They say every man needs protection, they say that every man must fall.1
For over 40 years, “the bankruptcy community has recognized the resolution of mass tort claims as a widely accepted core function of bankruptcy courts,” and a “key feature in every mass tort bankruptcy” has been the non-debtor release.2
These releases are granted in favor of parties that have not filed their own bankruptcies (e.g., directors, officers, shareholders, and affiliates of bankrupt companies). They can benefit all parties by encouraging large, global settlements that efficiently resolve voluminous, unwieldy claims without the need to compete with other creditors or rely on difficult post-judgment collection procedures to obtain a full recovery.
