NACBA Lawsuit Update
Back in May, we reported that the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) and the Connecticut Bar Assocation (CBA) had filed suit in federal court alleging that the "debt relief agency" provisions of BAPCPA prohibited attorneys from providing complete and accurate information to their clients, making it impossible to fulfill their ethical obligations.
NACBA/CBA requested a preliminary injunction prohibiting application of those provisions to NACBA/CBA members until the issue had been decided.
Yesterday, the District Court heard arguments on the preliminary injunction. Eugene S. Melchionne, Esq. kindly provided an "eyewitness account" of the hearing. NACBA was represented by Peter Rubin and Henry Sommer, and CBA by Tom Gugliotti and Barry Fiegenbaum. There were also several NACBA members in attendance, including Eugene, Charlie Maglieri, Jed Berliner and Susan Williams.
Peter Rubin, by Eugene's account, presented an excellent case and ably answered the judge's many questions. In contrast, the government's argument reportedly relied heavily on the idea that where the law was written overbroadly, the government wouldn't think of enforcing it "that way."
No indication of the direction the judge might be leaning, but all indications were that he'd educated himself on the issues and asked a number of pertinent questions. We'll post information about the ruling as soon as it is available.
