ARM Leader Poised to Start New Chapter as Bankruptcy Court Judge

A longtime collection industry attorney who helped influence debtor and creditor rights is expected to be sworn in as a federal bankruptcy court judge in California later this month.

Ron H. Sargis, who has served as the general counsel for the California Association of Collectors for 25 years, will serve in the Eastern District of California in U.S. Ninth Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

During his 25 years as a bankruptcy and creditors rights attorney with Hefner, Stark & Marois, LLP in Sacramento, Sargis handled numerous reorganizations, lectured at local colleges on bankruptcy, prepared creditor rights education materials, and helped shape and enforce California’s collection industry policy. He also helped craft legislation affecting California’s hospital charity care legislation.

Sargis told insideARM that throughout it all the greatest ongoing challenge of his career as an attorney had been to figure out how to advance his case.

“To try to fix the problem and get other players to work on fixing the problem,” he explained.  As a judge his greatest challenge will be to leave that job to others, he said.

“Now it’s my job to just make sure they are following the law,” he said.

But that is not the only thing Sargis wants accomplished in his courtroom.  He said it is important to him that the parties impacted by the cases he rules on believe that the process worked.

“One of the key things that we all need to recognize is that for many people, the only experience they will ever have with the federal court system is through their bankruptcy case,” Sargis said. “When they leave, they should feel that the court system was a fair process.”

Industry insiders said that as an attorney, Sargis did his best to advance that philosophy and make sure creditors’ and debtors’ rights were protected. He even reached out to his opponents for their support on proposed legislation, instead of trying to one-up them.

“Instead of fighting, we went to the Consumers Union before CAC undertook any legislation,” said Lloyd Dix, vice president and general counsel of Union Adjustment Company of Burbank, Calif.