DISCLAIMER
The information you are reading is provided by Minor & Bair PLLC to be used as a guide. Minor & Bair PLLC is not in the business of rendering legal advice without an Engagement, and this information is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney familiar with your specific fact situation. If you require legal advice, you should engage the services of an attorney. That attorney may be Minor & Bair or may be another attorney licensed in Texas, who is a specialist in consumer or business bankruptcy.

Business Bankruptcy
(Debtors and Creditors)
Click To See Consumer Bankruptcy

    This has remained a consistent area of Sterling Minor's practice for 30 years. If it involves bankruptcy, Sterling Minor has almost surely done it at least once. Appearing in Courts all across the country representing creditors, I find there is nothing like the intellectual thrill that comes from representing a company as debtor-in-possession in a Chapter 11. In all these years, the plan has been accepted by the creditors and the court in a process called confirmation, in each case in which I have filed a plan of reorganization. Unlike similar negotiations not in bankruptcy court, plan confirmation does not require unanimous creditor approval in order to be binding on all creditors, and on all shareholders.

    Sterling has had multiple cases in each of these industries: oil and gas exploration and production, real estate development, restaurants and bars, manufacturing (including meat packing), retail, wholesale distribution, professional practices and other services, oil and gas drilling, real estate construction. Thomas E Bair has had extensive experience in representing individuals.

     Tom Bair has spent his entire practice advising and representing individuals as debtors in bankruptcy cases; he is a student of Chapter 13 and regularly advises other attorneys on Chapter 13 issues, as well as Chapter 7 issues. He assists Sterling in business cases.

    There are three main causes of action that a trustee might bring, although other claims are possible. These are a (1) simple collection or turnover action, a (2) preference action, and a (3) fraudulent transfer action. The trustee has the right to these claims because (i) the trustee obtains the state law rights the debtor held when the case was filed, (ii) the bankruptcy code contains this right which did not exist before the bankruptcy case, and (iii) the trustee obtains the rights the creditors held against each other before the case was filed (although the bankruptcy code contains this right as well.) Note that a debtor-in-possession has these rights, and an obligation to bring these claims, when (as is usually the case) it has not been displaced in its Chapter 11 proceedings by a trustee.

    If on a fair evaluation, your company’s balance sheet shows the assets to be worth less than all its liabilities, your business needs legal assistance to plan for the future. It may also need a business consultant, but it definitely needs legal advice and assistance. If your business is balance sheet positive, but its available cash for its needs in inadequate, it needs legal assistance. The best use of expert bankruptcy assistance is planning, not litigation or threats. But planning is something to do early, not after decisions are made and actions already taken. Certainly, all this planning does not mean a bankruptcy filing. Balance sheet or cash flow insolvency is a call for action, and that action is legal and new business thinking. Minor & Bair PLLC is in the position, through experience, to help you make the best of your company’s future.