American Bankruptcy Institute | Jurisdiction: Personal Injury

The following abstract summarizes the text of submissions made to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission. The abstract is organized by NBRC working group and topic.

The Final Report of the NBRC can be viewed on-line. To obtain a copy of any document shown below, contact the Center for Legislative Archives, Room 205, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. 20408. The telephone number is 202/501-5350. Mr. R. Michael McReynolds, Deputy Director, will be able to assist with specific inquiries. (The NBRC documents will be housed at this location until June, 1999. Thereafter, the records will be transferred to the Center's archives in College Park, MD.)

**Jurisdiction: Personal Injury**
ID	Name	Group	Other	Code Sec	Problem Referenced	Proposed Solutions
NBRC- 0005	Richard L. Haeussler	Law Offices of Richard L. Haeussler. Sole practitioner who represents chapter 7 & 13 debtors.		28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(O)	No rational basis for excluding personal injury claims from jurisdiction of Bankr. Courts. In most cases court will grant relief from the stay after a number of appearances.	Give Bankr. Judges jurisdiction to hear personal injury claims
NBRC- 0178	Gary White, on behalf of the Natl. Assoc. of Credit Management	Chair, Government Affairs Comm., Natl. Assoc. of Credit Management		28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(5)	Working group's proposal regarding personal injury and wrongful death claims would allow the court to administer these cases in an expedient and "complete" manner, greatly reducing court administration and referral burdens.	NACM supports the working group's proposal on personal injury and wrongful death claims.
NBRC- 0303	Commercial Law League of America	Commercial Law League of America (CLLA)			The Commerical Law League of America believes that the following issue should be considered by the NBRC: whether there is a rational basis for excluding personal injury claims from the jurisdiction of bankruptcy courts.	The CLLA believes that this issue should receive top priority because it represents a fundamental issue facing the bankruptcy system today.
NBRC- 0304	Arthur J. Spector	Bankruptcy Judge (E.D. Mich.)	Copy of opinion from In re Dow Corning Corp.		Special interest legislation, in particular the removal of personal injury and wrongful death claims from the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy courts, despoil the Code. No real bankruptcy policy justifies this removal, which has resuled in a jurisidictional nightmare in the "mega-cases."	Special interest legislation, in particular the jurisdictional provisions for personal injury and wrongful death claims, should be repealed.
NBRC- 0318	Paul Mignini, Jr., Mary E. Wysocki and Charles M. Tatelbaum	President-National Association of Credit Management ("NACM"), Chair-NACM Government Affairs Committee, and NACM Legislative and Bankruptcy Counsel, respectively		365	NACM sought the input of all NACM members with respect to proposed changes to the bankruptcy laws. The NACM Government Affairs Committee, without discussing the rationales for their suggestions, prepared the proposals below.	NACM's Government Affairs Committee concludes that § 365 should be amended to provide that: if a trustee assumes a lease for real or personal property in which the debtor is the lessee, at the time of assumption all post-petition lease payments must be paid. The curing of pre-petition defaults will not be required, and any such claims shall be treated as allowable unsecured claims without priority.
NBRC- 0320	Robert M. Zinman, on behalf of the Bankruptcy Institute	American Bankruptcy Institute ("ABI")	Numerous position papers, memoranda and research material		In this statement before the NBRC, the author states that ABI members generally agree that the Article 1/Article III choice also has implications for personal injury claims.	To the extent that the bankruptcy court is restructured as an Article III court, there would appear to be no rational basis for excluding personal injury claims from the court's jurisdiction.