ABI Law Review Summer 2016 Issue Provides Results of Study Examining Justice at the Trial Court Level, Sale of Real Property “Free and Clear” of a Lease and More

Alexandria, Va. – (RealEstateRama) — The American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) Summer 2016 Law Review (Volume 24, No. 2) features the results of an empirical study that found “stunning and unacceptable” levels of randomly distributed justice at the trial court level. The study examined 218 essentially identical adversary proceedings filed by Heritage Pacific Financial, LLC, a debt buyer, in California bankruptcy courts against makers of promissory notes who had filed chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions. “It suggests and warns that the justice delivered by our litigation system falls well short of our aspirations, not simply in the relatively narrow context of bankruptcy adversary proceedings or actions by debt buyers, but by implication, more broadly, in all trial level contexts,” writes Prof.

Gary Neustadter of Santa Clara University School of Law (Santa Clara, Calif.) in his article “Randomly Distributed Trial Court Justice: A Case Study and Siren from the Consumer Bankruptcy World.”

Other articles in the Summer 2016 Law Review include:

“The Sale of Real Property Free and Clear of a Lease: Making Sense of Sections 363(f) and 365(h) of the Bankruptcy Code” by Anthony Asebedo of Meegan, Hanschu & Kassenbrock (Gold River, Calif.).

“Discharge of Late Tax Return Debt in Bankruptcy: Fixing BAPCPA’s Draconian Hanging Paragraph” Prof. Timothy M. Todd of Liberty University School of Law.

Notes included in the Summer edition of the Law Review from students of the St. John’s University School of Law include:

“Accepting the Earmarking Doctrine: Courts Should Accept This Defense to Preference Actions in Connection with Credit Card Transfers” by Michael Benzaki.

“Finality of Section 363 Sales in the Face of an Upset Bid” by Kelly E. Porcelli.

ABI’s Law Review, published in conjunction with St. Johns University School of Law in Jamaica, N.Y., is among the most cited and respected scholarly publications in the bankruptcy community. It has the largest circulation of any bankruptcy law review. Past issues of the Law Review have focused on a variety of timely insolvency issues, including chapter 11 reform, distressed sectors, single-asset cases, consumer bankruptcy, the revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code and other topics.

Members of the press looking to obtain any of the articles from the Summer 2016 issue should contact John Hartgen at 703-894-5935 or .

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ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes more than 12,000 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on ABI, visit www.abiworld.org. For additional conference information, visit http://www.abi.org/calendar-of-events.