The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (“BAP”) has held for the first time that neither sovereign immunity nor the Younger abstention doctrine constrain bankruptcy courts from enjoining State governmental disciplinary...more
This blog previously covered the Supreme Court’s decision in Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, 598 U.S. 69 (2023), which held that, under Section 523(a)(2) of the Bankruptcy Code, an individual debtor may not discharge through...more
I recently had the pleasure of working with my colleagues Benny Roshan and Jillian Berk on an appeal before the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (B.A.P), which tested the ever-evolving intersection between bankruptcy...more
In Hafen v. Adams (In re Hafen), 616 B.R. 570 (B.A.P. 10th Cir. 2020), a bankruptcy appellate panel from the Tenth Circuit ("BAP") held that the bankruptcy court is the only court with subject-matter jurisdiction to decide...more
“Can an unsecured creditor be better off when the debtor defaults rather than paying off the debt? Yes: Law can be stranger than fiction in the Preference Zone.”—Ninth Circuit Untimely payment by tenants and other obligors...more
In a unanimous, and perhaps unsurprising, decision, the Supreme Court determined that a creditor may be held in civil contempt for violating the discharge injunction if there is “no fair ground of doubt” as to whether the...more
“Transfers,” and when they occur, are important under the Bankruptcy Code for a number of reasons. Trustees may recover as a “preference” any “transfer…to of for the benefit of a creditor…for or on account of an antecedent...more