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Reuters reports that the previous billionaire owners of Brooks Brothers are being sued for driving Brooks Brothers into the ground rather than selling it in order to avoid paying millions of dollars to one of their investors.
The investor, Tal Apparel, claims Claudio Del Vecchio and his son Mateo pressured Tal Apparel to invest $100 million and that Tal would be made whole if they later sold Brooks Brothers for less than $652 million.
Tal Apparel also states that Del Vecchio lined up several bids for Brooks Brothers but did not pursue any of them because then they would have to owe Tal Apparel money. Instead, Del Vecchio filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy making Tal’s investment worthless.
In this lawsuit, Tal Apparel is asking for $100 million in damages. According to Forbes, the Del Vecchio family is worth $27.9 billion.
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The post Brooks Brothers’ Previous Owner Sued Over Bankruptcy appeared first on Allmand Law Firm, PLLC.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that just months after having to close two beloved locations, the Alamo Drafthouse has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will be opening 5 new theaters within the next two years!
Back in March 2021, the Alamo Drafthouse had to file for bankruptcy. Just three months later, the chain now has plans to open several new theaters in Manhattan, Staten Island, D.C., Arlington, and St Louis.
From The Article:

“’We’re so thrilled to be reopening theaters across the country and welcoming back audiences for an unparalleled moviegoing experience with films we’ve been eagerly awaiting for over a year now,’ Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor said in a statement.”

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The post Alamo Drafthouse Back After Successful Chapter 11 Bankruptcy appeared first on Allmand Law Firm, PLLC.

Bankruptcies are legal proceedings where the insolvent debtor is given financial freedom through a bankruptcy discharge, thereby granting the debtor a fresh start. In Oregon, declaring bankruptcy gives an automatic stay or bankruptcy protection so that the debtor is prevented from experiencing:

• Foreclosure
• Wage Garnishment
• Creditor Harassment
• Harassment of Collection Agencies
• Repossession

Bankruptcy petitions also enable you to have your debts wiped out. You can obtain discharge depending on the types of debt you incurred but most debts are dischargeable. The common debts that can be eliminated are:

• Medical bills
• Credit card bills
• Payday loan
• Student loan relief if you experienced undue hardship

However, secured debts such as those with mortgages and other collateral are within the creditors’ rights hence, the debts can be discharged but the property will belong to the lenders.
Types of Bankruptcy
Under the Bankruptcy Code, there are multiple chapters that a debtor experiencing insolvency can avail. The most common chapter used in bankruptcy proceedings in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. The bankruptcy chapters can be quite similar but ultimately, they are different.
Oregon Chapter 7 Bankruptcy vs Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

 
Bankruptcy Chapter 7
Bankruptcy Chapter 13

Bankruptcy Type
Liquidation
Reorganization

Eligibility
Any person including businesses and corporations
Any person including sole proprietors of businesses

Restrictions
Must pass the Means Test and Credit Counseling. The debtor’s disposable income must be below the median income required by the State of Oregon
Does not require you to pass the Means Test but the amount of secured and unsecured debts that the debtor has must not exceed the amount limited by the State of Oregon

Time to Wipe Out Debts
Takes about 3 to 4 months upon the bankruptcy petition
Takes about 3 to 5 years, until the payment in the payment plan is completed

State of the Properties
The bankruptcy trustee in the bankruptcy will liquidate or sell the nonexempt assets of the debtor and then the proceeds will be used to pay off the creditors
The chapter 13 trustee will not sell the properties of the debtor but the debtor needs to pay the equivalent value of nonexempt property

Unsecured Debts
Unsecured debts are often discharged but the removal of unsecured liens of real properties through stripping of liens are not allowed
Once the requirements are met, removal of the unsecured lien of real properties through stripping of liens are not allowed

Secured Debts
Reduction of the principal loan is allowed but only on personal property
Once the requirements are met, the principal loan balance will be reduced on secured debts

Pros and Cons
The debtors quickly discharge their debts, being debt-free
The debtors will keep most of their properties to catch up on their missed monthly payments such as mortgages and car loans

The trustee in bankruptcy will sell all the nonexempt property and there is no way to avoid repossession or foreclosure of secured debts because chapter 7 does not makeup on missed payments
Portions of unsecured debts may have to be paid off and monthly payments to the United States trustee is to be made for up to 5 years

 
Talking with a Bankruptcy Attorney
While filing for bankruptcy does not require one to have a bankruptcy attorney, working with a bankruptcy lawyer will greatly help you because bankruptcy law can be very complex. Small mistakes can lead to your petition for bankruptcy being denied, wasting all the time, money, and effort you put in. Here at Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm, our competent bankruptcy attorneys will walk alongside you in your journey to debt relief and a fresh start. Our Portland, Oregon bankruptcy lawyers will help you not just before a bankruptcy filing, but also after the discharge. Our lawyers can provide reliable legal advice on matters such as how to rebuild credit, buying a house after bankruptcy, and more. Call us now for a free legal consultation.
 
