Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 2000. She has served as the chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System since 2007, and currently chairs the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association.

Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn (N.D. Tex.)

The current recession has been called the worst since the Great Depression. What has been the impact on bankruptcy filings?

Immediately before the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), a huge number of filings occurred. So many debtors were apprehensive about the new statute, they wanted to file under the old statute. After BAPCPA took effect, filings declined dramatically. Since then, they have been increasing at a fairly steady pace, and recently that increase has been accelerating. I am assuming that that acceleration, from November 2007 to the most recent numbers at the end of March 2009, is attributable in significant part to the recession and the current economic climate.

How are bankruptcy case filings affecting judicial workload?

The attitude of bankruptcy judges throughout the country is, “We will happily and energetically devote ourselves to whatever work is given to us.” Bankruptcy judges have been very willing to assist each other when workload is uneven. But much of that unevenness is being steadily eliminated around the country. By way of example, at the beginning of the recession, bankruptcy filings in the Dallas area were not increasing significantly. But that is now changing, and workload is up almost everywhere. There are certain parts of the country—I’ll take the Eastern District of Michigan, for example—where the workload of judges is fairly described as dire. They’re just working as hard as they can and many, many judges have offered to assist them.

What actions or recommendations will the Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System make to deal with the increased workload demands?

We have recommended new bankruptcy judgeships. I’m scheduled to testify soon before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. The Judicial Conference has approved a recommendation for nine additional permanent bankruptcy judgeships, the conversion of 22 temporary bankruptcy judgeships to permanent and the extension of one temporary judgeship. The Committee has also requested that the Conference consider four additional permanent judgeships and the extension of a second existing temporary judgeship.

We also are at the tail-end of the data collection for a new case weighting study, which is being conducted at our request by the Federal Judicial Center. The current case weights have been in effect since 1992.

This is a diary-based study, where bankruptcy judges keep track of the time they expend on their various activities. When all of that data is combined and tabulated, it tells us: for this kind of a case, it will take X number of hours. It allows us to figure out how much capacity judges have and whether we need new judges and if so, how many.

After BAPCPA was passed, we waited a while for work under the statute to settle down and for judges to gain experience with the statute. We started the case weighting study last year and it took a year to collect the data. In the fall, we will have analyzed the data, which I predict will result in the case weights changing.

I believe the case weighting study will be very revealing about the heavy workload of bankruptcy judges and it could have a significant impact on our long-term recommendations for bankruptcy judgeships.

How are bankruptcy judgeship recommendations developed by the Judicial Conference?