In bankruptcy cases, the court and counsel may be inexperienced with surety law concepts that are often unfamiliar for bankruptcy practitioners. Written by experienced surety law practitioners, this compendium serves as a practical resource for all bankruptcy counsel and courts so they can understand and assess the implications of surety principles and claims in bankruptcy cases, especially in chapter 11 cases.

The need for this resource is significant: surety law issues are not present in the majority of bankruptcy cases, and even when they are present, they may not be the largest or most important legal issues of the case. Because surety issues may not have been fully understood, this has led to unpredictable outcomes and written decisions that lack of understanding of basic surety law concepts.

Surety Law Aspects of Bankruptcy Practice provides a secondary authority that both summarizes existing bankruptcy law and makes the underpinnings of surety law readily accessible to the bankruptcy practitioner and bankruptcy courts.

A surety is traditionally defined as a person or entity who agrees in writing to answer for the debt or default of another. Beginning with the basic tenets of surety law, the book explains the tripartite relationship of the debtor, the creditor, and the surety, considers both historical and modern applications, reviews how suretyship is distinguished from insurance products, and considers equitable subrogation, a bedrock principle of modern surety law.

This overview of surety law is followed by a broad look at the bankruptcy code and statutory framework. Subsequent chapters address core topics such as jurisdictional issues, commencement of a case, and case administration. Chapter authors then focus on surety topics in these cases, including, including:

• Surety claims in bankruptcy
• Bankruptcy estate
• Chapter 7 liquidation
• Chapter 11 reorganization
• Chapter 15 proceedings
• Bankruptcy trustee bonds