By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville) Rule 3002.1 gives the Bankruptcy Court authority to impose sanctions, including punitive sanctions, as part of the rules-granted authority to award “other appropriate relief.” (Rodriguez) Blanco v. Bayview Loan Servicing LLC (In re Blanco), 2021 WL 4190170 (Bankr. S.D. Tex. September 14, 2021) Case...

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction Analyzing the new "COVID-19 discharge" provision added to Chapter 131 by Congress on December 27 as part of the coronavirus emergency response legislation, the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California decided in In re Ritter2 that, in order to receive such a discharge, debtors must still comply...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee If a Chapter 13 debtor does not list a creditor on the creditor matrix when filing the petition and makes no effort to provide supplemental notice to the creditor, the provisions of Rule 3002 allow the extension of time for the creditor to file a...

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) Long after the human patients recover from the coronavirus, small businesses will still be ailing. And long nights will be spent deciding whether to try to stay in business. As bankruptcy lawyers, we’re going to see people in pain trying to assess what to do next. Business owners may see the exit heading...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) Exemptions in consumer cases have always presented difficult problems for practitioners and trustees. In a bow to states’ rights, the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 deferred to exemptions created by state law. When BAPCPA was enacted in 2005, Congress continued the practice of allowing each state to “opt out” of...

FFIEC Issues Statement on Examination Principles Related to Valuation Discrimination and Bias in Residential Lending

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) Because its treatment varies so, we need to be asking more pointed questions of clients about both insurance policies and the debtor as beneficiary. Unmatured life insurance Starting with exemptions, §522(d)(7) makes an unmatured life insurance policy exempt without limit. So, the insurance element of a policy owned by the debtor is exempt...

These virtual 341 meetings via Zoom will be implemented on a rolling basis through early 2024. YEP, this means you, y’all, all y’all, you guys, and yoos guys. Doesn’t matter if you have been doing 341’s via telephone for 100 years . . . it’s ZOOM as soon as implemented in your district. For Debtor Atty’s, this may require having clients...