Judge Ahart serves on the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. He was appointed in 1988 and reappointed to a second 14-year term in 2002. He is a graduate of the State University of New York School of Law in Buffalo and also holds an LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Ahart has authored numerous articles, most of them on bankruptcy topics. He was the first judge to receive the Editors' Prize for demonstrating special excellence in an article in the American Bankruptcy Law Journal and he has served as an associate editor of the Journal. He is a frequent lecturer on debt collection, judgment enforcement, and bankruptcy topics.