Secured debt and the likelihood of reorganization

Theory suggests that secured creditors may increasingly oppose a debtor’s reorganization as the value of their collateral approaches the amount of their claims. If reorganization occurs and the value of the firm appreciates, the secured creditor receives only part of the gain. But if the firm’s value depreciates, the secured creditor bears all of the cost. Secured claimants, thus, often have more to lose than to gain in reorganizations. This study of Finnish reorganizations filed in districts that account for most of the country’s reorganizations finds that creditor groups most likely to be well-secured are most likely to oppose reorganization. We also find a negative correlation between how well-secured banks and other institutional lenders are and the likelihood of a confirmed reorganization plan. Limiting the priority of secured debt might stimulate reorganizations.     

The art of regulation and the regulation of ART: the impact of regulation on research and clinical practice

How a society regulates Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART) depends on cultural context. The challenge for the regulatory regime is to balance protection for patients and society with freedom for medico-scientific creativity. Neither an exclusively market-regulated nor a peer-regulated approach is realistic politically, or desirable socially, ethically and legally. Legitimate social issues that go beyond the exclusive expertise of doctors and scientists or market choice by patients need to be accommodated within the regulatory regime. Within this context, four key issues are discussed: the lack of a shared social ethic that helps the needs of the community to be balanced against those of its individual members; the negative impact of intrusive external regulation on scientists and doctors; the requirement for doctors and scientists to review their professional structures reflectively and critically if they are to be entrusted with peer-regulation; and the desirability of constructive dialogue between regulators and regulated rather than the use of coercion and criminal sanctions.     

Teaching forensic medicine after the reorganization of higher medical education

It is stressed that the Departments of legal medicine in medical institutes can make a valuable contribution to the advancement of physician training in the condition of perestroika in high medical education in our country. The list and method of performing practical studies on legal medicine are presented.     

The Fitness to stand trial Interview Test: how four professions rate videotaped fitness interviews

The results of this study provide some preliminary support for the use of the FIT as a method for providing structure to interviewers. The FIT may be particularly useful as a guide for making initial decisions about fitness. It was suggested that a screening evaluation based on the FIT could be completed by any properly trained individual with some professional background. The more difficult cases can be referred for lengthier evaluations. Of course, further research on the use of the FIT with actual defendants in real assessments will need to occur before such a procedure can be used as a matter of routine. Finally, the FIT promises to be an effective research tool for isolating professional group differences in definitions of fitness and the importance of different aspects of it, from both a legal and a mental health perspective.     

(Un)secured debt and the likelihood of court-supervised reorganization

Secured and unsecured creditors engaged in a bankruptcy process have different preference on the issue of financial distress. Secured creditors generally prefer liquidation whereas unsecured creditors tend to promote firm??s reorganization. As a consequence, secured creditors might be an obstacle to reorganization when all classes of creditors have to vote to approve the reorganization plan. To complete this analysis, we study the link between bankrupt firm??s capital structure and the likelihood of reorganization when bankruptcy Courts (instead of creditors) decide whether or not firms are reorganized. Our main result is that the reduction of secured creditors?? influence on the reorganization process might constitute a means to promote bankrupt firm??s reorganization. More generally, the paper analyses the link between the amounts/numbers of both secured and unsecured claims and the final issues of a Court-supervised reorganization process.