Did explaining the Uniform Commercial Code to your literary loved ones just get a shortcut? Behold the three paragraphs (generously counting) in The New Yorker about this unusual but powerful legal product. The print edition date: June 29, 2026. The article: Hot Pursuit: The repo man coming for your ride, by Paige Williams. In the print version, the article starts on page 28 and one must buckle up and hold on tight through page 33 to evaluate those three paragraphs (generously counting) for yourself.
Author: Melissa Jacoby
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It’s All Debt to Me
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It’s All Debt to Me, by Professor Kate Elengold, is a newly available article sure to be of interest to many Credit Slips readers. Check out the abstract and read the paper by clicking on this link, but in the meantime, an observation from the article’s conclusion, coupled with the article’s graphic of a set of triangles, frames what to expect:This Article has identified, explained, and explored the way that varied laws and doctrine come together to create the “law of individual debt.” In so doing, it has offered both scaffolding and mapping to understand, holistically, how the law treats debtors and creditors across two axes: public/private and voluntary/involuntary. It asks and answers the question: why are four-similarly situated debtors, each carrying $15,000 of debt that they cannot repay, treated so differently under the law?
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Joe Smith’s Life in Banking
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Joe Smith has been (among other things!) the general counsel of a regional bank, Commissioner of Banks for North Carolina; and the official independent settlement monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement. And Joe has some reflections on these experiences that I recommend reading. One easy way to get started is with his 2026 essay published by The North Carolina Banking Institute.
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Professor Elizabeth Gibson wins Distinguished Service Award
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Some happy news: Elizabeth Gibson, beloved UNC Law professor and alum,* is the recipient of the American College of Bankruptcy Distinguished Service Award, to be bestowed at a ceremony later this week. In the meantime, read a tribute to Elizabeth by Pat Vance, last year’s recipient, here.
* Given the date, I’m obliged to mention that Elizabeth, also a Duke grad, may favor a certain other college basketball team known for donning a darker shade of blue.
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An Oscar-Backed Loan? A Quick Academy Awards Special Edition
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The red carpet is studded with property and contract questions. Who among those A-List stars even owns the outfits they showcase? In the article “25 Things You Don’t Know about the Oscars” from the March 9, 2026 edition of Us Magazine, author Molly McGuigan says Academy Award winners also do not own the statues they win. The cited explanation? “Since 1950, they’ve signed a special agreement stating they can’t sell or dispose of their trophies without first offering to sell them to the Academy for $1.” (The web version is slightly different from the digital version I quote here). Technically that’s not the same as lack of ownership, but to what extent does it hamper the bundle of sticks?
So … under what circumstances would you make a loan backed by an Academy Award statue (whether or not its name is Oscar)?
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Professor A. Mechele Dickerson on The Daily Show
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Gather around and check out University of Texas Professor Dickerson’s interview on The Daily Show, a substantive conversation with Jon Stewart about her new book, The Middle-Class New Deal. Stewart decrees the book “fabulous!”
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Association of American Law Schools Section Renames Mentoring Award for Juliet Moringiello
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Read here about the Moringiello award. And stay tuned for information about a memorial volume of scholarship in Juliet’s honor.
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Bonfire at the Repo Lot
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You hear a bump in the night. Is it Edgar Allan Poe’s Telltale Heart? Or someone hauling away your car? If you have missed some car payments, it probably is the latter. And while most of your creditors aren’t allowed to lurk in the dark to snatch your car, your car lender can.
Recorded with steaks sizzling on a fire pit at a car repossession lot, a recent podcast from the Wall Street Journal discusses the physical risks and tight margins associated with the repo industry. Without mentioning the law that shapes this industry, the podcast shows how Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, a law passed by all state legislatures and yet virtually unknown, is far from a niche subject. That’s also an implication, to say the least, from the downfall of FirstBrands, now in bankruptcy.
Now is a good time for lawyers to ask their law schools if they regularly offer courses that include a hefty dose of UCC Article 9.
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Hospitals Suing Patients – A New Study
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My first post on the original Credit Slips was about medical billing and collection; so is this first post on the new Credit Slips. I write to encourage more of you to read Hospitals Suing Patients: The Rise of Stealth Intermediaries, posted this summer on the Social Science Research Network. This study, by law professor Barak Richman and coauthors at Stanford University’s Clinical Excellence Research Center reports on a hospital’s recent use of collection agencies to sue and enforce judgments (many of which were based on “unsubstantiated and inaccurate billing records”) against patients, and the impact of state law efforts to increase transparency in debt collection. And herein lies the end of my first post on the new Credit Slips, if only to expedite your decision to download this study.
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Virtual Access to Event in Memory of Juliet Moringiello March 20 2025
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Widener University Commonwealth Law School will hold an event honoring Professor Juliet Moringiello on March 20, 2025 at 1pm ET. Friends and fans of Juliet are welcome and encouraged to join virtually. The Zoom link is embedded in the image accompanying this post as well as accessible here. I will repeat what Widener says in the bottom of the image about Juliet: "Professor Moringiello was a beloved scholar, professor, mentor, author, administrator, colleague, and friend whose impact on our students and institution was profound and will never be forgotten. We gather to celebrate her contributions to the legal field, share memories, and find comfort in one another."
