Court Connection: e-Edition

The Court is proud to share the e-edition of the Court Connection.

For readers who prefer to read the newsletter on paper, it can be printed in its entirety by downloading a full-text PDF version.

Click here for the PDF version.

Announcements
and
Upcoming Events

2016 Middle District 

Bench-Bar Conference

November 2

Sam M. Gibbons Courthouse

Tampa, FL

*

View from the Bench 2016

November 3

Stetson Univ. College of Law

Tampa, FL

November 4

Jungle Island, Miami, FL

*

TBBBA Annual Holiday Party

December 1

CFBLA Annual Holiday Party

December 8

In the Spotlight: Orlando  Pro Se Clinic

Orlando Pro Se Clinic 
Provides Foundation for Additional Clinics Nationwide

By Justin M. Luna, Esq.

     The success of the Orlando Bankruptcy Pro Se Clinic is well known.  That initial success is now spreading across the country.  The Orlando Clinic’s operations has turned the heads of other Bankruptcy Bars in Missouri, Georgia, Delaware and Nevada who have, or are in the process of, implementing their own version of a pro se clinic. 

     Notably, the St. Louis Bankruptcy Pro Se Assistance Clinic secured $20,000.00 to help fund the creation and operation of a similar pro se clinic.  “Bar leaders from other Districts have asked us to provide the roadmap for funding, operating and maintaining a successful pro se clinic.” says Justin Luna, a founder of the Orlando Clinic.  “Orlando is happy to assist and share any and all resources we have to help expand similar clinics across the country.”

Click here for the full article.

Judges' Corner Inside the lives of our judges

Judge Jennemann's Chambers goes Indoor Skydiving. 

Pictured left to right: 

Law Clerk Stephanie Villalobos, Courtroom Deputy Lexie Lewis, Judge Jennemann, Shared Law Clerk Eva Gadzheva and Law Clerk Danielle Merola.

Judge Jennemann and Judge Jackson celebrate with Lexie Lewis (Courtroom Deputy) and family after her husband John's swearing in ceremony. He recently graduated from Barry Law and passed the Florida Bar. Congratulations John!

Judge McEwen gives a Courthouse Civics and History Exhibit tour to Hillsborough County middle school social studies teachers. Pictured L to R:  Allison Layfield (Wilson MS), Ashley Caldwel (Randall MS), Jack Coburn (Martinez MS), Elizabeth Smith (Williams MS), and Jessica Brunick (Smith MS).

Contact the judge if you'd like a script for hosting teachers.

Click here to read more.

IT News Security Updates

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, an annual campaign to raise awareness about cybersecurity. In partnership with DHS, the National Cyber Security Alliance has released information on “Cyber from the Break Room to the Board Room” describing how users can protect their businesses and other organizations from cyber threats. Recommendations include avoiding phishing emails, making passwords more complex, and reporting all suspicious activity.

Click here for the full article.

Dear Point and Click: Answers to technical questions

Question: I recently submitted a proposed order through CM/ECF. It has been several days and I have received no notifications from the Court nor seen a signed order on the case Docket.  Is there a way to track the status of the order?

Answer:  Yes.  You can track the status of proposed orders through the Proposed Order Query Report.  Note:  You can only track the status of orders that you submitted.

Click here for the full answer and more information.

Filing Statistics Click here for quarterly filing statistics from the district.

Local Bar Events Across the Middle District

Orlando

October 28 @ 12:00 pm: OCBA Bankruptcy Law Committee Meeting

November 17 @ 12:00 pm: CFBLA Monthly Luncheon 

December 8: SAVE THE DATE! CFBLA Holiday Party

December 15 @ 12:00 pm: CFBLA Monthly Luncheon – Elections

January 27 @ 12:00 pm: OCBA Bankruptcy Law Committee Meeting

February 18 @ 2:00 pm: American College of Bankruptcy Panel:  “Insights into Bankruptcy Practice” (Speakers include Judge Williamson and Judge Jennemann)

Tampa

November 2 @ 1:30 pm: Middle District Bench-Bar Conference

November 2 @ 5:30 pm: View from the Bench Reception hosted by TBBBA

November 3 @ 8:00 am:   Bankruptcy Law and Practice: View from the Bench 2016

November 17: TBBBA Happy Hour

December 1:  TBBBA Holiday Party

December 6: TBBBA Consumer Lunch feat. Judge Colton

December 13: TBBBA CLE Lunch

January 10: TBBBA CLE Lunch

January 17: TBBBA Consumer Lunch feat. Judge Williamson 

January 26: TBBBA Happy Hour

February 14 @ 12:00 pm: TBBBA luncheon featuring the “State of the District” with Judge Williamson

February 23: TBBBA Happy Hour

Click here for the full calendar of events and descriptions.

