Weltman & Moskowitz, LLP is proud to announce that founding partners Richard Weltman and Michael Moskowitz have both been selected as Metro New York Area Super Lawyers for 2017. This is the fourth consecutive year each has been recognized as a top bankruptcy/debtor and creditors’ rights attorney. This honor is a product of a rigorous investigative process by the publishers of Law and Politics. Attorneys are selected based on professional accomplishments, licensing and certifications, peer recognition and personal achievement. The final published list represents no more than 5% of the lawyers in each state. The firm is also proud to announce that Melissa Guseynov, an associate of the firm, has been selected as a New York Metro Rising Star! This selection is limited to no more than 2.5% of the attorneys in New York State. The Super Lawyers objective is to create a credible list of outstanding attorneys, and the lawyers of Weltman & Moskowitz, LLP are proud to be recognized for their hard work and client dedication.

Weltman & Moskowitz, LLP is proud to announce that Richard Weltman and Michael Moskowitz have both been selected as Metro New York Area Super Lawyers for 2016. This is the third consecutive year each has been recognized as a top bankruptcy/debtor and creditors’ rights attorney. This honor is a product of a rigorous investigative process by the publishers of Law and Politics. Attorneys are selected based on professional accomplishments, licensing and certifications, peer recognition and personal achievement. The final published list represents no more than 5% of the lawyers in each state. The Super Lawyers objective is to create a credible list of outstanding attorneys, and the partners of Weltman & Moskowitz, LLP are proud to be recognized for their hard work and client dedication.

By Michael L. Moskowitz

{2:25 minutes to read} On November 17, 2014, the Supreme Court agreed to review two appeals filed by Bank of America against homeowners who filed Chapter 7 bankruptcies and then sought to “strip off” the lender’s underwater mortgage liens. In Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett (No. 13-1421) and Bank of America, N.A. v. Toledo-Cardona (No. 14-163), the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled in favor of the homeowners, leading to Bank of America’s appeals to the Supreme Court.

By Michael L. Moskowitz

Two of our clients, one, a large regional bank, and the other, a personal injury attorney, were both recently sued in adversary proceedings filed in the United States bankruptcy courts. Weltman & Moskowitz successfully established that both complaints were without merit and each plaintiff agreed to withdraw the complaint before answers were required to be filed. In doing so, we saved these clients significant legal fees and expenses and the distractions associated with protracted litigation.

A logistics and warehousing company came to Weltman & Moskowitz, LLP, a New York and New Jersey business litigation law firm, because it believed it was wrongfully named as a defendant in a multi-party federal lawsuit commenced in the Southern District of New York by the insurer subrogee of the consignor. Insurer alleged that our client had acted as a freight forwarder and bailee with respect to certain cargo damaged by Superstorm Sandy in October 2012.

By Richard E. Weltman

In its recent decision, Hart v. Southern Heritage Bank, 2014 WL 1663029 (6th Cir. April 28, 2014), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the United States Supreme Court’s seminal holding in Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. 2594 (2011) does not preclude a bankruptcy court from issuing final judgments in non-dischargeability challenges under section 523(a)(2)(B) of the Bankruptcy Code.

The United States Judicial Conference recently approved changes to the federal court miscellaneous fee schedules, including certain bankruptcy filing fees.

As of  Sunday, June 1, 2014, the filing fees for most bankruptcy matters will rise. These fees are collected from both debtors and creditors accessing the federal bankruptcy courts, whether in person or online.

New York’s highest court recently announced that account holders do not have a private right of action to sue banks for alleged violations of the Exempt Income Protection Act (“EIPA”). Cruz v. TD Bank, 2013, NY Slip. Op. 07762 (November 21, 2013). EIPA exempts certain Social Security, veterans, disability and unemployment benefits from creditor restraining orders and requires banks to inform affected account holders of their right to obtain exemptions from collection.

Not every debt is entitled to be forgiven in bankruptcy. In a recent Northern District of New York bankruptcy decision, Chief Bankruptcy Judge Robert Littlefield Jr. held that a woman’s $3.75 million default judgment against her mother for negligent infliction of emotional distress would be excepted from discharge in her mother’s subsequent bankruptcy case. In re Irene Chaffee (Chaffee v. Chaffee), No. 07-90171 (Bankr. N.D.N.Y. September 3, 2013).

On August 15, 2013, Lori Lapin Jones, as Trustee of Peninsula Hospital Center, a chapter 11 bankruptcy case pending in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn Vicinage), filed more than three dozen adversary proceeding cases seeking to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in money or property for the benefit of the debtor’s creditors.

In Picard v. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (In re Bernard L. Madoff Invest. Secs. LLC), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held last month that the “doctrine of in pari delicto" precluded Irving H. Picard, the trustee under the Securities Investor Protection Act (“SIPA”), from pursuing JP Morgan Chase & Co., HSBC Bank PLC, and other third-party defendants, on behalf of defrauded customers for certain common law claims.  In re Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC, 2013 WL 3064848 (2d. Cir. June 20, 2013).

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