Secret Fees for Spokane Lawyers?

Our buddy, Buce, at Underbelly, notes the insightful comment of Credit Slips guest blogger, David Yen regarding the request of the bankruptcy lawyers for the Spokane diocese to close to the public the hearing on their $10 million fee request. The details about the underlying story are here. "All sides want to avoid a public battle with big headlines." I'm sure they do, but that's not how courts should work in a free society.

Note to Buce: Have you ever thought of switching the blog name and nom de plume so it would be Underbelly at Buce?

Comments

[David Yen]

Now, secret lawsuits?

this is from the American Bankruptcy Institute web site. It was in the Bankruptcy Headlines section on October 2.

Based on the dates mentioned in the article, I assume that these are being filed to beat the two year deadline for filing such actions - see 11 USC sec 546(a)(1)(A).

Delphi Quietly Filing Law Suits

Delphi Corp. has filed hundreds of lawsuits against suppliers and other business contacts, but is keeping the lawsuits secret "to avoid unnecessarily alarming" those being sued, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Starting Friday afternoon and through the weekend, the restructuring auto-parts supplier filed more than 700 lawsuits against unnamed parties in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The suits target up to $5.5 billion in potentially questionable payments that went out of the Troy, Mich.-based company in the six years before it filed for chapter 11 protection in October 2005. Delphi says it has "no intention" of pushing forward with the lawsuits as long as it gets out of bankruptcy, as planned, by way of reorganization. If something goes wrong with the reorganization, however, the secret lawsuits will be served on the unsuspecting defendants and the litigation will begin, the company says