Free Consultation
The office is open as per the NYS Covid-19 guidelines. We are now doing both in-person and telephone consultations. Please call the office at 718-855-6840 to schedule a time to speak with one of our experienced bankruptcy attorneys.

How to Appeal a Bankruptcy Court Decision

The media report or dramatize appeals all the time. However, because bankruptcy courts are not typical federal courts created by Article III of the U.S. Constitution, you might want to know how appeals work in New York bankruptcy. Here’s the answer.

28 U.S.C. § 158 establishes the authority of federal district court in the district where a bankruptcy case is pending as having subject matter jurisdiction over appeals in bankruptcy cases. However, not every decision by a bankruptcy court judge can be appealed. Debtors can only contest final judgments, orders, and decrees in a higher court. What’s the difference between these?

  • Examples of final orders are decisions in adversary proceedings, motions for relief from the automatic stay, the validity of exemptions, and dismissal orders.
  • Interlocutory orders are provisional decisions on legal issues. These can only be appealed when the bankruptcy court gives the party leave to do so. The only exception is interlocutory orders relating to increasing or decreasing the time limits for filing chapter 13 repayment plans.
  • An example of a decree is the final decree given by the bankruptcy court when non-exempt property in the bankruptcy estate has been distributed to the creditors. Often the decree will occur after the discharge.

Some circuit courts have convened bankruptcy appellate panels to decide bankruptcy appeals instead of district courts. The 2nd Circuit, which contains New York, has not done so, but you might hear about bankruptcy appellate panels deciding cases in other parts of the country.

Sometimes bankruptcy cases will be appealed again, this time to the circuit court of appeals for the district the bankruptcy case was pending in. There are rare circumstances when after a final order is entered, an appeal goes directly from the bankruptcy court or the district court (or the bankruptcy appellate panel) to the circuit court without an intervening decision. This can only happen when one of the lower courts, either on its own initiative or on motion by one of the parties, or all the appellants and appellees certify that one of the three situations is present:

(1)  The final order governs an issue that hasn’t been decided by either the circuit court or the U.S. Supreme Court, or involves a matter of “public importance.”

(2)  The final order requires a higher court to reconcile conflicting decisions.

(3)  An appeal would “materially advance” the bankruptcy case.

These might sound like open-ended situations that give rise to endless appeals, but they really don’t come up often.

Importantly, parties wishing to appeal a final order have only 10 14 days, including weekends and holidays, to file their appeals. This is a fairly short window, shorter than the one for appeals in other federal court cases.

Bankruptcy appeals can take a long time to resolve, so if you have reason to believe that your case has some kind of legal issue that will require an appeal, then you will definitely need an experienced New York bankruptcy lawyer to handle the matter.

For answers to more questions about bankruptcy, the automatic stay, effective strategies for dealing with foreclosure, and protecting your assets in bankruptcy please feel free to contact experienced Brooklyn bankruptcy lawyer Bruce Weiner for a free initial consultation.

Rosenberg, Musso & Weiner, L.L.P
26 Court St # 2211
Brooklyn, NY 11242, USA
718-855-6840
http://nybankruptcy.net/

Recent Posts

Beware Grace Periods, Debtors

Too often, debtors see grace periods offered by lenders as free benefits. “Grace” makes it sound so innocent. However, debtors who routinely rely on grace periods when making payments will find themselves facing financial difficulties that might lead to bankruptcy. The reason is that although creditors offer grace periods to debtors, they also use them

Read More »

Bankruptcy May Not Rescue You From Vicious Personal Disputes

Bankruptcy is a technical process that assumes everyone working within it is mostly rational. To the extent that it expects parties to deviate from irrational behavior, the Bankruptcy Code and its accompanying rules include incentives to keep parties in line. Creditors are usually large and impersonal, and they rarely care if their debtors file bankruptcy.

Read More »

Non-Lawyers’ Explanations of Bankruptcy May Be Wrong

Do you have financial problems? Do you tend to ask your friends for advice? Is one of your friends an experienced New York bankruptcy lawyer who will explain the process for you? Are your friends otherwise knowledgeable people? The answer to these questions may be, “Yes but you don’t know it.” Although many bankruptcy lawyers

Read More »

6 Steps to Take Before Filing Bankruptcy

Leaving your case to an experienced New York bankruptcy lawyer is not the only step on the to-do list before filing bankruptcy. There are many things debtors should do (and not do) before they file, and the more organized and mindful debtors are, the easier the process will be and the more effective the result.

Read More »

Social Security Number Not Necessary for Bankruptcy

A question that’s commonly asked about New York bankruptcy is whether a debtor needs a Social Security number to file. Debtors ask because they sometimes run across the bankruptcy form title, “Your Statement About Your Social Security Numbers” (B 121), which asks debtors to list their current and prior Social Security numbers. The new bankruptcy

Read More »

How Can a Debtor (or Creditor) Get a New Trustee?

The trustee in a New York bankruptcy case is usually not the debtor’s ally. His or her purpose is mainly to administer the bankruptcy estate or ensure the debtor’s repayment plan goes according to plan. Trustees pursue preference payments, fraudulent conveyances, and other malfeasance committed by debtors. They frequently initiate adversary proceedings against debtors. In

Read More »
Scroll to Top