Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court hearings are generally open to the public, Boston bankruptcy lawyers,debtors, creditors and occasionally the media. Transcripts of the proceedings are generally available as well. Some content is generally redacted, or excluded, such as “social security numbers, financial account numbers and minors’ names and birth dates.” In a May 2, 2011 decision by Bankruptcy Judge Henry J. Boroff, the Court was asked to look at the rules for allowing a portion of a public hearing to be redacted from the transcript of the bankruptcy court record.
In a Chapter 7 case that would not normally get this level of judicial attention, Verizon violated the rules of the Bankruptcy Court Automatic Stay.
Introduction
On August 20, 2010, Petroflow Energy Ltd. (“Petroflow”), filed a petition for bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Months prior to Petroflow’s filing for bankruptcy, the company’s subsidiaries, North American Petroleum Corporation USA and Prize Petroleum LLC, filed petitions for bankruptcy in Delaware. After Petroflow filed for bankruptcy in August, it filed a motion with the Bankruptcy Court seeking to have the orders entered in the “First Filed Debtors’ Cases” (i.e.