In a decision that should send a chill through every contingent-fee lawyer handling claims for bankruptcy debtors, the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina in Martinez v. Wolper Law Firm held that a law firm that successfully obtained a FINRA arbitration settlement nevertheless lacked an enforceable secured charging lien against the settlement proceeds because it failed to satisfy the Bankruptcy Code’s requirements for employment of professionals and failed to perfect its charging lien before the case settled. 

Summary:

The collapse of the much-publicized Believer Meats cultured-meat facility in Wilson County has now moved from construction disputes into full-blown insolvency administration. But rather than filing a federal bankruptcy case under Chapter 11, Subchapter V, or even Chapter 7, the parties instead proceeded through North Carolina’s Commercial Receivership Act. That strategic choice may ultimately become the most interesting aspect of this case.

Summary:

In this sweeping Consent Judgment, the North Carolina Attorney General effectively finishes what the North Carolina Business Court had already begun in its earlier summary judgment ruling against MV Realty: dismantling the company’s attempt to transform exploitative listing agreements into purported “covenants running with the land.”

Summary:

Summary:

In a pair of unpublished but fascinating decisions, the North Carolina Court of Appeals once again returned to the seemingly never-ending Smoky Mountain Country Club litigation saga, this time reversing a trial court that had attempted to relieve homeowners from paying assessments arising out of a Chapter 11 plan confirmed in the bankruptcy case of the property owners’ association itself.

Summary:

In a trio of unpublished but significant decisions, the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed arbitration awards against TitleMax arising from high-interest cross-border vehicle title loans made to North Carolina residents. The primary decision, Frazier v. TitleMax of Virginia, Inc., was accompanied by the companion cases of Jefferies v. TitleMax of South Carolina, Inc. and Hood v.

Summary:

In a trio of unpublished but significant decisions, the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed arbitration awards against TitleMax arising from high-interest cross-border vehicle title loans made to North Carolina residents. The primary decision, Frazier v. TitleMax of Virginia, Inc., was accompanied by the companion cases of Jefferies v. TitleMax of South Carolina, Inc. and Hood v.

Summary:

In one of the more consequential procedural rulings yet arising from the ongoing DBMP LLC “Texas Two-Step” bankruptcy, Judge Ashley Austin Edwards granted a stay pending appeal of her earlier privilege-waiver decision that had ordered disclosure of hundreds of allegedly privileged documents in the sprawling asbestos litigation surrounding DBMP and related entities.

Summary:

In Frew v. EMortgage Funding LLC, the Eastern District of North Carolina dismissed a pro se homeowner’s broad challenge to a residential foreclosure proceeding, rejecting claims under TILA, RESPA, FDCPA, RICO, and North Carolina consumer protection law.

Available at:  https://www.ablj.org/the-strong-arm-power-on-steroids-expanding-non-avoidance-trustee-claims-under-%C2%A7-544a1-vol-100-issue-1-html/

Introduction: