By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) We all get sucked in, at some time, to try and rescue a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case gone bad. Make sure that you don’t let a bad situation get worse. Get your arms around §109(g). When only a do-over will do, don’t wait around. No Payments for Months The debtor came to me...

Appeals Court Names Erie Lawyer as Newest Bankruptcy Judge – John C. Melaragno has been named the new judge for the Erie Division of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Section 524(i) applies only to long-term debts not discharged through plan. Whether § 524(i) applied to short-term secured debts that are paid in full and discharged through a Chapter 13 plan was a matter of first impression, with the Court finding no other court had yet decided precise question. Factors used in Supreme...

By Academy Staff Phil was a quiet, humble man. He loved his family, loved the law, and loved to serve others. Philip D. Lamos, age 53 of Painesville Township, passed away suddenly on June 11, 2021. He was a hometown boy who loved his family, especially his son Matthew and daughter Emily. Phil was a graduate of John Carroll University...

Even though the Chapter 13 debtor’s 36 cats were property of the estate, the county animal control office could pursue possession of the cats and resulting disposition (by way of adoption). (Hagenau) In re Karen Mitchell-Smith, 2022 WL 2195466 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. June 17, 2022) Case Summary Sometime in 2021, Henry County Animal Control took possession of 36 cats that...

By William Houston Brown, Editor/Adviser Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education Construing the statute of limitations for actions against debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCA), the Supreme Court held on December 10, 2019, that “absent the application of an equitable doctrine, the statute of limitations in § 1692k(d) begins to run on the date on which the...

By Ken Siomos, Staff Attorney for Marsha L. Combs-Skinner (Newman, IL) The December 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, more commonly known as the second covid-19 stimulus bill, contains a few bankruptcy related provisions, but none stood out more with respect to Chapter 13 than the newly created § 1328(i). This provision provides that a court may grant a full 1328(a)...

"Finality" in Bankruptcy When is an order within a bankruptcy case "final"? When must a party to the proceeding appeal within 14 days? When may a party either seek interlocutory review or sit back and wait until something more occurs to make the order final? Final orders are appealable. In civil actions, this is a relatively easy proposition to apply...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Separate classification and preferential treatment of student loan debt. The Chapter 13 trustee and debtors’ attorney attempted to change the traditional approach in the District, seeking approval of a permissible fair discrimination in favor of student loan debt in plans so long as the preferential treatment and discrimination was no more than 20%....