YCST Bankruptcy Alert: Amendments to Delaware’s Local Bankruptcy Rules

Amendments to Delaware’s Local Bankruptcy Rules go into effect today, February 1, 2018.  Some of the recent rule amendments include (but are not limited to):

• Clarifying that the Delaware District Court’s 6:00 p.m. (ET) filing rule does not apply in Bankruptcy Court (LR 1001-1(f)).

• Requiring parties wishing to redact or omit information otherwise required on an Official Bankruptcy Form to file a motion first seeking approval to do so (LR 1007-1(a)).

• Revising various deadlines to conform with the 7, 14, 21 & 28-day convention used in the Fed. R. Bankr. P (rather than the prior 10, 15 & 30-day convention) (various).

• Clarifying the requirements for substantive omnibus claim objections and the procedures to seek relief therefrom (LR 3007-1(f)).

• Establishing page limits for objections to, and briefs in support of, disclosure statements and plans (LR 3017-3).

• Significantly revising the rules governing requests to deviate from the procedures applicable to adversary proceedings under the federal and Local Bankruptcy Rules (LR 7001-1).

• Eliminating language made redundant by revisions to Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7008 (various).

• Establishing the timing of a motion in an adversary proceeding under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7016(b) (LR 7016-1(f)).

• Requiring that case captions be modified only by separate motion (LR 9004-1).

• Requiring that (a) any filed and redacted documents be coupled with a motion to seal such redactions, and (b) publicly viewable redacted documents be filed within 3 days of the filing of the motion to seal (LR 9018-1(d)).

• Significantly revising the Local Bankruptcy Rules governing mediators and mediations (LR 9019-2 and 9019-5).

• Revising Local Form 102 (Fee Application/Attachment B) to require that Attachment B to fee applications include a legend identifying the names of professionals whose initials or other identifiers are used in the invoice attached to the fee application.  For example, where an invoice identifies John M. Smith as “JMS” or “JSMIT,” Attachment B should include a column identifying JMS or JSMIT as John M. Smith.

For your convenience, attached is a pdf of the changed pages of the Local Bankruptcy Rules showing the specific amendments.  For a full version of Delaware’s amended Local Rules effective February 1, 2018, please click here.