06/12/2026
🗞️ NACBA News Alert: "NCBRC Advocacy Helps Secure Unanimous Supreme Court Victory for Consumer Debtors"
⚖️ Keathley v. Buddy Ayers Construction decision rejects rigid judicial-estoppel rule and reflects the focused appellate advocacy advanced by NCBRC, NACBA, and NCLC.
The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) today welcomed the United States Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Keathley v. Buddy Ayers Construction, Inc., No. 25-6, a significant victory for consumer debtors and a powerful demonstration of the impact of the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center’s appellate advocacy.
Issued on June 11, 2026, the Court’s decision rejected a rigid and punitive approach to judicial estoppel that could prevent honest consumer debtors from pursuing otherwise valid legal claims. Instead, the Court held that whether a debtor’s omission was inadvertent or mistaken must be evaluated under the totality of the circumstances.
The unanimous opinion described the Fifth Circuit’s prior rule as “simultaneously too rigid and too broad,” rejecting an approach that relied on inflexible presumptions rather than a fair examination of the individual facts.
In December 2025, NCBRC, joined by NACBA and the National Consumer Law Center, filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Court to resolve the bad-faith issue narrowly and avoid unnecessarily expanding or deciding debtors’ disclosure obligations.
The Court followed that measured approach.
🔗 Read the full press release and details of the opinion in NACBA News: https://nacba.org/page/news
