Opinion ID: 835263
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Accused Files Debtor's Financial Disclosure Statement and Fails to File his Report of Attorney Fees

Text: The order for relief that the bankruptcy court entered on June 5, 1997, required MLP to file a financial disclosure statement with attached schedules listing its income and assets. Jackson prepared the documents, had Barnes, a Hoyt manager, sign them, and forwarded them to the accused. The accused briefly reviewed the documents, and an assistant in his firm filed them. The bankruptcy court rejected the attached schedules because they were on the wrong form, and, after receiving reformatted schedules from Barnes, a secretary in the accused's office refiled them. Neither the accused nor anyone in his firm signed the financial disclosure statement or the schedules. In bankruptcy cases, a lawyer is required to file, in accordance with 11 U.S.C. section 329, a statement disclosing any compensation paid or agreed to be paid, and the source of the compensation, for services rendered in connection with the bankruptcy. See also Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure (FRBP) 2016(b) (1997) (procedural rule relating to filing of statements under Section 329). A lawyer must file the statement, referred to as a 329 statement, within 15 days after the order for relief is issued and must file supplemental statements within 15 days after any payment or agreement not previously disclosed. Id. Jackson sent his initial 329 statement to the accused for filing. The accused filed Jackson's 329 statement along with MLP's financial disclosure statement, but did not file a 329 statement of his own. Other than filing MLP's answer, financial disclosure statement and schedules, the accused did minimal work for MLP in the Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The accused was, however, very busy with his representation of the investor partnerships in the Chapter 11 proceeding and in the administrative and federal court tax cases.