March 28, 2023: Becker LLC Real Estate and Logistics Practice Leader Anthony J. Vizzoni interviewed Eric Perkins and Justin Baumgartner of Becker LLC’s Bankruptcy Team to discuss how the recent uptick in bankruptcy filings
could impact the trucking and logistics company owners.
Vizzoni: The Becker Trucking & Logistics Practice Group is starting to see more volume with bankruptcy filings affecting our clients’ ability to get paid for their services, whether on the trucking end of the business or in the warehousing services. For example, Party City recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy which, as you know, is a reorganization of the debtor as Party City continues to operate in bankruptcy. Can you advise what a trucking or logistics company should do once they receive notice of a customer having filed for bankruptcy?
Perkins and Baumgartner: Once a company gets notice, through any means, they should contact a bankruptcy attorney. This may sound self-serving, but the first few days and weeks of a bankruptcy filing can be critical with numerous deadlines that can shift based on court orders obtained by debtors often with limited notice to creditors. During the first days of a bankruptcy filing, creditors may also have the opportunity to participate on a Creditors’ Committee. A Creditors’ Committee is formed at the recommendation and under the direction of the Office of the United States Trustee, which is a component of the United States Department of Justice. The US Trustee‘s job is to act as a government watchdog over all aspects of bankruptcy filings.
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