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The post Bankruptcy Laws in Oregon appeared first on Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm.

 You Can’t Find a Cab. Uber Prices Are Soaring. Here’s Why.The number of drivers and for-hire cars on the streets plunged during the pandemic, frustrating those seeking rides as the city starts to recover.

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Less than half of the city’s 13,500 taxis are operating, with many drivers saying there is not enough demand to justify returning to work yet.Credit...Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesBy Winnie Hu, Patrick McGeehan and Sean PiccoliJune 15, 2021Updated 6:42 a.m. ETThe taxi line at La Guardia Airport had barely budged.There were no cabs in sight, and the grumbling was getting louder. People scanned the road for any glimpse of yellow. A dispatcher grimaced.Finally, a lone taxi rolled up for a waiting passenger. Then it was gone.“I haven’t seen it like this,” said Alex Hyken, 28, who lives in Brooklyn and had just returned from visiting relatives in St. Louis, only to find herself stuck behind 40 people who were also trying to get a taxi. Ten minutes later, she whirled off with her suitcase in search of an Uber or Lyft.When the pandemic shut down New York, it all but wiped out the city’s taxi industry, as commuters worked from home, tourists stayed home and businesses closed. Fleet owners reduced operations or suspended them altogether. Many drivers found other jobs, including driving trucks or making Amazon deliveries.Now, as the city starts to recover, buoyed by low virus rates and widespread vaccinations, yellow taxis are largely missing from many street corners and airport arrival areas.There are about 6,000 cabs on the road currently, according to industry analysts. That represents fewer than half of the total pool of 13,500 medallions, the city-issued permits required to operate a yellow taxi. Some 5,700 of those that are not working were taken out of service indefinitely by owners who put them into storage voluntarily and returned the license plates.The shortage is the latest setback for an industry that has struggled amid an influx of ride-hailing services and a spate of suicides among taxi owners and for-hire drivers. Even before the pandemic, some taxi owners faced financial ruin after being lured into taking on reckless loans to buy medallions at artificially inflated prices.In New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and other cities, demand for taxis and ride-hail cars has rebounded sharply from pandemic lows, outpacing the return of both drivers and cars. That has led to frustrating waits for riders, when taxis are even available.With drivers slow to return to work, the lack of for-hire cars has also pushed up the fares charged by ride-hailing apps like Uber that switch to so-called surge pricing when demand peaks.Many taxi owners are wary about how soon business will rebound. Demand is inconsistent and could be diluted if more cabs come rushing back to the streets, they said. The industry’s immediate future also depends on how soon workers return to their offices, and how soon tourists and business travelers come back to New York in big numbers.Editors’ PicksDon’t Play With Your Kids. Seriously.The Most Exciting Place to Eat in Los Angeles Is ChinatownYou May Not Want to Get Your Beauty Tips From TikTokContinue reading the main storyRichard Wissak, whose family operates 140 taxis, took his cars out of service last year as the coronavirus shut down the city. He later put the entire fleet into storage to save thousands of dollars in insurance, taxes and fees.“The city was in awful shape,” he said. “No airport work, no office work, and that’s the heartbeat of the yellow taxi industry.”ImageMany drivers for Uber and other ride-hailing services have also been slow to return to work, contributing to an increase in fares. Credit...Amr Alfiky/The New York TimesMr. Wissak wants to get his taxis back on the road, but he worries that there is not enough business yet. “Why are we going to put our toe back in the water if we’re not going to be able to survive?” he said.Many owners of single medallions also received a temporary reprieve on their loan payments during the pandemic. Once they start working again, the payments may restart again too, without a guarantee that the owners can earn enough to afford them, said Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.“They don’t want to go back to work before there’s substantial debt restructuring,” said Ms. Desai, whose group has started a fund to help taxi owners pay off their medallions in cash at lower prices.Another thing causing the shortage of available taxis is that some drivers who qualified for expanded unemployment benefits during the pandemic have not yet come back to work. Others have moved away or taken other jobs.Mohammad Hossain, 45, a driver from Queens, said that two of his friends — one who drove taxis, the other who drove for Uber — continue to collect unemployment, though “I’ve tried to tell them our business is a little bit better.”About 6,000 taxi drivers were working in April, according to Bruce Schaller, a transportation analyst. That was up from 2,200 in April 2020, at the pandemic’s height, but far below the 20,000 who were working in February, Mr. Schaller