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2005 Bankruptcy Act: What Your Company Needs To Know

By Robert A. Bartlett and William L. Floyd
July 28, 2005

On April 20, 2005, President Bush signed into law the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (the Act). The Act made significant modifications to the United States Bankruptcy Code (11 U.S.C. Section 101, et seq.) (the Code) and related federal statutes. The Act, its Congressional history, and its changes to the Code can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/R?cp109:FLD010:@1(hr031).

While initial focus centered on the Act's consumer bankruptcy provisions, the Act also contains provisions that significantly impact businesses and their representatives, including officers, directors and employees. Most of the Act's consumer-related provisions are not effective until 180 days after its passage (Oct. 17, 2005); however, some of the more significant provisions affecting businesses and their representatives were effective on April 20, 2005. One particularly significant provision  ' related to conduct addressed in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002  ' is retroactively effective as of July 30, 2002, the enactment date of Sarbanes-Oxley.

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