It is often said that bankruptcy lawyers speak a language of their own, and to some extent, this is true. However, once the linguistic barrier is overcome, the underlying concepts are both practical and straightforward. Through a series of quarterly articles, my aim is to...
Most everyone that owns a business knows about the COVID Payroll Protection Program. Still others likely know about the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDLs”) that were available to businesses during COVID. But, did you know that the EIDLs were not specific to COVID. In fact,...
Subchapter V of the Bankruptcy Code was created under the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA), which became effective on February 19, 2020. Most corporate restructuring attorneys will tell you that Subchapter V has been tremendously successful. Upon enactment, small business debtors with less than...
Clients often confuse the separation between (i) a company (such as an LLC), and (ii) the owner of the company. I tell my clients to think of the company as a living and breathing creature that exists under the Florida statutes. It has certain rights,...
Bankruptcy Code section 1189(b) permits bankruptcy courts to extend the deadline to file a Subchapter V plan “if the need for the extension is attributable to circumstances for which the debtor should not justly be held accountable.” Courts agree this is a higher standard than...
Judge Jacobvitz of New Mexico follows Judge Harner of Maryland in developing a standard for deciding whether a Subchapter V debtor may extend the time for filing a plan. In the form of an opinion, Bankruptcy Judge Robert H. Jacobvitz of Albuquerque, N.M., wrote a treatise...
On November 17, 2022, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued its new Guidance for Department Attorneys Regarding Student Loan Bankruptcy Litigation (“Guidance”), crafted in consultation with the Department of Education. The Guidance is not statutory law, and is unlikely to herald a dramatic...
The Supreme Court of the United States issued a landmark decision in Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, 21-908 (Sup. Ct. Feb. 22, 2023). In Bartenwerfer, the Court addressed whether a non culpable, passive partner of a legal partnership could discharge debt that arose from an active partner’s fraud. In an...
My company is in financial distress. How can it afford to pay a lawyer to file for bankruptcy when it can’t even pay its bills? This is a question Dal Lago Law gets asked quite often. Of course, there are costs for filing a bankruptcy, particularly...
By Mike Dal Lago A follow up on last week’s post: we are one step closer to a March 2022 extension of the Bankruptcy provisions in the CARES Act that are set to expire later this month. That said, more debtors will be able to take...