Following two public comment periods and a public meeting, the United States Trustee Program (“USTP”) has updated its proposed guidelines for attorney compensation in larger chapter 11 cases (“updated proposed guidelines”). [See Important Note below.] For purposes of these guidelines, a larger chapter 11 case is defined as a chapter 11 case with $50 million or more in assets and $50 million or more in liabilities, aggregated for jointly administered cases and excluding single asset real estate cases as defined in 11 U.S.C. § 101(51B). 

The USTP is accepting public comments on the updated proposed guidelines through November 23, 2012. A document containing the updated proposed guidelines, a summary of the significant revisions to the initial version of the proposed guidelines posted on November 4, 2011, and the USTP’s analysis of comments received is available below.

Comments on the updated proposed guidelines should be submitted by email to USTP.Fee.Guidelines@usdoj.gov. Alternatively, comments may be submitted by telefax to (202) 307-2397 or by mail to EOUST, 441 G Street, NW, Suite 6150, Washington, D.C. 20530. To ensure proper handling of comments, please reference “Fee Guidelines” on all correspondence. Comments will be posted on this Web page pursuant to the Privacy Act Notice below.

IMPORTANT NOTE: 

In 1996, in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 586, the USTP promulgated Guidelines for Reviewing Applications for Compensation and Reimbursement of Expenses filed under 11 U.S.C. § 330 (“1996 guidelines”). 28 C.F.R. Part 58, Appendix A. The fee guidelines are statements of policy that the USTP follows when reviewing applications for compensation. The USTP is revising the 1996 guidelines in phases. The 1996 guidelines remain in effect for the USTP review of applications for compensation in all cases. Only upon publication of the proposed guidelines in final form will applications for attorney compensation in larger chapter 11 cases be subject to review under the new guidelines. Further, until the USTP adopts other superseding guidelines, the 1996 guidelines will continue in effect for the review of applications filed under section 330 in (1) larger chapter 11 cases by those seeking compensation who are not attorneys, (2) all chapter 11 cases below the $50 million threshold, and (3) cases under other chapters of the Bankruptcy Code.

PRIVACY ACT NOTICE:

Written submissions, including comments and statements, as well as the public meeting transcript, will be made available for public inspection online at www.justice.gov/ust and will include the identity and professional affiliations, if any, of the commenter or speaker.  The posted comments will include information voluntarily submitted by the commenter, including personal identifying information (such as your name, address, etc.). If you want to submit personal identifying information as part of your comment but do not want it to be posted online, you must include the phrase “PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION” in the first paragraph of your comment. You must also prominently identify all personal identifying information to be redacted within the comment. Similarly, if you want to submit confidential business information as part of your comment but do not want it to be posted online, you must include the phrase “CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION” in the first paragraph of your comment. You must also prominently identify all confidential business information to be redacted within the comment. If a comment has so much confidential business information that it cannot effectively be redacted, all or part of that comment may not be posted.