Since 1978, dismissals of involuntary bankruptcy petitions due to petitioning creditors' bad faith have proliferated. In the process, a textual oddity has not gone unnoticed: even as “bad faith” is denominated as the basis for an award of punitive damages, nowhere in the Bankruptcy Code's...

In a contested matter or adversary proceeding, Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7004(h) sets forth the requisites for service on an “insured depository institution.” Subject to three exceptions, a motion or complaint must be served by certified mail on an officer of these statutorily...

For more than two decades, a debate has raged over what to make of vindicatory contempts, a class of ostensibly civil contempt orders intended to punish a debtor for his or her defiance of prior judicial orders issued pre-petition by a state court. Because § 362(a)(1) applies to all judicial...