The bankruptcy reorganization of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club has made the news many times, as the case has moved through the bankruptcy court. Perhaps because the bankruptcy is not a liquidation, but a reorganization, the creditors and other parties who want to be involved feel they have a greater stake in the bankruptcy, since they are likely to have a relationship with the baseball team after it emerges from reorganization.

The Dodgers' Chapter 11 reorganization is similar in principle to a Chapter 13 reorganization which would be the way an individual would file for reorganization. Instead of liquidating all assets, then paying debtors with the proceeds and having remaining debts discharged, a debtor in reorganization makes a plan to pay off his or her debts. The plan is usually in place for two or three years. At the end of that period some debts may be discharged. One advantage of reorganization is that the debtor gets to keep all of their property. It is a good idea to have advice from a Cincinnati Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney about which chapter is best to file under, according to individual circumstances.

In the case of the Dodgers, what some of the creditors are saying is that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is not really using the team's bankruptcy as a way to restructure debt, but as a way of voiding legally binding contracts in order to renegotiate those contracts on better terms. That is what Fox Sports is claiming. The network had a lucrative broadcast deal with the Dodgers that is now in question. Fox says that the Dodgers bankruptcy was not filed in good faith.

Source: Thomson Reuters News & Insight "Fox Sports asks court to toss Dodgers' bankruptcy" Nov. 18, 2011