Business bankruptcy skills, continued. The business lease often stands at the center of the troubles of a struggling business. Ask the right questions, or better yet, read the document yourself, and you can outline choices for your client. There’s no straight line through this topic, so let’s head off. Who is lessee? Even when the […]
Corporate Chapter 7: The Other Side Of The Coin
The reasons not to file a Chapter 7 for a failing corporation crowded my last post. My point was that just because the person in your office thinks his corporation should file bankruptcy, it may not be so. Today: the situations where it might be worth the downside risks to file a 7 for a […]
Four Dangers In Bankrupting A Corporation
If the whole point in bankruptcy is getting a discharge of your debts, it’s obvious why corporations don’t need Chapter 7 filings: Corporations don’t get discharges. (a) The court shall grant the debtor a discharge, unless— (1) the debtor is not an individual; § 727 Chapter 7 is so closely associated with financial failure and finality that you […]
Is Your Bankruptcy Client’s Business Worth Saving?
Your client’s business is going under. What should I do? he asks of you. Return the favor with a question of your own, the third in my trio of gating inquiries: Would the business outlook be better if you weren’t servicing debt from the past? Fight or flee Before you can craft a plan, you […]
Who Is On The Hook For Debts?
When the person sitting in your office runs a struggling business, I proposed three initial questions to scope out the bankruptcy options available. (The first question.) The second question applies only if the business is operated by an entity ( a corporation or an LLC) How much of the debt it services is the entity really […]
Is Your Debtor Corporate or Corporeal?
Mitt Romney famously insisted that corporations are people. We can disagree about the nature and quantum of rights that gives them relative to human beings, but for the purposes of a business bankruptcy analysis, Mitt was spot-on. A corporation is a legal person separate from the individuals who own the stock in the corporation. When […]
Get A New String To Your Bankruptcy Bow
Success in the business of bankruptcy law lies in not chasing the run of the mill cases. Lots of your competitors want the same simple (or apparently simple) cases. The downside to those cases is that the clients are less sophisticated and the market effectively caps what you can charge. Fewer of your competitors are […]
