Mass Torts in Bankruptcy: Confirmation Strategies and the Role of Insurance

This CLE webinar will discuss emerging strategies for confirming a Chapter 11 plan in a case filed to address mass-tort liability. The panel will address the pivotal role of insurance and channeling injunctions as well as options for dealing with impasses among various constituencies.

For over 40 years, since 1982 when Johns-Manville filed Chapter 11, debtors facing massive liability for personal injuries have turned to bankruptcy to aggregate, manage, settle, and discharge claims. At least one class of impaired claimants must vote to approve the plan, which is difficult to achieve when the case involves numerous classes of complex class claims.

As disputes arise over both the value and validity of claims, the debtors, personal-injury plaintiffs, creditor committees, and insurers often reach an impasse. One option for resolving these cases has been to provide a cash payment and then assign claims against third parties. When the claims being assigned under a plan are claims to insurance proceeds, additional issues arise.

Listen as this experienced panel discusses the intersection of bankruptcy reorganization, tort claims, and insurance and how these issues can affect both large- and small-scale reorganization.