Ethics

Benchnotes April 2024

April 2024

Shareholder Standing Scrutinized in a Case that Presages Truck Insurance

Can Section 327(c) be unconstitutional as applied if it deprives shareholders of standing when the estate might be solvent?

Creditors Don’t Receive Estate Assets Recovered After the Last Chapter 13 Plan Payment

Absent a provision in the plan to the contrary, creditors aren’t given estate assets recovered after the final plan payment.

Ethics Jeopardy

The Coerced, Vulnerable or Incapacitated Debtor: What Are Your Ethical Obligations?

Cursing the Debtor by Itself Isn’t a Violation of the Automatic Stay

A vulgarity directed at the debtor wasn’t a stay violation absent an act designed to collect a debt.

Congress Must Act to Permit Chapter 7 Debtors to Pay Counsel After Filing

Bifurcated fee arrangements are cumbersome, temporary fixes for a problem that the Supreme Court created in Lamie.

Disclosure: What are our obligations to disclose when we know?

The ethical issues involving Judge David Jones in Texas are in the news all over the world. What lessons to we learn? What obligations do professionals -- both practitioners and judges have to question "connections"? How do we protect our industry which is built on transparency, notice and fairness? What happens when we fail to protect it? Does the public shrug their shoulders and figure that none of it is fair and only the powerful benefit? The mistrust hurts us all and especially in a court system that sees more businesses and individuals than any other. Are we destroying ourselves by regarding this as more of a game and forgetting that this is a profession that is built on trust? What should professionals and judges consider for disclosure of "connections"?
How do we determine what should be disclosed?
How do we live within our ethical obligations while providing the best representation of our clients? Business Suggested Speakers Deborah Thorne deborah_thorne@ilnb.uscourts.gov United States Bankruptcy Court NDIL