Questions about debts or bankruptcy? Call Doug Beaton, a local specialist in American bankruptcy law.

If you’ve got bad things to say about a bankruptcy trustee, don’t count on the First Amendment to bail you out.

Crystal L. Cox, a blogger from Eureka, Mont., was sued for defamation by trustee Kevin Padrick when she posted online that he was “a thug and a thief” during the handling of bankruptcy proceedings by him and Obsidian Finance Group LLC.

Padrick, an Oregon attorney, was a trustee in a bankruptcy case involving Summit Accommodators, a company that helped property owners conduct real estate transactions in a way to limit taxes. Three executives face federal fraud and money laundering indictments.

U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez found last week that as a blogger, Cox was not a journalist and cannot claim the protections afforded to mainstream reporters and news outlets.

Cox protested that she considered herself a journalist, after producing more than 400 blogs over the past five years.

By Doug Beaton

Some changes to the bankruptcy rules went into effect on December 1, 2011. Unlike the wholesale changes that were implemented in 2005, these are to the rules, no the bankruptcy code itself. Most are technical or minor. And it looks like they might actually be helpful to consumers in bankruptcy.

The claim form that creditors use to protect themselves has been tinkered with: it now more explicitly requires that creditors itemize principal, as opposed to interest, fees and penalties, so unfair piling on of these “extras” can be spotted easily.

For residential mortgage lenders, a brand new, and additional claims form has been created, requiring even more specificity. Escrow accounts, amount to cure defaults, and itemized default fees now must be broken out by category.

Mortgage lenders will also now be required to file official notifications when the monthly mortgage payment changes (such as when an adjustable rate adjusts, or when tax escrow increases).

And any special fees or charges billed AFTER a bankruptcy case is filed must be reported on yet another new form. The court has also instituted rules for resolving minor disputes concerning these type of post-petition fees.

Doug Beaton is a bankruptcy lawyer serving the North Andover and Lawrence, Mass. area.

By Doug Beaton

AMR Corp, the parent of American Airlines, somewhat surprisingly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, joining a crowded group of airlines that have been through bankruptcy court lately.

Counter-intuitively, American’s bankruptcy could be a good deal for Merrimack Valley consumers, as the airline is expected to cut fares and join in fare wars with JetBlue and Southwest. They will likely finance this by using bankruptcy court to renegotiate their contracts with union employees and airports.

Might be a good time to book a flight to a city where American flies!

I didn’t know this, but as recently as two years ago in 2009, American was the leading airline out of Boston’s Logan Airport. As of the time of the bankruptcy filing, they had fallen to fourth, with JetBlue being the new leader.

By Doug Beaton

The Roman Catholic diocese serving Orange County in Southern California has been awarded the winning bid in the bankruptcy sale of Rev. Robert Schuller’s iconic Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.

The Crystal Cathedral has been in bankruptcy proceedings since 2010 due to a dramatic dropoff in contributions. The church is known for its Hour of Power television service.

The diocese will pay $57.5 million to use the building in Garden Grove made of 10,000 panes of glass as a long-sought county-wide cathedral.

“I’m really pleased to know that this campus is likely for at least decades, if not centuries, to be kept as a sacred place of worship,’’ Carol Milner, daughter of church founder Rev. Robert H. Schuller, said after a hearing in bankruptcy court.

The elder Schuller started the Crystal Cathedral as a drive-in church in the 1950s under the auspices of the Reformed Church in America. Decades later, the Southern California ministry evolved into an international televangelism empire and erected its now-famous building.

By Doug Beaton