Supreme Court Says DOJ Won’t Have to Refund Bankruptcy Fees (1)

The Department of Justice can keep about $326 million in fees it collected from Chapter 11 debtors during a period when Congress accidentally created a fee discrepancy, the Supreme Court said.

The decision resolves a question the court left open in 2022 when it ruled that a difference in the amount of fees charged to Chapter 11 debtors was unconstitutional. Congress inadvertently created the discrepancy when it increased the maximum amount of fees the Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog, the US Trustee, could collect starting in 2018.

The legislated fee increase didn’t apply to bankruptcies in Alabama and North Carolina, where ...