Bankruptcy and Secured Transactions – PLST 355

CG • Section • 01/03/2020 to 06/11/2020 • Modified 09/05/2023

Course Description

Covers the bankruptcy code and rules of procedure. Emphasis will be placed on the legal assistant's role in Bankruptcy practice including interviewing, preparing documents including Schedules for Chapter 7, 11, and 13, legal proceedings including filing, meeting of creditors, adversarial proceedings, and the final discharge. Also included are secured and unsecured creditor priorities, preferences, and fraudulent transfers.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

Debt plays an important role in the United States’ economy, the world economy, and the lives of many, if not most, Americans. Further, the Bible has much to say about debt and debt relief. Therefore, an understanding of debt and debt relief through bankruptcy is critical to an aspiring Christian legal professional. This course endeavors to expose the student to the law governing the formation, collection, and discharge of debts and challenges the student to consider all of these topics from a distinctly evangelical Christian worldview.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (3)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to provide a thread in response to the provided prompt for each Discussion. Each thread must be 250 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be 150 words.

Demand Letter Assignment

The student will draft a demand letter, which is a part of the collection of debt process.

Collections Forms Assignment

The student will draft forms for reducing a debt to judgment, such as a complaint and order.

Bankruptcy Forms Assignment

The student will use Best Case Software to prepare real bankruptcy forms.

Quizzes (4)

Each quiz will cover the Learn material for 2 modules. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes and have a 1-hour time limit. Three of the quizzes will contain 25 essay, true/false, matching, multiple-choice, and/or fill-in-the blank questions, and one quiz will contain 20 questions. For all essay questions, the student must explain his/her answer.