Shopping for Judges: An Empirical Analysis of Venue Choice in the Bankruptcy Reorganization of Large, Publicly Held Companies

Abstract:     
This article reports on an empirical study of forum shopping in all bankruptcy reorganization of large, public companies from 1980 through 1997 (273 cases). Principal findings include: (1) forum shopping increased from about 20% to between 50% and 86% over the period studied, (2) the principal destination for shopping changed abruptly from New York to Delaware about 1990, (3) Delaware achieved a virtual national monopoly on these kinds of case by 1996, before the Chief Judge in Delaware took the large cases from the Bankruptcy judges, (4) Delaware processes cases a little faster than other districts but the difference is not statistically significant, (5) shopping rates differ significantly for firms in different cities, suggesting that shopping is in significant part a rejection of particular courts. The study is based on data from Lynn M. LoPucki's Bankruptcy Research Database.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 37

JEL Classification: K41, K42

working papers series