Consumer Bankruptcy

ABI’s panel of experts will discuss the ethical and compensation issues that can arise while representing chapter 7 and 13 debtors as well as individual chapter 11 debtors. Topics covered include client fraud and an attorney’s duty to verify client information, attorney fee structures, and complex issues in individual chapter 11 cases. The panel includes perspectives from the attorneys and trustees, as well as the academic reporter for the ABI Ethics Task Force.

Since more individuals have been seeking relief under chapter 11, this panel will explore many of the challenging issues surrounding individual chapter 11 cases and things that practitioners need to know to successfully navigate these kinds of cases, including post-petition expenditures, plan requirements and absolute-priority issues, retention and employment issues, fiduciary duties and related items.

The information you glean from Part I needs to be viewed with the practical approach found in Part II. If you are challenging dischargeability, how do you prove it? All debtors are in a hardship, but what is an undue hardship, and again, what evidence should you have at the ready to prove the debtor’s case. Using a short vignette, this panel will address the evidentiary and practical quandaries that must be overcome in order to plead and prove a case for dischargeability of loans under Section 523(a)(8).

Even before the first discussion in Newport at the 2011 ABI Consumer Forum, practitioners have experienced the difficulties inherent with managing a client with a mental illness or impairment. There can be even more challenges to managing any client matter when an opposing party suffers from a mental illness, especially when that party is self-represented.