On October 2, David Shaiken participated in a panel presentation at the Connecticut Bar Association’s Annual Bankruptcy Conference. David’s panel discussed a bankruptcy court’s authority to award sanctions and punitive sanctions against a creditor for violation of a debtor’s bankruptcy discharge.
The talk focused on a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court case called Taggart v. Lorenzen, 139 S.Ct. 1795 (2019), in which the Supreme Court held that a creditor is liable for sanctions if it violates the bankruptcy discharge injunction and there is “no objectively reasonable basis for concluding that the creditor’s conduct might be lawful.” The Supreme Court overruled those courts that have imposed a strict liability standard, as well as courts that have provided a defense based on a creditor’s subjective good faith. The panel discussed recent lower court decisions that have applied the Taggart rule, and discussed the limits of a bankruptcy court’s authority to order punitive, as opposed to compensatory, sanctions for contempt.
Shipman, Shaiken & Schwefel is a bronze sponsor of the conference.
For more information, contact David Shaiken, 860-606-1703, david@shipmanlawct.com.