No Easy Answers for the Supreme Court: Jevic Pits the Bankruptcy Code Against the Law of Unintended Consequences

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, Tennessee)

On December 7, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Czyzewski v. Jevic Holding Co., 787 F.3d 173 (3d Cir. 2016), cert. granted, 136 S. Ct. 2541 (2016). At issue was whether a bankruptcy court may authorize, in a "structured dismissal," the distribution of settlement proceeds in a manner that violates the statutory priority scheme. The Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved a settlement that resulted in the structured dismissal of a Chapter 11 case. The district court and Court of Appeals for the Third . . .

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Fourth Circuit Overrules Own Precedent, Holds Certain Primary Residence Claims Can be Crammed Down in Chapter 13 Bankruptcies

October 20, 2019

(First published here on August 19, 2019. Used with permission.) By Daniel Cohn, Esq., Legal Department, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. General Rule: No Primary Residence Mortgage Changes The general rule in bankruptcy is that debtors cannot cram down loans secured only by mortgages on their primary residences. But wait, “what’s a cram down?” you ask. For non-bankruptcy folks, a cram...

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An Update on Student Debt Relief and What this Means for Chapter 13 Practitioners

MaryAnn Bennett Bride

November 20, 2022

What is the Student Debt Relief Plan? On August 24, 2022, President Joe Biden announced a three-part student debt relief plan to help borrowers transition back to regular payments as pandemic-related support expires. The plan includes loan forgiveness of up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education and up to $10,000 in debt...

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From the Editor

March 24, 2019

By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Discharge - Paying more than original loan balance would be undue hardship. The 59-year old debtor employed in aging and disability services couldn’t maintain a minimal living standard without discharge of substantial portion of student loan debt. The Court identified factors included in “minimal standards” in modern American society and found...

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Who Is Stupid Here?

Cathy Moran

February 25, 2024

“The headline was ‘Are your clients really stupid?’ . . .The answer isn’t what you’re tempted to respond.” The second in a 3-part series on treating clients as we would want to be treated. More on this topic: Why Listening Is a Bankruptcy Lawyer’s Superpower

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The Power of a Checklist

Jay S. Jump

March 12, 2023

Recently, I had the pleasure of a great conversation with Chapter 13 Trustee, Thomas McDonald, from the EDMI. As it turns out, we have both been pilots for a long time. Once we came to this realization, our conversation quickly devolved from the issues confronting the bankruptcy industry to talk of density altitude, mountain flying, and the importance of using...

Pump the Brakes: Bad Faith Debtors Are Not Gaming the System (Part II)

January 27, 2019

By Kathryne M. Shaw1 Boleman Law Firm, P.C. (Virginia Beach, VA) Click here for Part 1 In Part I of this article, we reviewed In re Holman, in which the debtors violated their confirmation order and exhibited bad faith . . . It looks like you are not signed in or registered! This content is only available to members. Join...

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ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy – Introduction

April 21, 2019

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) Introduction In 2016, the American Bankruptcy Institute’s president, Eugene Wedoff, retired bankruptcy judge from the Northern District of Illinois, proposed to the ABI Board that a commission be established to examine the current status of consumer bankruptcy laws, rules, and cases with the goal of its making general suggestions...

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Critical Case Comment – The Now Infamous Castleman Case

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

August 20, 2023

Equity that accrues as a result of market conditions in debtor’s assets between the time of confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan and conversion to Chapter 7 constitutes property of the estate which may be administered by the Chapter 7 trustee.

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Escrow 102 – Part 1 of 4

September 26, 2021

By Michael J. McCormick, Esq., McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLC (Roswell, GA) Escrow 101 – Part 1 Escrow 101 - Part 2 Escrow 101 – Part 3 Escrow 102 – Part 2

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Are Direct Payments by Debtor on Mortgage Considered Payments “Under the Plan” for Purposes of Discharge?

April 28, 2019

By William H. Brown, Adviser to The Academy d/b/a ConsiderChapter13.org In the most recent opinion on the issue, as of this writing, the Court in In re Rivera, 2019 WL 1430273 (Bankr. D. Ariz. Mar. 28, 2019), in perhaps still a minority view, concluded that debtors’ default in making all direct postpetition mortgage payments was not a failure to complete...

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