Law firms are anticipating heavier bankruptcy case loads in 2007 and are beginning to hire bankruptcy attorneys in expectations of the rise of corporate bankruptcy filings in the months to come.

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Michelle

On August 18, 2006, the Dallas Morning News reported that North Texas is seeing a rising number of home foreclosures. Residential foreclosures are up 30% from last year and in the DFW area, more than 3,800 homes are scheduled for foreclosure next month.

The area hasn’t seen foreclosure rates this high since 1988-89, but this [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently ruled in Celli v. First Nat. Bank of Northern N.Y., 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 20839 (2nd Cir. 2006) that a confirmed Chapter 13 plan is res judicata preventing a debtor from avoiding a mortgage on his property where the mortgage lien was identified in the [...]

Americans are sinking in the credit card debt that has tripled in the last 20 years. Quote: “Americans are spending with plastic at a staggering rate. Consumer credit card debt has almost tripled over the last two decades from $238 billion in 1989 to $800 billion in 2005, according to an analysis of [...]

Tower records, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2004, may be near an end. Four major music conglomerates have cut off shipments and frozen credit lines to the chain of stores.

EMI Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group stopped sending CDs to Tower stores after Tower missed debt payments to [...]

In a recent 5th Circuit Decision, the Court held that under the pre-BAPCPA Bankruptcy Code, Section 506 did not permit attorneys fees and costs for an oversecured statutory materialmen’s lien claim.

In Bridgeport Tank Trucks, et al. v. Lien Agent, U.S. App. LEXIS 18671 (5th Cir. 2006), various creditors of debtor EnRe LP performed work on [...]

Congress has passed major pension legislation, which would help ensure that workers who were promised pensions upon retirement will still get these pensions.

The legislation compels employers with defined benefit pension plans to meet their funding obligations and seeks to prevent companies from terminating plans and shifting the burden to the taxpayer.

The Senate approved the bill [...]

Perhaps taking advantage of the lull in big bankruptcy cases, an investment firm has bought controlling interest in a major turnaround firm.

Quote from the NY Times article:

Is Hellman & Friedman betting on a bull market for corporate bankruptcies? The private equity firm, which is the largest single shareholder of the Nasdaq Stock Market, has made [...]

Paul Guez, founder of defunct Sasson jeans, is back in the designer denim business. Guez built Sasson in the 1970s and 1980s, before losing the company to bankruptcy and ending up broke. In 1986, Sasson filed for bankruptcy. The company was liquidated and the Sasson trademark was sold. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. [...]

Destination Clubs are annual luxurious vacation rentals in exclusive hideaways. One of their founding members has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This type of club is, for the most part, unregulated. The filing has other members of this industry concerned about their future.

“Tanner Lamp; Haley Resorts, based in [...]