Debt Adjustments for Municipalities Under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code: A Collier Monograph

This Collier Monograph presents a thorough treatment of chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code, which sets forth the bankruptcy relief available to state municipalities. Chapter 9 is a powerful yet underutilized restructuring tool available to financially challenged municipalities and public corporations within the United States. Chapter 9 provides an express means to compromise municipal obligations against a creditor's wishes. Chapter 9 also gives a municipality the ability to operate while in bankruptcy with relatively minimal judicial oversight, protected by the automatic stay, free of the risk of a competing plan, liquidation, the appointment of a trustee or many of the other controls that normally act as a check upon a debtor during a bankruptcy reorganization case.

The topics include:
• the purpose of municipal bankruptcy;
• nonbankruptcy alternatives to Bankruptcy Code chapter 9;
• comparison of chapter 9 to chapter 11;
• prepetition planning, including negotiations with creditors and creation of a restructuring plan;
• eligibility to file under chapter 9commencement of the chapter 9 case;
• a municipality's operating in chapter 9;
• reducing liabilities and exiting bankruptcy;
• history of chapter 9; and
• a listing of chapter 9 state authorizing statutes.