The Court Connection is published quarterly in January, April, July and October.
We are seeking ideas, articles, photos, news - and anything you'd like to share. 
Please submit items for the January edition by 
December 31, 2016 to:

newsletter@flmb.uscourts.gov

Efficient Case Management and the Need for Speed in Chapter 11 Cases

By

Chief Judge Michael G. Williamson

     Our Court prides itself on the efficient way it handles the tens of thousands of cases we process every year. In chapter 11 reorganizations, in particular, we promptly schedule hearings on first-day motions and then move the case toward confirmation generally within the 120-day exclusivity period for filing a plan and the 180-day period for confirming one. But does speed in prosecuting chapter 11 cases really make a difference? Would the reorganization process—and the ultimate return to creditors—be better served by a more leisurely pace with more time to fully explore available options?

     Before becoming a judge, I specialized in representing chapter 11 debtors. Speaking from experience, it became clear to me over the years that the longer a case lingered in chapter 11, the greater the administrative expenses—namely, attorney’s fees for services rendered by my firm. And given the tight financial circumstances of a chapter 11 debtor, the increased attorney’s fees proportionally increased the risk of nonpayment if the case was unsuccessful.

     Well, last month I was in Italy at a conference on Italy’s latest reforms to its bankruptcy system, particularly with respect to reorganizations. I spoke on how a typical chapter 11 case is processed in our courts here in the Middle District. Typical of the responses that I received following my talk was one from a prominent Italian insolvency practitioner, who described how it takes, on average, six months for “first-day” motions to be heard and four to six years for the case to get to confirmation under the Italian system!

Click here for the full article.

Pro Bono Corner Helping the legal community

Courtroom Witnesses

Random Act of Kindness

By Judge Catherine Peek McEwen

     This heart-warming story is about a random act of kindness that is the stuff of a Ripley’s Legal System Believe It or Not. Personal injury lawyer Joe Bryant was in my courtroom on a chapter 13 rocket docket day. He had pending a special counsel fee application for representing a chapter 13 debtor in a personal injury case. While waiting for his case to be called, he watched with interest, and compassion, as a regular chapter 13 debtor’s lawyer pleaded her client’s case in opposition to the chapter 13 trustee’s motion to dismiss the case. The basis for the motion was noncompliance with the plan’s provision requiring tax refunds to be devoted to the plan.

     The chapter 13 debtor was a grandmother who had been taking care of some of her grandchildren, and yet another of her children had recently put more little ones under the grandmother-debtor’s care. The debtor was under-median but needed to be in a five-year plan to make it affordable enough to address what she was trying to accomplish. The hearing occurred in the 60th month of the case, meaning the debtor had slogged through to near completion of the plan, except for sending the chapter 13 trustee her 2015 tax refund of about $660. The lawyer argued that the debtor cashed and spent her refund check because she desperately needed the money and that her Schedule J expenses were lately really more than what the record showed. The Court was unwilling to dismiss the case in the 60th month without giving the debtor a chance to save it. The Court offered a solution: How about giving the debtor time to borrow from friends and family? 

Click here for the full article.

“Bankruptcy For Beginners” 

Pro Bono Seminar

By Judge Roberta A. Colton

     What a wonderful kick off to National Celebrate Pro Bono Week!  A free bankruptcy seminar,  was held October 20th, complete with a boxed lunch, in return for the commitment to take on a pro bono case.  The seminar was sold out within days of being advertised, and the participants and speakers enjoyed and were inspired by this unique experience.

     One appreciative attendee, Tahirah Payne, had this to say, “I wanted to . . . let [the organizers] know how much I enjoyed the Bankruptcy Basics CLE! It was hands down the most comprehensive basic CLE I have ever taken. The material was extremely organized. As an attorney who does not practice bankruptcy I found the subject matter easy to understand. Bravo!”

Click here for the full article.

Judge McEwen's  Make-Me-Smile Moments

• Thanks to Attorney Frank Papa for donating two navy blue blazers to the coat rack in the Tampa 9th floor Attorney Resource Room on behalf of his deceased father. His father loved the court, and Frank felt it would be a great gesture to have a small part of his father in the court through this donation. The coat rack is there to assist poor litigants who can't afford a jacket to wear to court… and also benefits lawyers who sometimes forget to bring a jacket.

• A pat on the back is due to Tom Curran and his firm, Shumaker Loop, for taking on a pro bono student loan dischargeability case involving multiple student loans. One has already been discharged.

Court Services

Paying it Forward by Paying Attention to Liquidating Chapter 11 Plans and Trusts Can Do a Truckload of Good

By Judge Catherine Peek McEwen

     Perhaps you’ve stumbled across the paper lodged on my webpage titled, “Gifting, The Real Thing: Overcoming § 347(b) in Chapter 11 Liquidating Cases” (http://www.flmb.uscourts.gov/judges/tampa/mcewen/Gifting_Article_Chp11.pdf). If not, then now is a good time to do so. If so, then now is a good time for a refresher. By paying attention when drafting liquidating plans or creditor trusts, the debtor in possession can do some real good for its community by “paying it forward.” What happened recently in the very old consolidated case of United Schools, Inc. et al. hammered home this point.

