MEMORANDUM OPINION TERRENCE L. MICHAEL, Chief Judge. Whether for carpentry or estate planning, it is usually a good idea to use the right tool for the job. Unfortunately, when it comes to estate planning and asset transfer, people are often ill-informed about the tools available to them and the perils of choosing the wrong one. If a parent wants to gift an asset to a child only upon the parent's death or incapacity, state law provides tools to accomplish that end. 1 Unfortunately, use of...
ORDER REGARDING TRUSTEE'S MOTION FOR SANCTIONS TERRENCE L. MICHAEL, Chief Judge. Litigation is often a nasty business. It is not hard to understand why. Litigation exists because someone wants something, and they want it from the other side. Things get nastier when allegations of lawyer misconduct are added to the mix. The battle becomes personal. The parties focus their energies upon the personal accusations instead of the matter at hand. Eventually they ask the Court to do the same, at...
MEMORANDUM OPINION TERRENCE L. MICHAEL, Chief Judge. Most litigation deals with past events. Bankruptcy cases often focus on the future. It may be the future of a reorganized business, or the collection and distribution of a debtor's assets. Just as disputes arise out of past events, they can also be foreseen. The question before the Court is whether potential disputes may be the proper subject of compromise, and, if so, whether the compromise presented in this case should be approved. The...
