When Congress recently passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (S. 256), it applied different effective dates to the various Bankruptcy Code changes. Although the bulk of the changes will go into effect on October 17, 2005, some changes became effective on April 20, when the President signed the bill into law. Other changes will not become effective until April of 2006. Additionally, although most changes only affect cases filed after the date of enactment, some changes affect pending cases as well. None of this is evident from reading the revised text of the Code. Rather, practitioners must refer to the text of the law itself. The full text of the enrolled bill can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:S.256: In response to the legislation, bankruptcy courts around the country are providing information and guidance to help bankruptcy attorneys through the transition. The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas has established a "Bankruptcy Reform" section on its web site at http://www.txnb.uscourts.gov/reform/ Additionally, the Court recently posted information relating to the effective dates of some of the changes at www.txnb.uscourts.gov/reform/Reform_Information_Bulletin_01.pdf Among the changes that affect pending cases are revisions to 11 U.S.C. ? 547 relating to the recovery of preferential transfers made to a non-insider entity for the benefit of an insider creditor and additional requirements under 11 U.S.C. ? 363 governing the disposition of assets owned by nonprofit entities. ________ Interesting recent opinions from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas: Texas property tax liens do not automatically attach to accounts receivable: http://www.txnb.uscourts.gov/opinions/saf/02-81140_Adv05-3005_20050608.pdf Proceeds from the settlement of a prepetition personal injury lawsuit that are paid postpetition may be considered as disposable income to be paid into a Chapter 13 plan of reorganization even though the funds are exempt property. http://www.txnb.uscourts.gov/opinions/bjh/04-31914_20050601.pdf Mac McMahan