In a concurrence Wednesday, Judge Milan Smith Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit highlighted a circuit split over whether attorneys accused of abusing the federal bankruptcy process can be sued in state court.
The three-judge Ninth Circuit panel revived Nevada attorney Jeffrey Cogan’s lawsuit challenging a civil judgment entered against him in Arizona state court. Former physician and debtor Arnaldo Trabucco had brought a lawsuit in state court against Cogan for alleged malicious prosecution during Trabucco’s Chapter 7 proceedings.
