Claims and Noticing Agent

(a) Appointment of Claims and Noticing Agent. The court may authorize, at the first hearing in a chapter 11 case, or at any time thereafter, the retention of a claims and noticing agent—“claims agent”—under 28 U.S.C. § 156(c) on application of the chapter 11 debtor. A chapter 11 debtor with more than 200 parties identified in the matrix list of creditors filed under L.B.R. 1007-2(a) must file the application with the debtor’s petition or within 7 days after the filing of the petition, unless the court orders otherwise. The claims agent must be selected using the following protocol and perform the following functions: (1) The duties of a claims agent under section 156(c) are limited to duties that would otherwise be performed by a Clerk of Court with respect to providing notice and processing claims, including maintaining a claims register.

The duties under section 156(c) shall not include those that would not otherwise be performed by a Clerk of Court, such as preparing bankruptcy schedules, acting as balloting and tabulation agent, or distributing assets pursuant to a confirmed plan of reorganization, which services should be the subject of a separate application under 11 U.S.C. § 327 to and order of the Court; (2) The party seeking to retain a claims agent shall obtain and review at least three separate engagement proposals and shall affirmatively state in the retention application, under penalty of perjury and Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9011, that the -10- applicant chose the claims agent after the review and competitive comparison of at least three proposals; (3) The claims agent must agree to comply with all relevant statutory provisions and rules of procedure, including local rules of procedure, general orders and applicable guidelines, and shall maintain records of all services that, at a minimum, show dates, categories of services, fees charged, and expenses incurred; (4) The claims agent’s fee structure shall be set forth in the engagement agreement, which shall be annexed to the retention application; (5) The claims agent shall file and serve monthly invoices for services rendered on the debtor, U.S. Trustee, any committee monitoring the expenses of the debtor, and any party-in-interest who requests service of such monthly invoices, in writing directed to the claims agent; (6) The claims agent, upon request to the party retaining it, may receive payment of an agreed retainer to cover fees and expenses; (7) The parties shall meet and confer in an attempt to resolve any dispute that arises relating to an engagement agreement or monthly invoice. If resolution is not achieved, the parties may seek resolution of the matter from the Court; (8) Debtor's counsel shall notify the claims agent of entry of an order dismissing or converting the bankruptcy case within seven (7) days after the entry of the order; (9) The debtor or trustee, as applicable, must obtain an order terminating the services of the claims agent at the conclusion of a bankruptcy case or upon termination of the claims agent’s services. The order confirming a debtor’s chapter 11 plan may serve as such order if it includes relevant provisions terminating the services of the claims agent; (10) The claims agent is responsible to serve the following: (a) Notice of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case using the appropriate Official Form; (b) notice of any bar date for proofs of claim or interest; (c) notices of claims transfers; (d) objections to claims; (e) the notices required by Fed. R. Bankr. P. 2002(a)(5), 2002(b), 2002(d), 2002(f)(7), 2002(f)(11), 3017, 3019, and 3020; (f) notice of hearing on motions filed by the U.S. Trustee; and (g) any motion filed by the U.S. Trustee’s office to convert or dismiss the case, appoint a trustee, or appoint an examiner; (11) Within 7 days after service of a document listed in Local Rule 2002-3(a)(10) or any other document served by the claims agent, the claims agent must file a certificate of service referencing the document served and its docket number and indicating the name and complete address of each party served and the method of service; -11- (12) The claims agent must maintain the original copy of every proof of claim or interest filed in the case; (13) The claims agent is responsible to maintain the official claims register, including by recording and notating, as applicable, claims transfers, claims objections, and all other filings affecting a claim, but not deleting any claim or claim information for any reason; (14) The claims agent must maintain a separate claims register and separate creditor matrix for each debtor in jointly administered cases; (15) Each quarter in which a bankruptcy case is pending, the claims agent must file an updated claims register in alphabetical and numerical order or a certification of no claims activity if there has been no claims activity in the quarter; (16) For each case, the claims agent must maintain an up-to-date mailing list of all parties who have submitted a proof of claim or interest or a request for notices, must post the list to the claims agent’s website, and must provide a copy of the list within 48 hours of a request from a party-in-interest; (17) The claims agent must provide public access to the claims register and complete proofs of claim— including attachments—at no charge through the claims agent’s case website, but protecting from public access any information protected by Court order or L.B.R. 8011-2; (18) Within 14 days after entry of an order dismissing a case or within 28 days after entry of a final decree, the claims agent must forward to the Clerk of Court an electronic version of all proofs of claim, upload the creditor matrix to CM/ECF, and docket a final claims register; If the cases are jointly administered, a combined claims register containing claims from all cases can be docketed in the lead case and a case-specific claims register shall be docketed in each respective jointly administered case; (19) Within 14 days after the earlier of entry of an order (a) converting the case or (b) terminating the services of the claims agent, the claims agent shall: (i) forward to the Clerk of Court an electronic version of all proofs of claim, (ii) upload the publicly available portions of the creditor matrix to CM/ECF, (iii) forward to the Clerk of Court the sealed portions of the creditor matrix in the format requested by the Clerk, and (iv) docket a final claims register. If the cases are jointly administered, then a combined claims register containing claims from all cases may be docketed in the lead case, with a case-specific final claims register and creditor mailing matrix being docketed in each respective jointly administered case; and(20) If there are more than 200 creditors, then upon conversion to a chapter 7 case, the claims agent, upon agreement to its continued retention in the chapter 7 case, shall continue to serve all notices required to be served at the -12- direction of the chapter 7 trustee or the Clerk’s Office or, if it does not consent to being retained in the chapter 7 case, shall submit a proposed order terminating the claims agent’s services.

(b) Service List in Chapter 11 and 15 Cases. The claims agent must maintain a list of parties entitled to receive service (including without limitation under L.B.R. 1007-1, 1007-2, 1007-3, 1009-1, 2002-1, and 2002-2), which must specify whether a party has opted to receive email service. Subject to any confidentiality or other restrictions imposed by rule or court order, the claims agent must make the list available on the case website maintained by the claims agent and must provide a copy to any party upon request. If there is no claims agent, then counsel to the debtor or foreign representative, as applicable, is responsible for the duties under this Local Rule.

(c) Cases with No Claims Agent. (1) In cases with no claims agent, the Clerk serves as the notice agent, and the debtor must timely provide the Clerk with a complete, accurate, and up-to-date creditor matrix consistent with Fed. R. Bankr. P. 1007, and by uploading the publicly available portions of the creditor matrix into CM/ECF, and forwarding to the Clerk the sealed portions of the creditor matrix in the format requested by the Clerk. (2) The debtor must provide an updated creditor matrix within 14 days after entry of an order converting a case or within 28 days after entry of a final decree consistent with the procedure set forth in clause (c)(1) above. (d) Chapter 15 Cases.

Unless otherwise ordered by the court, the foreign representative is responsible for (i) the notice requirements under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 2002(q) and (ii) applicable duties in Local Rule 2002-1(e). (e) Limiting Notice in Chapter 7, 12, and 13 Cases. In a chapter 7, 12, or 13 case, the notices required by Fed. R. Bankr. P. 2002(a) may be limited to the parties specified in Fed. R. Bankr. P. 2002(h), without further order or direction of the court.