     In the 1989 (yes, you read that right) consolidated chapter 11 cases of three affiliates that operated truck driving schools, the plan’s center point was the funding an irrevocable creditor trust with some assets, including, importantly, a life insurance policy on the life of an older gentleman who, sadly, was not expected to live very long. As it turned out, the gentleman defied odds and lived until 2010. The trust agreement included a provision naming the creditors as beneficiaries and prescribing how their distributions would be calculated until their allowed claims were paid. The trust agreement also included provisions permitting the trustee, a bank that ultimately became Bank of America through a series of mergers, to seek guidance from the court on any trust issue. 

Click here to read the full article.

Take Time (or Ask for It) to Negotiate Reaffs or Explore Redemption Option

By Judge Catherine Peek McEwen

With Case Summaries by Michael Gibson, Judicial Intern, Western Michigan University Cooley Law School 2017 J.D. Candidate

     Consumer debtor lawyers and pro se debtors often overlook the tool of negotiation and the option of redemption when it comes to reaffirmation agreements. But it’s not too late to explore those alternatives to a straight up reaffirmation agreement even if the time of the hearing to approve the agreement is upon you. At the hearing, just ask for a new setting, and the Court may allow the debtor time to try something else and come back in the future by phone.

     Particularly when it looks like the judge may not approve a reaffirmation agreement, both the debtor and creditor have a mutual incentive to look for a fallback position. If the judge hates the interest rate and indicates a reluctance to approve the agreement and says (as Judge Jennemann is reported to have said), “just blame it on the judge” when you go back to the creditor to negotiate a different deal, sometimes the result is favorable for both parties.

     A recent reaffirmation agreement docket yielded three successful come-backs in my courtroom after the debtors had learned, at their first hearing, about the effect of a reaffirmation agreement and alternatives to reaffirming on the same terms as the original loan and were given a continuance to explore those alternatives. The come-backs, at least in my courtroom, take place immediately before a new crop of first-timers to reaffirmation hearings, so that the first-timers can learn by listening. 

Click here for the article and case summaries.

Case Law Update   Submitted By:  Bradley M. Saxton & C. Andrew Roy Winderweedle Ward Haines and Woodman, P.A.

Eleventh Circuit Cases

Failla v. Citibank, N.A. (In re Failla)
2016 WL 5750666 (11th Cir. Oct. 4, 2016)

Gowdy v. Mitchell (In re Ocean Warrior, Inc.)
2016 WL 4490489 (11th Cir. Aug. 26, 2016)

DiMaria Properties, LLC v. 3400 Atlantic LLC (In re DiMaria Properties, LLC)
2016 WL 3688946 (11th Cir. July 12, 2016)

In re Bayou Shores SNF, LLC
828 F.3d 1297 (11th Cir. July 11, 2016)

Soderstrom v. J. Thompson Investments, LLC (In re Soderstrom)
2016 WL 3611542 (11th Cir. July 6, 2016)

Bankruptcy Court Cases

In re Cole
2016 WL 5173215 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. Sept. 20, 2016) (Williamson, C.J.) 

In re Roth

2016 WL 4991500 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. Sept. 16, 2016) (Delano, J.)

In re Bradley
2016 WL 4159264 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. Aug. 3, 2016) (Jennemann, J.)

In re Uche
555 B.R. 57 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. July 28, 2016) (Jackson, J.)

In re Allen
553 B.R. 916 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 2016) (Funk, J.)

Click here for summaries and the complete update.

Local Bar Associations News and events from your local bar association

TBBBA Presents Credit Abuse Resistance Education to Local High School Students

By: Brad deBeaubien, Esq.

Pictured above: Katie Brinson Hinton, Brad deBeaubien, and Judge Catherine Peek McEwen with some of the approximately 200 students they addressed on September 23rd at Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School in Tampa.

Credit Abuse Resistance Education, or CARE, is a financial literacy program for students and young adults administered by the American Bankruptcy Institute and run locally by the Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association with help from Tampa Bay area judges and attorneys.  CARE presenters speak at high schools, colleges and other young adult gatherings about the responsible use of credit and the impact that poor financial choices can have on a person’s overall well-being. 

On September 23, 2016, Middle District of Florida Bankruptcy Judge Catherine Peek McEwen and TBBBA members Katie Brinson Hinton, John Lamoureux and Brad deBeaubien presented the CARE message to over 250 students at Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School, a public charter high school in Hillsborough County, Florida.  The presenters spoke about the consequences of credit card debt, the benefits of establishing a good credit score, and the importance of budgeting.   The students enthusiastically participated in an interactive true/false quiz on personal finance topics.  At the conclusion of the presentation, the speakers fielded questions from the students about financial matters and about their careers in law. 

If you or someone you know may be interested in arranging a CARE presentation by TBBBA members to a local school, religious center, Boy Scout/Girl Scout troop, or other group, please contact Brad deBeaubien at bdebeaubien@slk-law.com or 813-221-7425.  Audience size may range from as few as 10 people to 100+.