Will the Coming Flood in Commercial Bankruptcies Look Like 0's and 1's?

The piece below summarizes the dearly held beliefs of many bankruptcy practitioners throughout the country: that commercial bankruptcy is about to experience a huge up-tick in its cyclical progression. The continued onslaught of the sub-prime mortgage industry, coupled with $80 oil seems to have everyone on edge. That commercial credit, until recently, had been nearly as loose as the sub-prime mortgage industry, has been a poorly kept secret.

Last week, the Bombay Co. filed for Chapter 11 protection in Ft Worth, Texas. The Bombay bankruptcy may very well be the tell-tale leak in the failing dike from which will spring forth this expected wave of business bankruptcies nationwide. As the next generation of commercial bankruptcy presumably gets underway, the crack staff here at E-Everything will endeavor to watch more dockets and see how, or if, bankruptcy lawyers and judges handle electronically stored information (ESI) in the bankruptcy context. (Understand that comments on the Bombay case will likely taper off based on the involvement and client representation of those lovely folks at Forshey & Prostok that provide me a day job!)

According to my good friends at SiteMeter, this blog has been viewed by at least 2 surfers from the Department of Justice, my good friend Steve Jakubowski, my new friends at Texas Law Blog (who rumor has it will be starting their own podcasts soon), and by my Mom who checks in just to make sure I am not using any untoward language. At the very least, practitioners ought to be acknowledging their client's digital enterprise in Schedules, SOFA's, cash collateral orders, or even in related first day pleadings. However, if lawyers cannot recognize the thinly veiled reference to binary in the title of this post, we still have so far to go...

In the mean time, here is where the rest of the "insolvency press" is focused: