Bankruptcy Court: Willful and Malicious Injuries Will Restrict a Debtor's 'Fresh Start'
In re McGinn provides an example of a bankruptcy court's duties to weigh the often competing interests between the general policy of a "fresh start" conferred through a successful bankruptcy case against interests of fairness to parties who have suffered significant injuries willfully caused by the debtor.
August 11, 2022 at 12:25 PM
9 minute read
One of the principal purposes of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code is to provide a "fresh start" to debtors: an opportunity for these debtors to free themselves of burdensome debt and to start with a clean slate. At the same time, the Bankruptcy Code contains provisions that expressly except certain debts from the discharge normally granted a debtor who avails himself of the bankruptcy process. Among the debts that will survive a debtor's bankruptcy are those arising from "willful and malicious injuries" that a debtor may have caused. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts recently examined—and was constrained to balance —these potentially competing policies in In re McGinn, Case No. 19-11794, AP No. 19-01090 (Bankr. D. Mass., Feb. 28, 2022).
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