supreme court

Exeter attorney makes first-ever SCOTUS appearance: ‘Every lawyer’s dream’

For Exeter attorney Terrie Harman, appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time on April 24 was exhilarating.

It’s a great privilege and a rare opportunity to appear before SCOTUS, and that is not lost on Harman.

“It’s every lawyer’s dream to go to the U.S. Supreme Court,” she says. “It was incredibly exciting. I can hardly believe that I went.”

Terrie Harman holding the brief for the case of Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, et al v. Brian W. Coughlin, her first appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Terrie Harman holding the brief for the case of Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, et al v. Brian W. Coughlin, her first appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Harman graduated from Franklin Pierce Law School in 1978 and began working at Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Bangor, Maine. There, she learned about bankruptcy law while representing indigents and developed a passion for the Bankruptcy Code. In the 1980s, she started her own firm, Harman Law Offices, where she was heavily involved in bankruptcy litigation and later became a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee.

Nowadays, her practice is mostly focused on probate litigation, estate planning, and general civil litigation, but it was one of her old bankruptcy cases that caught the eye of Boston lawyer, Richard Gottlieb, leading to a phone call that would place

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June 2, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Albany Diocese says pension fight not why it filed for bankruptcy

SCHENECTADY — When the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany filed for Chapter 11 last week, it noted that its outstanding litigation with state Attorney General Letitia James and others over the collapse of the St. Clare’s Hospital pension plan is not the reason why it sought bankruptcy protection.

Rather, it was the more than 440 lawsuits that have been filed against the diocese under the state’s Child Victims Act since 2019 — 50 of which have been settled — that prompted the diocese to file for bankruptcy.

The diocese does acknowledge the ongoing St. Clare’s litigation, albeit briefly, in its bankruptcy papers filed March 15 in U.S. District Court in Albany.

But the papers note that the St. Clare’s cases, which have been consolidated in state Supreme Court in Schenectady for both discovery and trial, were “not a precipitating cause” of the bankruptcy as might be assumed.

In fact, the diocese went out of its way to try and assure St. Clare’s pensioners in a press release issued last week that the pension lawsuits are “not the diocese’s purpose for filing” Chapter 11, although it will have the effect of putting the pension litigation “on hold” during the bankruptcy

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March 21, 2023 by ATTORNEY

U.S. Supreme Court says bankruptcy can’t nix debts for others’ frauds

  • U.S. Supreme Court says debtors unaware of fraud cannot wipe out debts
  • Case concerned sale of San Francisco home with undisclosed defects

Feb 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that individuals cannot use the bankruptcy process to wipe out debts incurred through fraud even in instances when they were not the ones who personally deceived their creditors.

The high court unanimously rejected Kate Bartenwerfer’s bid to use bankruptcy to eliminate debts stemming from a home sale in San Francisco on the grounds that she was unaware of fraudulent omissions her husband made in selling their house.

She had sought to discharge a debt owed to the buyer, Kieran Buckley, who had sued Kate and David Bartenwerfer for selling him their house while withholding information about major defects, like a leaky roof and defective windows.

But conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the bankruptcy code allows someone like Kate Bartenwerfer, who was unaware of the deceit, to still be held liable as the law “turns on how the money was obtained, not who committed fraud to obtain it.”

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She noted the bankruptcy code’s bar on debtors discharging debts for money “obtained

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March 5, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Minnesota Supreme Court approves disbarment of attorney after fraud conviction in bankruptcy scheme – Bemidji Pioneer

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Supreme Court has approved an agreement disbarring former Willmar, Minnesota, attorney Gregory Ron Anderson from the practice of law for his felony conviction of fraud.

Gregory Anderson

Gregory Anderson

The Supreme Court issued a news release Tuesday, Jan. 3, stating that it had issued an order Dec. 30 in which it approved the disbarment as sought in a petition from the director of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility for Anderson’s alleged professional misconduct.

Anderson, 63, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on Dec. 7 to serve 18 months in prison for a conviction of fraud in the bankruptcy proceedings of former Kerkhoven Mayor James Rothers. Anderson must also serve a year of supervised release following his prison term and pay fines of $20,000.

The federal court found that Anderson had created fake liabilities to create the appearance that Rothers was insolvent when, in fact, Rothers could easily have paid all of his creditors, according to information from the U.S. District Attorney’s office.

Rothers pleaded guilty to fraud Dec. 13 and is serving two years of probation.

Anderson had agreed as part of a plea agreement in his case to voluntarily accept disbarment.

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January 13, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Former state senator files bankruptcy in effort to get out of jail for child support non-payment

Jeremy Hutchinson on Friday, his second day in jail, filed for voluntary bankruptcy and appealed the contempt order that incarcerates him indefinitely to the Arkansas Supreme Court, measures that should get him out of jail within a week at most without having to pay $524,000 in child support arrears for his freedom, his lawyer said Friday.

Clinton Lancaster, the Benton lawyer who brought a successful paternity action in Independence County against presidential son Hunter Biden, took on Hutchinson’s case Friday. Lancaster said Hutchinson’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy declaration carries a federal stay of the state-court divorce proceedings that landed Hutchinson in jail on Thursday.

“You can’t put people in jail for their debts once they file for bankruptcy … so [release] is a matter of time,” Lancaster said, describing Hutchinson’s incarceration as “debtor’s prison.”https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/dec/31/former-state-senator-files-bankruptcy-in-effort/”We want to make it clear that Jeremy is not running from having to pay his debts. He has incurred a lot of judgments and things of that nature and he just needs relief.”

Bankruptcy will allow Hutchinson, 48, to discharge some portions of the divorce-related debt ascribed to him by the court, but not what he owes in child support and not whatever financial penalties he incurs

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January 5, 2023 by ATTORNEY
April 2024
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