The City of Stockton's historic bankruptcy case got under way in federal court in Sacramento today with lawyers for the beleaguered city's creditors jockeying for position during the initial one-hour hearing.
Court officials had prepared for a large turnout, with directions to the seventh-floor courtroom posted around the federal courthouse downtown, an overflow room set up for attendees who could not fit into the courtroom and three rows reserved for members of the media.
When the 10 a.m. hearing commenced, however, there was only a handful of reporters and fewer than 30 people seated in the court, most of them lawyers for the city's creditors.
Stockton, which went on a spending spree during the housing boom, became the largest city in the nation ever to file for bankruptcy with a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing on June 28, and Judge Christopher M. Klein opened court today asking lawyers for the many creditors to make their appearances brief at this early stage.
"I don't have time for a speech," Klein told them. "I'm a bankruptcy judge, it's impossible to educate me."
The hearing was devoted largely to technical matters and ended with the scheduling of an Aug. 23 status hearing.
The case is expected to take months to resolve and already has resulted in dozens of documents being filed since the city's filing last week.
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