Feeds

8934 items (5904 unread) in 34 feeds

• A Clean Slate -- The Bankruptcy Law Blog (107)
• A Texas Bankruptcy Lawyer's Blog (91)
• » Long Island, New York | NY | Bankruptcy Lawyer | Attorney At Law (152)
• Bankrate.com: Beating Bankruptcy Blog Headlines
• Bankruptcy and Restructuring Blog (26)
• Bankruptcy Beach (25)
• Bankruptcy Case Blog (27)
• Bankruptcy Fraud Resource Center (20)
• Bankruptcy Law Network - Real Lawyers, Real Solutions (1475)
• Bankruptcy Litigation Blog (50)
• Bankruptcy Reader
• BankruptcyBill.us (11)
• BankruptcyProf Blog (602)
• BankThink (180)
• Business Bankruptcy Blog (56)
• Chicago Bankruptcy Lawyers & Attorneys (16)
• Credit Slips (695)
• Delaware Bankruptcy Litigation (84)
• Delaware Business Bankruptcy Report (66)
• E-Everything for Bankruptcy Lawyers... (25)
• Finance & Law for Not-So-Dummies (63)
• Georgia Bankruptcy Blog (302)
• Houston Bankruptcy Attorney (12)
• In The (Red) Business Bankruptcy Blog (43)
• Insolvencyblog.com (63)
• Miami Florida Bankruptcy Law (131)
• National Bankruptcy Forum (151)
• New York Bankruptcy and Consumer Law Blog (34)
• SC Bankruptcy Blog (72)
• Tech Bankruptcy (56)
• The Florida Bankruptcy Law Blog (151)
• theBKblog (100)
• Total Bankruptcy (318)
• WSJ.com: Bankruptcy Beat (700)

LEGAL DISCLAIMER:
Content contained on or made available through the Web site is not intended to and does not constitute legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed. By using the blog, you agree that the information on this blog does not constitute legal or other professional advice and no attorney-client or other relationship is created. The accuracy, completeness, adequacy or currency of the Content is not warranted or guaranteed. The opinions expressed at or through the blog are the opinions of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of the firm or any individual attorney and do not reflect those of the ABI. Your use of information on the Web site or materials linked from the Web site is at your own risk.

Credit Slips (2)

• Bank of America-SEC Settlement

  Posted: September 14th, 2009, 4:45pm PDT by Adam Levitin

  Judge Jed Rakoff nixed Bank of America's settlement with the SEC.  As he rightly noted, the price for management malfeasance is borne by shareholders, not by the managers.  Maybe the shareholders toss the bums out, but the entrenchment of corporate boards limits market discipline  So what is to be done?  The officers and directors' own personal liability is pretty limited; O/D insurance policies cover them, and as Tom Baker has shown, O/D premia are not sensitive to management practices.  I wonder whether the SEC should be more aggressive in pursuing officer/director bans:  make managing a public company a one-bite rule.   Slip up and you're out of the game.  This might make settlements much harder because defendants will be much more incentivized to fight, and the SEC has limited resources, but there are times when they should go to the mat, not least to make a very public example that might have some deterrent effect. 

• Tenant Protections in Foreclosure

  Posted: September 14th, 2009, 7:24am PDT by Katie Porter

  A foreclosure has a ripple effect, as a number of commentators have observed. Foreclosed properties often sit vacant, leading to nuisance concerns, lower property values for neighboring houses, and higher crime rates. But some properties are not vacant on the day of foreclosure, and these occupied properties generate their own externalities. 

  After foreclosure, the new owner (usually the lender is the purchaser at the foreclosure sale) will typically send someone to see if the property is vacant. If not, the lender files an eviction or lawful detainer action. In many instances, especially in those formerly-booming real estate markets like Florida and Nevada, the occupants are tenants, not the homeowners. Depending on state law, renters often have no right to notice of the foreclosure and no right to remain in the property. The Chicago sheriff, Thomas Dart, stopped doing evictions after foreclosure last fall because of concerns about unjust harm to tenants. 

  Title VII of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act provides uniform federal protection to tenants after foreclosure--at least until the law expires on Dec. 30, 2012 (apparently the date by which someone thought the foreclosure "crisis" will have abated). The law requires the new owner of a foreclosed property to allow tenants to stay in the foreclosed property for the remainder of the lease. If there is no lease, or if the lease is terminable at will under state law, tenants must be given at least 90 days' notice before they may be evicted. This is a floor that does not preempt more generous state law. 
  I'm interested in how financial institutions and tenants are going to deal with these requirements. Lenders have attorneys who routinely handle evictions after foreclosure. Being a landlord is a different task. Are tenants supposed to call the former owners' mortgage servicer when their pipes burst? If not, how is the tenant supposed to learn exactly who is the new owner of the property? Are note holders actively hiring property management companies to comply with this rule? Perhaps more interestingly, the bill doesn't seem to permit an eviction during the 90 days even if the tenants declare they aren't going to pay a dime of rent!
  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has hardly offered answers to national banks. After waiting three months after the law's effective date, it put out a one-page release advising banks to "adopt policies and procedures to ensure compliance." Gee, that's helpful. I'm betting the readers of Credit Slips will have some more concrete thoughts about this.