Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT156 S1 P3 Q16 ExplanationBankruptcy Tradeoffs

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Passage

Traditionally, corporate bankruptcy law placed highest priority on the orderly discharge of debts; courts generally ordered failed businesses to pay all creditors a set percentage of the amounts owed. Modern bankruptcy laws, by contrast, allow insolvent companies to apply for "reorganization," which establishes a plan for satisfying liabilities while allowing the company argues, guarantees that claims will be fairly adjudicated and that the collection process will be efficient.

Donald Korobkin and others argue that Jackson's account fails to give due regard to the interests of other parties affected by a corporation's bankruptcy, such as suppliers, employees and their dependents, and the community at large—parties whose interests are not represented in the company's contractual debts. Jackson's position, Korobkin argues, calls for continue benefiting others by producing wealth, providing employment and tax revenue, and so forth.

Korobkin claims that fairness and acceptability to all interested parties, not just to creditors, can be achieved through the application of two principles. First, a principle of inclusion requires that all parties significantly affected by a company's failure be eligible to have their claims considered. Additionally, a principle of rational planning requires as a result of the bankruptcy be protected over the interests of those less badly affected.

But while Korobkin's approach is more equitable than Jackson's, it also has significant weaknesses. First, a fair accounting of the interests of other affected parties represents an increase in risk to creditors, since they are likely to recover less in the event of bankruptcy. Under such a regime, creditors charge more for retain their jobs; Korobkin fails to provide a way of deciding when such trade-offs are warranted.

What this question is testing

Five Questions

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
16.

The passage most helps to provide an answer to which one of

Answer choices, explained

  1. Buzzword Bait: reorganization2% picked this

    What is the likelihood that a corporation undergoing reorganization will emerge

    The keyword "reorg" appears three times, but none of them provide any sort of percent or frequency modifier. We can't say whether corporations who reorganize are successful 20% of the time, 50%, 80%, etc ....

  2. Too Specific: percentage1% picked this

    What percentage of contractually secured debt is recovered on average by creditors

    Like (A), this is searching for a specific quantitative value. There aren't any numbers in the passage, so there's no way this got answered.

  3. Correct69% picked this

    What arguments does Jackson offer in favor of his approach to

    Why this is right

    Jackson is first mentioned at the end of the first paragraph, and says his preferred approach to bankruptcy is treating it as a "collectivized debt collection service". Why is that? Why does Jackson say that's a good approach? Well he argues that 1. claims will be fairly adjudicated 2. the collection process will be efficient

    Skill tested: Five Questions · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. Too Specific: kinds of creditors3% picked this

    What kinds of creditors are most vulnerable to financial losses when

    There aren't any subtypes of creditors mentioned in the passage. The word "creditors" shows up many times, but it's always expressed as a general term. The last usage of the passage talks about creditors and financial losses, so this is where we'd find our answer. But it just says "some creditors", without specifying any kinds of creditors.

  5. Too Specific: some of the inefficiencies24% picked this

    What are some of the inefficiencies that exist in bankruptcy regimes that place a high priority on the

    The old school priority on "orderly discharge of debts" is only discussed in the first sentence. This answer is asking us about what inefficiencies exist in such approaches to bankruptcy. We don't hear any details about what takes place in these regimes; we only know that "courts generally order failed businesses to pay all creditors a set percentage of what the business owes them".

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