Judge Gregory Kishel, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota, said last week at the bar association’s Bankruptcy Institute that the bankruptcy court for our state had enough money to make payroll and pay expenses through Monday October 14th or thereabouts. After that he said it was his intention and the intention of all the staff to continue working without pay. As close as I can tell, that must be what they are doing. I just got a routine legal notice from the court in my email about two hours ago. So I know that somebody is there and on the job right now.
I don’t know how long they can go on like that, but the way the judge was talking it sounded as if they were prepared to stick it out for the duration. This has been a good thing from my perspective, because I have been able to continue my work with very little noticeable side effects from the shutdown. So far the only thing that has come up has been that I found a mistake in a proof of claim form which the IRS filed in one of my Chapter 13 cases. When I picked up the phone to call the IRS guy who had prepared the claim form, I got a message that the IRS office was closed because of the government shutdown.
The news I heard this morning before coming to the office was all about possible default on the national debt unless something is done in the next few hours. That would mean, depending on who one listens to, anything between possibly almost nothing at best and a terrible crash and depression like that of 1929 at worst. So in looking for a graphic to go with this post, I have decided to pull out my picture of the fiscal cliff. Hard to know what is really going to happen. Guess I’ll fasten my seat belt and hang on for the ride.
