Where a debtor fails to disclose to the Court or the trustee a forbearance on his mortgage that he was to pay directly, the Court would grant the trustee’s motion to modify to recapture as much as possible of the surplus funds the forbearance generated. (Kenney) In re Ilyev, 2022 WL 2965029 (Bankr. E.D. Va. July 26, 2022) Case Summary...

Background - In re Taggart In 2019, the Supreme Court rendered its opinion in In re Taggart,1 which was the subject of earlier analyses: (1) Is a Finding of Contempt Precluded by a "Good Faith" but Unreasonable Belief that an Action Does Not Violate the Discharge Injunction?; (2) Looking Beyond . . . It looks like you are not signed...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Undistributed funds returned to debtor upon dismissal. Under § 1327(b)’s vesting requirement, unless a confirmed plan provides otherwise, any undistributed funds held by the trustee at dismissal of the case must be returned to the debtor. Although not necessary to rely on § 347(b)(3), the conclusion on effect of vesting at confirmation was...

July 10, 2020, the CFPB released a report examining recent trends in debt settlement and credit counseling. Many Americans struggle with their debts, especially during times of crisis. Today’s report documents changes over time in how consumers have used these debt relief options for unsecured debt. Using the Bureau’s Consumer Credit Panel (CCP), a nationally representative sample of approximately five...

By John P. Gustafson, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Ohio, Western Division A. Property Acquired After The Filing Of The Chapter 13 Case: The Different Approaches. 1. Property Acquired Post-Petition vs. Property “Vesting In The Debtor”. Click here for Part 2 The broad issue of what becomes property of the Chapter 13 estate post-petition involves consideration of two...

By Mary Beth Ausbrooks, Rothschild & Ausbrooks PLLC (Nashville, TN) With the prolonged decline in case filings, I found that sending a mass emailed newsletter has been very beneficial. In order to send a mass email to a group of people, it was necessary to find software that would send the emails out in such a fashion that the email...

In this series of articles, I’ve described how my firm developed a litigation practice area to generate revenue that isn’t dependent on new bankruptcy cases. As debtor attorneys around the country wait for bankruptcy cases to return to pre-COVID levels, I hope these articles might inspire others to create income for themselves while obtaining valuable remedies for their clients. Today,...

By Jan Hamilton, Chapter 13 Trustee (Topeka, KS) Introduction Preliminarily, I recognize that many of those reading this do not need to. There are many fine trial attorneys in the bankruptcy bar. Those folks could well be writing this article. By way of defending myself in advance, this little piece does not consist of a series of war stories or...

By Stacey A. O’Stafy, Staff Attorney, Office of the Chapter 13 Trustee Faye D. English (Columbus, OH) An above median Chapter 13 debtor settles a workers’ compensation claim and wants to use the exempt settlement proceeds1 to pay off her 100% dividend plan in month 38 – can she? In this simple scenario, the answer is yes. Pursuant to 11...