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Revised LBR Forms Effective December 2012

Public Notice

By December 14, 2012, the Court will post 80 revised LBR forms (Revised Forms) on its website, which include a new Proof of Service of Document as well as other non-substantive changes. The Revised Forms will become effective once posted. Prior versions of these forms, however, will be accepted for filing through December 31, 2012. A list of the Revised Forms is attached.

In addition to the new Proof of Service of Document that has been updated, the Revised Forms have also been modified as follows:

-Reformatted for better compatibility with the Court’s CM/ECF system;
-Non-substantive text revisions were made for improved consistency;
-The Revised Forms are fillable and may be saved using a PDF reader; and
-Many of the names of the Revised Forms have been changed to make them easier to identify. For example, F 1007-4 is now F 1007-4.CORP.OWNERSHIP.STMT.
-The attached list of Revised Forms includes both the new and old LBR form numbers. For your convenience, you may input the old LBR form number in the search box on the Court’s website to find the applicable Revised Form.

The Revised Forms will be available on the Court’s website www.cacb.uscourts.gov under the Forms tab, or for a fee at the Intake Section of all five of the Court’s divisions.

KATHLEEN J. CAMPBELL
CLERK OF COURT

Immigrants, minorities especially vulnerable to bankruptcy scams

Hi everyone,

Attached hereto is a link to the story we worked on with KPCC to highlight both the identity theft in the bankruptcy court and “bankruptcy hijacking.” It came out yesterday.

Have a great week!

Maggie Bordeaux

Public Counsel Press Clips – December 4, 2012
Ajamu Azibo realized he had a problem when someone filed a bankruptcy in his name. Then he became a victim of another scam: it’s called “bankruptcy hijacking,” and it’s a problem we’re seeing more and more these days. Public Counsel’s Magdalena Reyes Bordeaux, who directs our Debtor Assistance Project, calls Azibo’s case a prime example of how creative some notarios, or fake lawyers, have become. “I think for many individuals, they are intimidated by the legal system generally, and there’s a lot of advertising out there by notaries…It’s only compounded by the fact that a lot of these individuals are friends, maybe friends of family, and so they trust them sometimes more than they trust the legal system.”

Immigrants, minorities especially vulnerable to bankruptcy scams

Ruxandra Guidi with Take Two | December 4th, 2012, 9:08am

Software systems engineer Ajamu Azibo seems to have it all. He’s young and healthy, with a great job at UCLA, a happy marriage, and dreams of owning a house someday.

Read more…

CM/ECF Maintenance Scheduled for Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Court will be performing CM/ECF maintenance on the above date starting at 7:00 a.m.  As a result, the following electronic systems will not be available:

CM/ECF Live System
LOU

Please note that you may access PACER for the purpose of querying CM/ECF.  Meanwhile, the Court will make every effort to restore the system as soon as possible.  You will be notified as soon as the system is again available for your use.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Best regards,
ECF Support
(213) 894-2365

Bankruptcy Highjacking on NPR

I heard this story on KPCC while returning from court this morning. It features Judge Tighe of CDCA and Maggie Bordeaux from Public Counsel.

Though we all deal with these issues regularly, thank you for bringing this matter to light for others.

http://www.scpr. org/programs/ take-two/ 2012/12/04/ 29526/immigrants -minorities-especially- vulnerable- to-ban/

Desiree Causey, Esq.

Court Closures for Friday, December 7, 2012

The Court will be closed on Friday, December 7, 2012, except for emergency filings in Los Angeles and Riverside divisions.  All automated systems will be operational.  Click for more information http://go.usa.gov/gBHW

Judge Clarkson to Mediate San Bernardino Firefighters Union Dispute

BLOOMBERG
Nov. 21, 2012

San Bernardino Agrees to Mediation With Firefighters

By Steven Church

San Bernardino, the bankrupt California city, and its firefighters union agreed to seek court-supervised mediation of their labor contract disputes, the city said in court papers.

The two sides will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott Clarkson to oversee talks aimed at resolving their disagreements, which were not specified in the court filing today in Riverside, California.

Two weeks after the city filed for bankruptcy protection on Aug. 1, the union threatened to try to have the case dismissed.

San Bernardino was the third California city to file bankruptcy in less than three months. The city of about 209,000 people lies about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. A fiscal emergency, brought on by a $46 million budget shortfall, forced it to stop paying some creditors and seek court protection, the city said.

The case is In re San Bernardino, 12-28006, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California (Riverside).

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware at schurch3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net

Judge Scott Clarkson – Photographer

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned to you that Judge Scott Clarkson is a pretty talented guy.  Between packed hearing days, a busy voluntary mediation schedule, and overseing the Central District’s newly filed mega-case American Suzuki Motor Company, he has continued his remarkable “other career” as a documentary photographer.  On the occasion of the October 22, 2012 passing of former U.S. Senator George McGovern, the 1972 candidate for the Presidency, and one of my personal heroes, the national and international media scrambled for current photographs of McGovern.  That’s when Judge Clarkson’s work stepped in.

It turns out that during McGovern’s 2009 book tour of his “Lincoln” biography, Judge Clarkson, then in private law practice, was invited by the Richard M. Nixon Library & Museum inYorba Linda to document the McGovern lecture that took place in the Museum’s packed replica of the White House East Room.  While Judge Clarkson had posted some of the photographs on his web page, not much else came from the photo-shoot at that time.  But upon McGovern’s passing, the flurry of efforts to find more modern era photos of McGovern lead, of course, to Judge Clarkson.  Releases and credits provided, various McGovern photos by Judge Clarkson have populated hundreds of international web sites over the last three weeks.

Some of his photos of McGovern appear here: Read more…

Revised Bankruptcy Forms

As of December 1, 2012, several official bankruptcy forms are being revised.  Additional information may be found in the Public Notice.  See link below.

http://go.usa.gov/gc8Y

ECF Help Desk
(213) 894-2365

Judge Kwan cites Jeff Hagen’s cdcbaa Newsletter Article

Congrats to Jeff Hagen.  In the published opinion of In re Dorsey, — B.R. —, 2:12-bk-18895-RK (Bkrtcy, C. D. Ca. July, 2012  Kwan.J.), Judge Kwan, discussing property dumping and whether its “bad faith” and “part of a scheme” when the debtor is oblivious to it, cites Jeff’s article in the cdcbaa newsletter as follows:

“Jeffrey J. Hagen, Property Dumping, Central District of California Bankruptcy Attorneys’ Association Newsletter, Vol. 4, Issue 8, September 2011, at 9, available at http://www.bklawyers.org/files/cdcbaa_Newsletter_V4_I8.pdf.”

Stella Havkin is taking over the editorship reins of the newsletter for this coming year.

CM/ECF System Unavailable – Saturday, November 3, 2012, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

TO ALL USERS RE: CM/ECF System Unavailable – Saturday, November 3, 2012, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The Court will be performing network maintenance on Saturday, November 3, 2012, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. As a result, the following electronic systems will not be available:

CM/ECF Live System
CM/ECF training (will not be available to complete homework assignment)
LOU
PACER
VCIS

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Regards,

ECF Help Desk
(213) 894-2365