News & Resources

If your spouse, family member, or someone you know, was operating a small business and passes away, what can happen to that business? If that business was organized as a limited liability company in the state of Texas, the business may be able to con...

Bankruptcy Rule 2004 provides, in pertinent part: (a) EXAMINATION ON MOTION. On motion of any party in interest, the court may order the examination of any entity....

#1 - Train, Train and Train - Make sure employees are adequately trained, not only on equipment and technology used in the day-to-day exercise of their business duties, but on laws and regulations relating to the business....

The All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651, allows federal courts to “issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.”...

On August 23, 2019, President Trump signed the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, P.L. 116-54 (the “SBRA”). ...

If an agreement includes a solid arbitration clause, arbitration can be a less expensive, more predictable option for dispute resolution compared to courtroom litigation....

In Texas, the Court that typically deals with “small claim” – known commonly as the JP Court – has raised its jurisdictional limit from $10,000 to $20,000....

Clients often get confused when dealing with lien right, particular when they involve construction projections and vehicle repairs. As a titleholder in the state of Texas, a situation will inevitably arise where a mechanic, or other service provider...

Published Decisions 2019...

Bruce Akerly has been asked to teach a Survey of Law class on Business Entities and Bankruptcy as part of the SMU CAPE program....

A lis pendens, on the other hand, is a document created by a party to litigation that typically involves a claim that may impact the rights of parties to real property. While lis pendens are recorded in the real property records of the county in whi...

To prove abandonment generally requires a showing that the debtor discontinued use of the homestead through some overt act and intent to not return to the property....

The Fifth Circuit recently addressed the question of what happens when a lender fails to correct a curable defect in the loan documents that makes the loan unconstitutional in Texas....

On August 26, 2019, the administration signed into law the Small Business Reorganization Act ('SBRA'), which will go into effect on February 22, 2020....

Akerly Law PLLC Associate, Carrie R. McNair, has returned to Law School, only this time as a Legal Writing Professor at the University of North Texas College of Law in Dallas....

Richard Stanford bilked his investors for over $132 million in a massive Ponzi scheme. He promised exceedingly high rates on certificates of deposits and used funds collected from subsequent investors to fund his criminal enterprise....

Frequently, a party will require some action “by the close of business” (COB). What does that mean? While there does not appear to be a case in the United States dealing with this issue, commercial law and a case that reached the UK's equivalent of...

Section 523(a)(4) of the Bankruptcy Code exempts from discharge a debt “for fraud or defalcation while acting in a fiduciary capacity.” ...

The chances that a cryptocurrency will be an asset in a bankruptcy estate are ever growing....

Debtors filed an adversary proceeding in their Chapter 13 bankruptcy against their mortgage company. The suit was pending for two years before the mortgage company filed a motion to compel arbitration as was permitted in the Debtor’s loan documents....

Michael D. Gorman and Carrie R. McNair have joined Akerly Law PLLC as associates. Michael’s practice includes bankruptcy and litigation. Carrie’s practice includes appeals, business law and litigation....

As a rule, attorneys’ fee claims in bankruptcy are covered by two provisions of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. §§502 (“allowance of claims or interests”) and 506 (“determination of secured status”)...

In Taggart v. Lorenzen, the question before the court concerned the legal standard for holding a creditor in civil contempt when the creditor attempts to collect a debt in violation of the bankruptcy discharge order....

The FCRA prohibits obtaining a credit report on a debtor unless it is “for a purpose for which the [credit] report is authorized”. Debt collection has been held to be a permissible reason for obtaining a credit report....

In a recent decision out of the US District Court for the District of Kansas, Educational Credit Management Corporation v. Metz, the District Court upheld a bankruptcy court’s decision to authorize discharge of interest on a student loan while leavi...

In Texas, recordation of an abstract of judgment in the real property records of the county in which a debtor has real property creates a lien in favor of the creditor against such property....

The United States Supreme Court unanimously held that a person engaged in nonjudicial foreclosure proceedings is not a debt collector under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practice Act (“FDCPA”). 15 U.S.C § 1962a(6), where “debt collector” is define...

In the news July 2019...

On June 4, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Lamar, Archer & Cofrin, LLP v. Appling and held that single-asset statements qualify as statements respecting the debtor’s financial condition for purposes of Bankruptcy Code § 523(a)(2)...

Can you sue or be sued on an account that has be “charged off”? To “charge off” is to treat an account “as a loss or expense because payment is unlikely.” ...

The bankruptcy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is unfolding as one of the biggest public bankruptcies in the United States. Puerto Rico has roughly $72 billion in debt and an additional $50 billion that it owes in pensions to its public employees....

As a general proposition, once a bankruptcy petition is filed, interest is not permitted to accrue on a pre-petition debts. One exception to this rule is when the debt is secured by a pledge of collateral and the value of the collateral exceeds the ...

Under the Uniform Commercial Code, a seller of goods to an insolvent buyer may be entitled to reclaim possession of the goods if certain requirements are met, like written demand within 10-days of delivery....

Mr. Akerly has been selected to participate in a panel at the ACA International’s annual convention in Nashville, Tennessee on July 25, 2018. The topic of the presentation will be “A Collection Country 2 Step- Exploring Reasonable Investigations Und...

Mr. Akerly has been asked to speak and present a paper at the Texas Advanced Paralegal Seminar on September 27, 2018, entitled “The Paralegal’s Role in Bankruptcy: How to Read And Understand Schedules and Statements of Financial Affairs, BR 2004 Exam...

Mr. Akerly to participate on a panel at the conference of the Receivable Management Association...

Mr. Akerly was, again, selected by his peers as a Super Lawyer for 2017 (Texas Monthly)...

In the last quarter of 2017 Mr. Akerly (with the assistance of associate Cooper Walker) published an article in the Texas Landscape and Nurseryman’s Association Green Magazine entitled The Texas Agricultural Product Lien Statute – A Necessary Tool To...

In 2017, Mr. Akerly presented a paper entitled How To Bust A Trust to the North Texas Estate Planning Council and the Rio Grande Valley Estate Planning Counsel...