Last summer I posted a nine-part outline reviewing BAPCPA’s early decisions in the consumer arena.  Recently, Linquist & Vennum’s George Singer, former staff attorney for the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, completed his own 108 page tome on significant business and consumer cases decided in BAPCPA’s first year.  The article, replete with 586 footnotes, leads the current issue of the North Dakota Law Review.  The complete citation is The Year in Review: Case Developments under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, 82 N.D. L. Rev. 297 (2006).

Given the Democrats’ recent electoral sweep, I asked George for some thoughts on whether a Democratic-led Congress might  scale back on some of BAPCPA’s more onerous provisions.  Here’s what he said in response:

I do not see the new Congress tinkering with the revised Bankruptcy Code any time soon. The subject of bankruptcy reform has been on Congress’ plate for over 10 years and, in my view, Congress has moved on–at least for now. The BAPCPA had strong bi-partisan support so the shift of power in the houses of Congress will not really be a driver for change. The short history we have had with the new legislation has, however, resulted in unintended consequences. Creditors are not getting all that they bargained for and splits of authority have emerged over a number of important issues. I can imagine the credit industry pushing a "technical amendments" bill in the next couple of years, particularly if we start seeing some circuit-level authority construing the changes to the law in a manner that is less than favorable to the industry.

Thanks to George and the North Dakota Law Review, in whom all rights to the article are reserved, for the privilege of being able to share it with my blog’s readers.  In his introduction, George describes his goals for the Article as follows:

This Article reviews some of the more significant judicial decisions interpreting the BAPCPA since the effective date of the legislation and provides an analysis of those decisions. In order to provide context for the discussion, the Article summarizes the implicated changes to the law made by the BAPCPA. The Article begins with a discussion of changes to consumer bankruptcy and the decisions of courts that have been called upon to construe the new legislation and apply it to pending cases. The Article then examines some of the changes impacting business bankruptcy cases and decisions that have emerged over the last year in this area. The Article concludes by highlighting some of the views that have been articulated in published opinions by judges, who have been forced to make sense of the new law’s requirements.

© Steve Jakubowski 2006