Discharge/Dischargeability

Bill Rochelle’s Top 10 Daily Wires

Trustee May Not Liquidate Estate Property Solely to Benefit a DSO Creditor

Affirming Bankruptcy Judge Michael Romero, the district court holds that an exemption remains valid even though the exempt property remains subject to a nondischargeable domestic support obligation.

Fifth Circuit Says Lessors Are ‘Known’ Creditors Entitled to Actual Notice

Circuit court upholds Bankruptcy Judge Jernigan: Notice by publication doesn’t discharge claims from a lease that rode through chapter 11 or was assumed.

Denver Judge Sides with the Circuits: Nondischargeability Infects Subchapter V

Bankruptcy judges continue to disagree on whether debts of corporations with cramdown plans in Subchapter V can have nondischargeable debts.

Where, Oh Where, Are the Child-Support Creditors?

May 2025

Equity Survives in the Ninth Circuit to Prevent Recoupment of Disability Overpayments

Reversing the BAP, the Ninth Circuit held that equitable considerations may stop the government from recovering disability overpayments, when the doctrine of recoupment otherwise would have allowed recovery despite the debtor’s chapter 7 discharge.

The Army’s Dependent Support Requirement: A DSO Under Title 11?

May 2025

Texaco’s 1988 Confirmation Didn’t Kill Environmental Suits Decades Later

New York’s Bankruptcy Judge David Jones reopened Texaco’s 1988 bankruptcy to ensure that state courts wouldn’t mistakenly decide that environmental claims were discharged

Student Loans

Judge Oldshue Splits with Two Circuits: No Nondischargeability for Sub V Corporations

The bankruptcy judge in Pensacola, Fla., is giving the Eleventh Circuit an opening to split with the Fourth and Fifth Circuits.