Milavetz – Supreme Court Holds Once and For All … We Are Debt Relief Agencies
US Supreme Court on Justice Holmes' 169th B-day Holds in Milavetz that the Bankruptcy Code's Speech Restrictions on Attorneys Do Not Turn Them into Ruthless Drones
Back in the good old days when bashing BAPCPA was in vogue, I posited here that BAPCPA's "debt relief agency" provisions "look more like an effort to create a consumer bankruptcy lawyer clone who, much like the ever-multiplying Agent Smith from The Matrix-Reloaded, speaks and does precisely as directed with ruthless efficiency." Today's unanimous opinion from Justice Sonia Sotomayor (with concurrences from Justices Scalia and Thomas) tells us not to worry because while attorneys in fact are "debt relief agents" under the Code, §526(a)(4) "prohibits a debt relief agency only from advising a debtor to incur more debt when the impelling reason for the advice is the anticipation of bankruptcy." Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A., v. United States, No. 08-1119 (Op. at 13).
As with most bankruptcy decisions from the Supreme Court, the path taken to the holding is more interesting than the actual holding itself. This post examines two aspects of that road:
08
03 2010
Latest iPad Commercial
If you say you don’t want one youre a liar.
Sent from my iPhone
08
03 2010
ABA Social Networking Policy
ABA Advisory Panel: Social Network Usage
The ABA leadership and Standing Committee on Strategic Communications are developing a social network policy to determine how (if) the ABA will utilize social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Thus far they have surveyed lawyers and law students separately and found as follows:
Among practicing lawyers:
- 1/3 of respondents did not have accounts on any of the 3 social networks mentioned
- Among respondents who did have an account, LinkedIn was considered professional
- Among respondents who had an account, Facebook was considered strictly casual
- Lawyer attitudes toward social networks varied (waste of time, useful for business)
- Most respondents favor an ABA group on LinkedIn, fewer favor one on Facebook
- Younger respondents favored the idea of the ABA having a presence on social networks
Among law students:
- they are much more engaged in social media than practitioners
- nearly 90% of surveyed law students had Facebook accounts
- about 75% of surveyed law students accessed Facebook daily
- they tend to be more positive about social networks in general
- they tend to favor ABA groups on both LinkedIn and Facebook
In a related story, the ABA Journal did not report that anyone was the least bit surprised by the findings.
06
03 2010
Browser Wars
02
03 2010
Clio Calendar Upgrade (and how!)
The guys from Clio show off in this short video and I can’t blame them. Having used Clio for over a year, I did hand-springs when I saw the improvements. Almost makes me want to forgive them for winning the gold in Hockey at the Winter Games!
