 and providing their thoughts on what could happen with bankruptcies moving forward. Speakers on the program include ABI President Hon. Kevin Carey (ret.) of Hogan Lovells (Philadelphia), Deirdre O’Connor of Epiq (New York) and ABI's Ed Flynn (Alexandria, Va.). Christopher Kruse of Epiq (San Francisco) will serve as moderator for the program. Click here for your complimentary registration. 

A federal appeals court ruled that lenders can’t foreclose on homes when people named in the foreclosure proceedings file for personal bankruptcy, even when they don’t directly own the property at issue, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday that lender Bayview Loan Servicing LLC improperly foreclosed on the primary residence of Eileen Fogarty shortly after she filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018. Ms. Fogarty’s bankruptcy filing triggered an automatic stay on collection efforts by her creditors. Bayview violated the stay when it sold her home at a foreclosure auction days later, the three-judge panel ruled Wednesday, while remanding her case to bankruptcy court to determine sanctions against the lender. Ms. Fogarty had lived in the house in Shirley, N.Y., owned by 72 Grandview LLC, a limited liability company in which she held a 99% interest. The company in 2010 stopped making payments on a mortgage loan backed by the property, and the lender moved to foreclose the following year, naming both the company and Ms. Fogarty as defendants in the foreclosure lawsuit. After Ms. Fogarty filed for bankruptcy, Bayview took the position that it could proceed because the property’s owner was the LLC, which wasn’t in bankruptcy. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, N.Y., sided with the lender and rejected Ms. Fogarty’s request for sanctions as punishment for selling the home despite her personal filing. A federal district judge reversed, ruling in her favor. Bayview then appealed to the Second Circuit. “[W]e conclude that Bayview willfully violated the automatic stay when it completed the sale while knowing that Fogarty, a named party in the foreclosure action, had filed a bankruptcy petition,” the appeals court said, noting an “error of law” at the bankruptcy-court level.

For soldiers sometimes still in their teens, the dozens of financial services operators that surround Fort Campbell (Kentucky) and other military outposts are a gantlet to run every time they step off government property, the New York Times reported. The results are alarming: The post’s own newspaper reported that in recent years, 40 percent of its soldiers had at least one predatory loan. Often, they owe the loans to business owners who were once in the military themselves. The Department of Defense, regulators and elected officials are well aware of the perils. Financially troubled soldiers may not be at their best, and money problems can cost them security clearances that are crucial to their jobs. So for decades, the government has fought to fend off cheaters, charlatans and others who wish to get their claws into military paychecks. Watchdogs are deeply concerned. This month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a warning about so-called allotments, a system that allows lenders to siphon money directly from soldiers’ paychecks. It also published a report noting that service member complaints rose 19 percent from 2019 to 2021, the majority of them related to debt collection and the credit reporting that tracks those debts. With prices rising for almost everything, including cars and food and gas, the opportunities for lenders to profit from military personnel have only grown. And such customers are becoming even more enticing as branches of the armed forces increase sign-up bonuses to better attract recruits. Attempts to address the problem run into one unavoidable obstacle: Young and financially inexperienced members of the military are ideal clients. They are not highly paid, but their jobs are all but guaranteed — so their paychecks arrive like clockwork.