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• Author: Gregory Germain
• Pages: iv-iv

iv

Forward

This book is intended for a three credit law school course covering the fundamentals of

bankruptcy law and practice. Students should recognize that this is a “Code” class, and that the

starting place for solving most bankruptcy problems is the Bankruptcy Code itself. Students should

read the materials and work through the problems by direct reference to the provisions of the

Bankruptcy Code. Bankruptcy law yers simply must be comfortable with the Code in order to be

effective.

The book contains many cases interpreting the Bankruptcy Code. The cases have been

stripped to the essentials to minimize reading. Most cross-citations have been deleted. Issues

discussed in the cases that are not relevant to the point for which the case is included in the

materials have been stricken. Bolding has been added to important language the students should

focus on. The practitioner, of course, should always read full cases and not rely on the edited

versions in this book or on headnotes or other secondary sources. This book contains the bones of

the case, with flesh left only where essential to understanding the court’s reasoning on the

particular issue of relevance to the material in the book.

Much of the learning will come through working with the problems. Many students have

developed the bad practice of reading the questions without trying to solve them . Don’t do that.

You need to try to solve the problems by reading and working through the statute. The best way

to learn and be comfortable with using the statutory language is to work through the statute to

solve the problems.

Some of the problems contain case references. I do not expect my students to read the cases

that are merely cited in the problems, and not reprinted in the book. I discuss some of these cases

with the class when covering the problems. Students interested in the problems are always free to

read the cases for greater understanding, as time permits.