From Booklist
As if Americans don't have enough to concern them about corrupt corporate practices, now they need to be worried about powerful forces influencing where large failed corporations will have their bankruptcy trials judged. Fierce competition among courts to attract the bankruptcy trials of corporations with more than $220 million in assets has led to the failure of several companies, including Enron, MCI, and WorldCom. LoPucki, a law professor, offers a clear and alarming look at how courts offer streamlined procedures and lower standards to compete for huge bankruptcy cases that can bring notoriety and influence for the courts and big money to law firms. LoPucki chronicles the evolution of bankruptcy law in the U.S., how states--notably New York, New Jersey, and Delaware--have vied to attract the business, and how the trend toward "forum shopping" has expanded beyond U.S. borders. She concludes with recommendations for reform, including the creation of specialized bankruptcy courts. This is a well-researched, highly accessible look at troubling practices in corporate bankruptcy law. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
A sobering chronicle of our broken bankruptcy-court system, Courting Failure exposes yet another American institution corrupted by greed, avarice, and the thirst for power. Lynn LoPucki's eye-opening account of the widespread and systematic decay of America's bankruptcy courts is a blockbuster story that has yet to be reported in the media. LoPucki reveals the profound corruption in the U.S. bankruptcy system and how this breakdown has directly led to the major corporate failures of the last decade, including Enron, MCI, WorldCom, and Global Crossing. LoPucki, one of the nation's leading experts on bankruptcy law, offers a clear and compelling picture of the destructive power of "forum shopping," in which corporations choose courts that offer the most favorable outcome for bankruptcy litigation. The courts, lured by big money and prestige, streamline their requirements and lower their standards to compete for these lucrative cases. The result has been a series of increasingly shoddy reorganizations of major American corporations, proposed by greedy corporate executives and authorized by case-hungry judges.

FROM THE PUBLISHER