Rapper Da Brat’s Bankruptcy Blocks State Court Contempt Ruling

A judge in Georgia can’t penalize the rapper Da Brat for her failure to comply with discovery orders after she filed bankruptcy, a bankruptcy court held.

The state court is not “a governmental unit exercising its police and regulatory powers” when it punishes a litigant, even by imprisonment, for failing to comply with a discovery order, Judge James R. Sacca of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia wrote Oct. 16.

Therefore, the state court action is not excepted from the “automatic stay” that prevents debt collection activity after a bankruptcy case is filed, the court held. ...