A Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (abbreviated BAP) is authorized b
28 U.S.C. § 158(b)to hear, with the consent of all parties,
appeal
In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...
s from the decisions of the
United States bankruptcy court
United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy ...
s in their district that otherwise would be heard by
district court
District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy.
These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...
s, but only in those districts in which the district judges authorize appeals to BAPs.
BAPs typically sit as three-judge panels composed of bankruptcy
judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
s appointed from the circuit's districts, with the restriction that no judge may participate in an appeal arising from that judge's own district.
Not all of the
federal judicial circuits have convened a BAP. , only the
First,
Sixth,
Eighth,
Ninth, and
Tenth Circuits had convened these panels.
History
The
Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 permitted federal judicial circuits to establish Bankruptcy Appellate Panels to hear appeals from the bankruptcy courts. Those circuits which chose not to establish panels would have bankruptcy appeals heard by the
United States district courts
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...
.
[History of the BAP]
The first circuits to establish Bankruptcy Appellate Panels were the Ninth Circuit (in 1979) and the First Circuit (in 1980). The aftermath of the landmark ''
Northern Pipeline Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co.''
[ 458 U.S. 50 (1982).] case in 1982 had different effects on the two circuits. Even though the
U.S. Supreme Court did not directly address the constitutionality of the panels in that decision, the First Circuit held that the emergency rules adopted after the decision was rendered pre-empted the use of their BAP, and subsequently disbanded it. The Ninth Circuit disagreed, holding that because the BAP was supervised by the Court of Appeals, and because the BAP's decisions could be appealed to the Court of Appeals, it was constitutional and could therefore continue.
[
In 1994, ]Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
enacted the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994, which included an amendment of (the statute
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
governing appeals in bankruptcy cases) to require all circuits to establish a BAP unless the judicial council of a circuit found that (1) there were insufficient judicial resources in the circuit to do so, or (2) the establishment of a BAP would result in undue delay or increased cost to parties in bankruptcy cases.
In 1996, the First Circuit reestablished its BAP, and four new panels were created in the Second, Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits. The Seventh Circuit deferred making a decision, and the remaining five circuits declined to create a BAP. The Second Circuit BAP ceased operations on July 1, 2000.[
]
Procedures
The BAP in each judicial circuit has its own local rules of practice, in addition to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure and Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. Parties to the bankruptcy case retain the right to have their appeal heard by a district court instead of a BAP by filing an ''election'' to transfer the case. Judges on a BAP are generally barred from hearing a case from their own bankruptcy district.
Appeals from the BAP itself are directed to the court of appeals for that circuit.
References
External links
Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the First CircuitBankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth CircuitBankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Tenth Circuit
{{Authority control
United States courts of appeals
United States bankruptcy law