For businesses confronting of a bankruptcy avoidable transfer claim under Section 547 of the Bankruptcy Code, answering three questions provides a bridge between esoteric descriptions of bankruptcy preference law and real world bankruptcy preference defense.  A new article on this website entitled “A Three Question, Preliminary Self Assessment of a Bankruptcy Preference Claim” (click link to read) strives to give a bankruptcy preference defendant an look at the preference claim after it is filtered through three questions that each hit at core bankruptcy preference principles.

In writing this article, we asked ourselves:  “What are the 3 questions whose answers would give us the best, initial assessment of a bankruptcy preference claim?”    We then took those three questions and put them in real world business terms and focusing on the ability of a business to readily get the answers.  We believe that most businesses can answer these questions using information that is at hand.

We concede the impossibility of any effort to distill into three questions the complex, difficult and often brain numbing field of bankruptcy preference law.  That has not been our objective.  The questions poised and the answers that a reader may find are not intended to provide the “bottom line” assessment of the defense of a preference claim.  Instead, the objective is to give those facing a preference claim a meaningful starting point, a practical framework and the confidence that understanding brings.