Picking the Judge isn't Far from Picking the Verdict... Senator Cornyn.. Lynn M. Lopucki On Bankruptcy, Bad Faith and More

http://www.lopucki.com/ - Great Resource on Bankruptcy Corruption Issues

Courting Failure: How Competition for Big Cases Is Corrupting the Bankruptcy Courts (University of Michigan Press).

Web BRD.  Design and run your own empirical studies of big-case bankruptcies in an abbreviated version of the Bankruptcy Research Database

Bankruptcy Visuals.  View or buy copies of colorful graphics that explain procedure under Chapters 7, 11, 12, and 13 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code

Strategies for Creditors in Bankruptcy Proceedings. Buy copies of this one-volume guide (with annul updating) from the publisher.  The Fourth Edition was published in December, 2003.

Articles and manuscripts.  View a list of Lynn M. LoPucki's writings with links to those available on-line.

Why Are Delaware and New York Bankruptcy Reorganizations Failing?   55 Vanderbilt Law Review 1922 (2002) (empirical study showing court competition to be the most likely cause of the high reorganization failure rates in Delaware and New York).


John Cornyn on Bankruptcy Courts


"President George W. Bush signed into law major legislation to
reform our bankruptcy system. I supported the
Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection
Act of 2005 because bankruptcy relief should be available to those
who are unable to pay—not to those who are simply unwilling to pay.
Based on my prior experience as the attorney general of Texas during
the Enron bankruptcy, however, I also know there is more that we can
and should do to combat corporate abuse of our bankruptcy laws.
Current law still allows corporate debtors to manipulate the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court itself to their advantage. Due to a loophole in
current law, large companies can effectively choose the
particular bankruptcy court in which they would like to file for relief.

All that a corporation must do is find—or, if necessary, hastily create—some
remote, often minor subsidiary that falls within the jurisdiction of the
desired court. And then the parent company can essentially hook its
bankruptcy onto the bankruptcy of its junior partner."

"Bankruptcy law confers upon bankruptcy judges an enormous
amount of discretion—discretion that is largely out of the reach
of appellate review. Of course, no one wants to believe that a
federal judge would ever distort the law for any reason, let alone
in order to improve the court’s docket. Yet there is an undeniable
temptation to lean a bit, to exercise discretion in ways that will
bring the fame and prestige that come with attracting the nation’s
largest and most newsworthy cases.
Indeed, abuses of the current bankruptcy system have now
been well-documented by legal practitioners and academics—"

Source of Quote
http://lopucki.law.ucla.edu/Biden%20Reply%20documents/Legal%20Times%20(June%206,%202005)%20Cornyn%20on%20Venue.pdf