From the Editor’s Desk – Priority Claims • NACTT Academy

From the Editor’s Desk – Priority Claims

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

Attorney fees awarded by state court in child custody litigation were domestic support obligation. After a six-day trial on child custody, the prebankruptcy state court awarded almost $100,000 attorney fees to be paid by the Chapter 13 debtor, and those fees were in the nature of support; therefore, they were nondischargeable and must be paid as priority claim. Fifth Circuit authority, In re Dvorak, 986 F.2d 940 (5th Cir. 1993), holds “that court-ordered attorneys’ fees incurred during a custody suit between debtor and . . .

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Per Capita Bankruptcy Filings Heat Map

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____________________________ Prior to his appointment as a bankruptcy judge for the District of Utah in September of 2015, Judge Anderson served for seventeen years as the Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the District of Utah. During this time, he administered over 70,000 Chapter 13 cases. Judge Anderson was elected president of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT), and...

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By The Honorable Guy R. Humphrey, Southern District of Ohio It is with heavy hearts that we in Dayton, Ohio say our farewells to Jeff Kellner as our Chapter 13 Trustee. Jeff will be concluding his duties as the Trustee on September 30th and handing the reins over to John Jansing on October 1st. Listing Jeff’s contributions to the bankruptcy...

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In re Evans: Disgorging Chapter 13 Trustee Fees in Cases Dismissed Prior to Confirmation

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By Jen Grondahl Lee, Jen Lee Law, Inc. (San Ramon, CA) When is a collected fee not a collected fee? When the statutes authorizing payment to the standing Chapter 13 trustee do not provide clear guidance on when that fee is paid and/or earned. The most recent case on this issue is In re Evans (Bankr. Idaho 2020).1 In a...

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Spending every dollar they make, and then some, is often how our Chapter 13 clients got into financial trouble. Yet Chapter 13, as practiced, validates the practice of continuing to spend 100% of each month’s income during the life of the plan. In doing so, we, as a society, squander the chance to use Chapter 13 to teach new budgeting...

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Just a few more weeks ‘til principal and interest gotta be listed separately on a POC.

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