The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has scheduled a Disclosure Statement Hearing for 2:00 p.m. on January 23.
As reported earlier, there appear to be no major obstacles to this process going forward and there have been no filings to indicate that Lee will attempt to cut employee benefits or gut any collective bargaining agreements. As things stand, it is possible that Lee could emerge from bankruptcy as quickly as 10 days after the hearing.
As mentioned in a previous post, all lawsuits are stayed during this process, so the discovery process that we were undergoing for our retiree medical lawsuits has been put on hold until all this is over; likewise the depositions that were scheduled for mid-January. Still, such a quick emergence should only push things back a month or two. A recent statement from the court states:
“the Court concludes that the case should be administratively closed until such time as the bankruptcy proceedings have been concluded or Court action is otherwise required.”
We will keep you advised as events unfold.