The Coerced, Vulnerable or Incapacitated Debtor: What Are Your Ethical Obligations?

Chantel C. Wonder is Of Counsel with McGlinchey Stafford PLLC in Tampa, Fla., and focuses her practice on consumer financial services, employment defense and insurance.

Chantel has represented clients in federal and state litigation, as well as class actions, appeals and hundreds of bench trials. Ms. Wonder has particular expertise in debt-buyer and mortgage work, with experience in credit cards, debt collection, bankruptcy and the wide spectrum of financial services litigation. Many of her cases surround consumer protection litigation, including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUPTA) and Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (FCCPA).

Ms. Wonder previously worked as in-house litigation counsel for a national debt-buyer for eight years, working on the company’s many highly contested cases.

Kristina E. Feher is the managing member Feher Law, P.L.L.C. in St. Petersburg, Fla., and has practiced in the areas of bankruptcy, family law and small business matters.

Kristina serves as the president of the St. Petersburg Bar Foundation and previously served as secretary for the Florida Association for Women Lawyers Board of Directors (FAWL), having served as a Chapter Representative, representing Pinellas County, on the FAWL board of directors from 2019-20. Ms. Feher served as president of the Pinellas County Chapter of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers from 2018-19. She also previously served on a Sixth Circuit Grievance Committee. Ms. Feher served as a Sixth Circuit Representative for The Florida Bar Young Lawyers’ Division Board of Governors.

In 2019, she received the Sixth Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Award and the Community Law Program Volunteer of the Year Award. Ms. Feher is an adjunct professor for St. Petersburg College’s Paralegal Studies Program.

She received her B.S. in criminology with honors from Barry University and her J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

Edwin M. Boyer is a shareholder with Boyer & Boyer, P.A. in Sarasota, Fla., and has been a Florida Bar board certified elder law attorney since 1998.

Edwin focuses his practice areas on estate planning, probate and trust administration, guardianship, special needs trusts, guardianship litigation and nursing home residents rights enforcement.

Mr. Boyer is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and has been listed as a Florida Super Lawyer annually since 2006. He received the Manatee County Bar Association Community Service Award and was the first Borchard Foundation Distinguished Professorial Lecturer in Elder Law from 2012-13. He also received the William Reese Smith Jr. Award for public service by Stetson University College of Law in 2010. Mr. Boyer is a past president of both the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the Florida Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and he is a member and Fellow of the Council of Advanced Practitioners of the Academy.

In addition, he sits on the board of the Seniors vs. Crime Project of the Florida Attorney General’s Office, and he is a member of the Department of Children and Families Select Advisory Panel for Adult Protective Services.

Hon. Caryl E. Delano is Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, initially appointed on June 25, 2008, and named Chief Judge on October 1, 2019. She also was appointed Presiding Judge of the Fort Myers Division in July 2012.

Previously, Judge Delano practiced before the bankruptcy courts of the Central District of California for 14 years. In 1994, she returned to Tampa and most recently practiced law with the firm of Addison & Delano, P.A., where she concentrated her practice on bankruptcy and commercial litigation. Judge Delano has represented debtors and creditors in numerous chapter 11 cases and related adversary proceedings. She is a member of the Florida Bar, the State Bar of California, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, ABI, the Business Law Section of The Florida Bar (Executive Council, CLE Committee), the Hillsborough County Bar Association and the Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association.

In addition, she serves as the liaison judge to the Middle District of Florida’s Local Rules Lawyers’ Advisory Committee and is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Federal Rules Advisory Committee. In 2017, Judge Delano received the Southwest Florida Bankruptcy Professionals Association’s Alexander L. Paskay Professionalism Award. In addition, she is the former executive director and past-president of the J. Clifford Cheatwood American Inn of Court.

Judge Delano received her B.A. in English cum laude in 1976 from the University of South Florida and her J.D. in 1979 from Indiana University School of Law, having completed her final year of law school at Emory University School of Law.