A Conversation About Chapter 13 Debt Limitations of 11 U.S.C. § 109(e)

By Sarah E. Smith, Esq., Senior Staff Attorney, Kathleen A. Leavitt, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustee

As staff attorney for a Chapter 13 Trustee, I’ve encountered more than my share of §109(e) eligibility issues or, as sometimes referred to, “debt limit” issues. When I talk about debt limit I’m referring to the section of the Bankruptcy Code that sets forth eligibility requirements for a Chapter 13 debtor. Specifically, 11 U.S.C. § 109(e) that states, in pertinent part: “Only an individual with regular income that owes, on the date of filing of the petition, noncontingent, liquidated, unsecured . . .

It looks like you are not signed in or registered! This content is only available to members.

Or Sign In Below:

No Author Biography has been linked to this Article.

From the Editor

September 27, 2020

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Debtors’ attorney fees not authorized under Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). Although the Chapter 13 debtors had prevailed before the Ninth Circuit, In re Sisk, 962 F.3d 1133 (9th Cir. 2020), their application for attorney fees as prevailing parties under EAJA was denied. That Act did not authorize awards of attorney fees...

Members

Leading a Winning Team

Merideth Akers

February 13, 2022

Bowl games… playoff games… championship games… Super Bowls. We start each New Year with a football craze. So what organizational lessons can we learn from football… other than do not spike the ball on fourth down to stop the clock? First, football is played as a team. Highly functioning teams win championships, while dysfunctional teams lose games and the coach...

Members

How My Law Firm Learned to Stop Leaving Money on the Table Part 2 – The “Other Appropriate Relief” of Rule 3001

Mark C. Leffler

May 8, 2022

At my firm, we see a lot of consumers who have some combination of high debt and low income. Many of them arrive for their consultations after having been abused by debt collectors and predatory lenders, harmed by mortgage servicing errors, or subjected to inaccurate and derogatory credit reporting. Until fairly recently, after filing bankruptcies for these folks, we usually...

Members

Critical Case Comment – Free Parking

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

January 29, 2023

Percentage fees collected by a Chapter 13 trustee prior to confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan must be returned to the debtor by the trustee if Chapter 13 plan is not confirmed. (Ebel) Goodman v. Doll, 2023 WL 216778 (10th Cir. January 18, 2023) Case Summary Daniel Doll filed Chapter 13 in November of 2017. The debtor complied with 11...

Members

Critical Case Comment–“No Realistic Future Prospects”

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

March 26, 2023

A 34-year-old Chapter 7 debtor could discharge his student loan obligation by establishing that he could not reasonably make payments on the balance, could not maintain a reasonable standard of living, and because the expiration of his payment term had already passed, his standard of living was likely to persist, with no realistic future prospects. (Silverstein) In re Wolfson, No....

Members

I Win. I Win. Trustee Holds Record for Having the Oldest Open Chapter 13 Case

April 7, 2019

By Helen M. Morris, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia It really takes so little to make a Chapter 13 Trustee happy—debtor’s counsel using calculators when they draft a plan ($100 for 36 months is NOT $4,936.87 no matter how many times it is repeated); saying “the Trustee is right” distinctly in open...

From the Editor – Lien Issues

September 15, 2019

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Chapter 13 debtor had no authority under § 544. Discussing the split of authority, the Court adopted the majority view that the Code gives § 544 avoidance authority exclusively to the trustee, and the Chapter 13 debtor could not use that power to avoid a mortgage lien. In re Dobbs, _________B.R._________, 2019 WL...

Members

From the Editor – Attorney Sanctioned

June 14, 2020

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Attorney sanctioned for filing identical schedules in two cases without updating financial information. The same attorney represented a debtor in two cases filed sixteen months apart, but the attorney filed essentially identical schedules in both cases, violating Rule 9011 by failing to make reasonable inquiry before filing the second case. The schedules in...

Members

National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2023

The Academy

December 31, 2023

The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2023 (H.R. 3315) enacted on December 19, 2023 extends for an additional four years the existing exemption from the means test for qualifying reservists and National Guard debtors who are called to active duty or to perform a homeland defense activity for not less than 90 days. See 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(2)(D)(i). A debtor...

For Shame

The Academy

June 25, 2023

Litigation Practice Group Lawsuits: 4 Cases to Know (This is the only free article we could find on Litigation Practice Group a/k/a Phoenix Law and disbarred Tony Diab. He has been disbarred from both Nevada and California.)