With the growth of the automotive loan market, which just this month has been the subject of examination by national publications such as the Wall Street Journal, has come a corresponding rise in auto loan delinquencies.  For automotive finance companies, auto repossessions represent a risk for affirmative claims by consumers both on an individual and, more significantly, on a class basis.  Recently, there has been an uptick in class actions against automotive finance companies…

Recent interest-rate decreases have led to a resurgence in the mortgage market, with refinance activity up sharply from levels a year ago. But lenders have underwriting on their minds for reasons other than increased application volume. The CFPB recently affirmed that it intends to allow the so-called GSE Patch to its Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgage Rule to expire in early 2021. This has home loans executives and their advisors assessing their underwriting obligations in a world without…

Over the past several years, much has been written about how numerous bankruptcy courts have interpreted and enforced bankruptcy and insolvency-related provisions in intercreditor agreements, subordination agreements and other “agreements among lenders” when they may affect a debtor and its estate. Although the Bankruptcy Code itself provides little guidance, the emerging trend has been for bankruptcy courts to strictly enforce intercreditor agreements according to their clear and unambiguous terms, rather than allow for broader interpretations…

Starting now, all creditors must exercise more caution when trying to collect against discharged bankruptcy debtors, because a creditor’s good faith belief that the discharge injunction did not apply is no longer a viable defense. On Monday, June 3, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the standard for awarding sanctions against a creditor for violation of the discharge injunction, unanimously holding that a court may hold a creditor in civil contempt for violating a discharge…

Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) has become highly technical, reflecting the complexity of modern secured transactions and the intricate relationships of debtors, secured parties and others who have or may have interests in a debtor’s assets.  Some of its rules, however, seem relatively easy to understand and apply. One of those is the rule that protects buyers who buy goods in the ordinary course of business, allowing such buyers to make purchases…

Executors have a duty to gather all of the assets of the decedent’s estate and prepare an inventory of the assets and debts. In days of old, this meant obtaining paper files that had been in the possession of the deceased. The digital world changed all that. Digital content is generally held, not by the owner of the information, but by a third-party custodian. The custodian of digital assets has an obligation to protect against…