The Buffalo (N.Y.) Diocese dramatically cut spending after filing for bankruptcy, eliminating most of its funding of Catholic elementary schools while paying lawyers millions of dollars over the past year, the Buffalo News reported. Court records show the diocese spent $3.8 million on lawyer fees and other bankruptcy-related expenses in the first year of bankruptcy — an amount nearly equal to the subsidies it used to provide to 34 Catholic elementary schools. Most of the schools ended up being able to absorb the loss of the diocese aid in large part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an enrollment boom and a windfall of taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program loans and grants for parishes and schools. Operational diocese spending between March 1, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021, was down by 113% when compared with the diocese’s most recently published financial statement, according to an analysis of court records and financial statements. Spending on regular operations, such as pastoral costs, central support ministry and religious personnel development for the 12 months of bankruptcy was $8.5 million. It was $18.2 million in the diocese’s 2019 fiscal year, which ended Aug. 31, 2019.
The Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) has entered into a settlement with national consumer bankruptcy law firm Deighan Law LLC, previously known as Law Solutions Chicago and doing business as UpRight Law (UpRight), according to a press release. The settlement is set forth in a consent order entered by the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Montana on March 9 and resolves enforcement actions filed by the USTP over allegations of misconduct relating to UpRight’s representation of Montana consumers as debtors or prospective debtors in bankruptcy cases. As stipulated in the settlement, UpRight has paid or will pay more than $300,000 in monetary relief and will be barred from representing bankruptcy clients in Montana for six years. As a result of dozens of USTP actions filed since 2016, UpRight has paid or been ordered to pay almost $900,000 in monetary relief, including returning fees to over 500 impacted consumers and paying court-ordered sanctions, attorney’s fees, and costs. Additionally, bankruptcy courts have imposed practice bans against UpRight in at least four jurisdictions.