There was an interesting article in the New York Times on Saturday, April 26, 2009, at Detroit Would Prefer Any Auto Bankruptcy to Be Handled Locally (April 26, 2009) discussing the possible venues for either a GM or Chrsyler bankruptcy filing.  No doubt Detroit would prefer a GM or Chrysler filing to occur there for political reasons, but the reality is that there are only 2 venues that can efficiently handle such large cases:  Delaware or S.D.N.Y.  The reality is that those two venues are probably about the same, excluding some unfavorable case law in the Third Circuit, and both have extensive experience in automotive cases, a sophisticated bench and bar in automotive bankruptcy cases, and have large courtrooms with state of the art audio-visual systems.  Also, while Detroit is considered the home for automotive, both GM and Chrysler are large multinationals that have substantial business connections in numerous locations in the US and abroad, so DE and NY are certainly as good of a place as any to file for bankruptcy.  I’ll be surprised if either of the automakers files for bankrutpcy in Detroit (FYI:  as of tonight it is looking less likely that Chrysler will file for bankruptcy at all, but GM is a different story with the aweful GM Exchange Offer), and, from my vantage point, the venue of choice for the automakers is either DE or NY.

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