found.Many fleet owners have tried to attract more drivers by slashing leasing rates for taxis to make it easier for drivers to make money.The Taxi and Limousine Commission, which oversees the industry, is working closely with taxi operators to ensure there are enough taxis to meet demand and trying to help drivers by streamlining the regulatory process, said Allan Fromberg, a commission spokesman.The lack of drivers and cars has also affected ride-hailing services. About 54,000 worked for the services in New York in April, compared with 79,000 in February 2020, Mr. Schaller said. Across the United States, a ride with such a service costs as much as 40 percent more than it did a year ago, according to the research firm Rakuten Intelligence.Uber has dangled $250 million in bonuses and incentives to recruit more drivers around the county. In New York, the result has been more drivers and fewer rides at surge-pricing levels. “Drivers are returning to Uber in force to take advantage of higher earnings opportunities from our driver stimulus,” said Alix Anfang, an Uber spokeswoman.The shortage is a temporary problem that should be resolved as more drivers answer the demand for rides, Mr. Schaller said. But while the availability of cars may return to prepandemic levels, he added, Uber and Lyft fares may remain high, in part because customers are willing to pay them.“It’s like restaurants, it’s like Broadway, it takes a while to put things back in place,” said Mr. Schaller. “And things will go back differently than before.”Sunny Madra, who visited New York from California in late May, tweeted that an Uber from Midtown Manhattan to Kennedy International Airport had cost him $248, or nearly as much as his $262 plane ticket.“We all have this prepandemic muscle memory: You walk out, you hail an Uber and it’s reasonably priced,” Mr. Madra said in an interview. “A $200-plus Uber, you sort of say, ‘What happened here?’”Elizabeth Halem, 43, said she wanted to support taxi drivers by taking cabs but that even before the pandemic, she never saw them in her neighborhood, Greenpoint in Brooklyn.“Sighting a cab would be like sighting Bigfoot,” she said. “Cabs are sort of mythical beings here.”Instead, Ms. Halem ends up ordering cars using Lyft, which can cost nearly $50 for a ride, or almost twice what she paid before the pandemic.On a Thursday in Downtown Brooklyn this month, shoppers loaded with heavy bags waved down passing taxis. One woman, Lissette Carter, 41, said she was occasionally forced to settle for an Uber even if it cost more. “It’s painful, but you’ve got to get around when you don’t have a car, especially if you’ve got small children and it’s raining,’’ she said.The taxi shortage has led to long lines at La Guardia, where there is no direct link to the subway or commuter rail lines. Supply and demand can fluctuate, with taxis outnumbering passengers at times since there are still fewer air travelers than before the pandemic.“It’s almost impossible to survive,” said Stephen Benesoczky, 70, a taxi driver who waited close to an hour to pick up a fare. He spends nearly $200 a day to lease the taxi and cover his gas and expenses. If he makes $400 in fares, he said, “that’s a good day.”ImageThere were about 54,000 ride-hail drivers working in April, compared with 79,000 in February 2020, one transportation analyst found. Credit...Mark Abramson for The New York TimesThe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs La Guardia and Kennedy, has taken steps to try to bring in more cabs, including sending regular updates to drivers through the taxi network’s internal messaging system. The authority has also created Twitter feeds to post information about airport hold lots, where cabs wait to be dispatched to a terminal.At terminal curbs, airport workers have even urged people waiting for taxis to try ride-hailing services instead.“There clearly is a shortage of taxi drivers,” said Rick Cotton, the authority’s executive director. “Part of the coming back from the pandemic is the taxi drivers were decimated and they need to see that the passenger volume has come back to return to the roads.”Sergio Cabrera, 57, who has owned and driven taxis for more than 20 years, was already hurting financially before the pandemic, losing passengers to the ride-hail cars that, he said, officials allowed to flood New York’s streets.Mr. Cabrera said he had also been laid up for three months after getting sick with Covid-19. When he was able to return to driving, he said, he went hours without a passenger. He made grocery deliveries and took out a pandemic-related loan meant to help small businesses.Mr. Cabrera said he was picking up about 10 passengers a day now, half of what he did before the outbreak.“I’ve lost my motivation for this business,” he said. “I wish I didn’t have to drive. I wish I didn’t have this burden on my shoulders.”Winnie Hu is a reporter on the Metro desk, focusing on transportation and infrastructure stories. She has also covered education, politics in City Hall and Albany, and the Bronx and upstate New York since joining The Times in 1999. @WinnHuPatrick McGeehan writes about transportation and infrastructure for the Metro section. He has been a reporter for the Times since 1999 and has covered Wall Street, executive pay, transportation, the New York City economy and New Jersey. @NYTpatrick