CourtAlert - Tip of the Week
Quiz of the Month &
Bankruptcy Court Procedure
October
2, 2008
Subject: Quiz of the Month &
Bankruptcy Court Procedure
The bankruptcy filing
of Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual and other corporations has
generated the bankruptcy activity we have expected during this economy.
Some of our clients who have never filed papers in bankruptcy court have
recently contacted us and asked if we can do a basic refresher on filing
an adversary procedure. Companies like Lehman and Washington Mutual will
generate a large number of adversarial matters from their debtor cases.
Please find below a general overview of what procedure you should be
aware of.
Adversarial actions
are commenced by filing electronically through the courts CM/ECF system.
This procedure is similar to the New York State filing system for commencing
a case (http://www.courts.state.ny.us/supctmanh/E-Filing.htm).
As you commence the case electronically you will also create the courts
docket sheet by adding party names along with any other information
that's required. Please keep in mind that an attorney working on the case
should be present at the time of opening the case. The ECF system will
ask certain questions about the case which is similar to a district
courts civil cover sheet. As you already know, it is the responsibility
of the attorney to fill out that form. Please make sure they are present
or have already supplied you with the information to answer the
questions. Once the filing has taken place you should automatically
receive a filing receipt for the payment rendered. If you were unable to
make the payment at the time of filing an indication will appear on the
docket as being not paid. The user should immediately send someone down
to court to pay the fee. If the fee can't be paid that day you should
contact the cashier’s office to explain why.
Once the fee has been
paid and the judge has been assigned the court will issue the summons.
Please make sure you do two things as soon as you commence the action.
First, add e notification for everyone involved with the case. Second,
check the docket sheet for the issued summons so you can effect service. Aside from issuing the summons the
clerk will also schedule a pre-trial conference date which will appear on
the summons. A filer seeking a second summons must docket the request
using a docketing event called Request for a Second Summons. The purpose
of this event is to provide the Clerk's Office with an efficient method
to track and respond to any request for subsequent summonses. This event
does not require a PDF file to be attached during the docketing. Please
also remember that in order for the clerk to issue a summons in an
involuntary case or Section 304 ancillary proceeding, the filer must
still submit to the Clerk's Office a prepared summons via e-mail to msummonsnysb@nysb.uscourts.gov.
Please find below the following forms to be used in three divisional
offices for issuing a summons:
<<Manhattan_summons.pdf>>
<<Poughkeepsie_summons.pdf>>
<<White_Plains_summons.pdf>>
Once you have your issued
summons please make sure you check the service requirements found under
Rule 7004 of the Bankruptcy Rules
(http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frbp/). We suggest you also look at the
following rules before commencing the action in relation to an adversarial
action:
7003: Commencement of Adversarial
Proceedings
7004: Process
7007.1 Corporate Ownership Statement
7008: General Rules of Pleadings
7010: Form of Pleadings
General Order Authorizing
Electronic Filing Procedures <<General Order for ECF.pdf>>
Revised Electronic Filing
Procedures (Revised 8/23/01) <<Revised ECF Rules.pdf>>
Coming soon to your CourtAlert
web site; a new way to manage CourtAlert user profiles:
a. Allow the addition of user profiles for users in the
firm that are not authorized to add cases to watch lists.
b. Allow for one administrator to add and remove case
for multiple users’ watch lists. CourtAlert does not charge an
additional fee if the same case is watched by more than one user in the
firm. The new programs allow for a simple way to remove a case from all
watch lists so unnecessary cost will not occur.
This
announcement is an addition for upcoming features to the Business Development Alert and Tools,
please be on the alert for these enhancements.
Enhancement to the Quiz of the
Month: A Starbuck's gift card to anyone who answers quickly:
It is
amazing to see how quickly and how many members of the CourtAlert
community answer the quiz of the month. Typically the winner is only few
minutes or even seconds ahead of the others. CourtAlert will now send a
Starbuck’s gift card to anyone who sends the correct answers within
a reasonable time after the winning answer is received and prior to the
result is being posted on the web site.
Quiz of the Month
*As
soon as we have received the correct answers we will post them on the Tip
of The Week for that day. We will accept individual responses from other
members of your staff or firm, but the winning submission can only come
from one person and not a combination of answers from the same firm.
Responses by e mail will only be accepted. Please email your answers to Support@CourtAlert.com or
reply to this email.
Quiz
Topic: Since today's topic is bankruptcy court let's focus our attention
there.
1.
What is the fee for filing an adversarial case? $250
2. In
the event your check does not clear what is the bad check fee? $45
3.
Can you serve a complaint by First Class Mail? If so, what rule allows
you? Rule 7004(b)
We are committed to remain the best!
Thank You,
Izzy Schiller, President
CourtAlert
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