Think Beyond The Means Test

It started as a means test question: could emergency medical expenses be deemed non consumer debt.

It ended up as a step back to get the bigger picture.

Well-seasoned bankruptcy counsel brought the fact pattern to a list serve of colleagues. The prospective debtors’ income in a small consulting corporation is declining, his health crisis raises not only income issues but issues of end of life expenses; and there’s apparent money on the bottom line. What to do?

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The Neglected Non-Dischargeability Provision

Cathy Moran

June 11, 2023

Hands up everyone who has encountered a claim that a debt is non-dischargeable by reason of § 523(a)(14). That’s what I thought: nada, or next thing to it. Despite watching for it, I hadn’t seen one ‘til this year when AmEx filed an adversary in a case in which I was peripherally involved. My copy of Collier’s code doesn’t comment...

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From the Editor – Discharge Injunction

May 31, 2020

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Only bankruptcy court issuing discharge order can enforce injunction. The Fifth Circuit held that only the bankruptcy court issuing a discharge order has authority to enforce the discharge injunction. The opinion reviews pre-2005 Code provisions and current 28 U.S.C. § 1963, citing other Circuits that “have insisted on a return to the bankruptcy...

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The Proposed Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act: A Political Analysis

January 17, 2021

By Kevin M. Ball, Eastern Michigan University Senator Warren and Representative Nadler introduced identical legislation entitled the Consumer Bankruptcy Report Act (“CBRA”) late in the 116th Congress. Although the bills died without action at the conclusion of that term, the sponsors have indicated their intent to reintroduce them in the 117th Congress. The legislation would bring major changes to the...

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After Chicago v Fulton: Not Only Cars – A Survey of Fulton Rulings and a Weakened Automatic Stay

Hale Andrew Antico

December 11, 2022

Intro: What is a Fulton ruling? When Chicago v Fulton (In re Fulton), 141 S Ct. 585 (Sup Ct, 2021) was first decided by the Supreme Court, there was a consensus among bankruptcy attorneys that the erosion of the automatic stay with regard to turnover was only about cars. That is, Fulton was a narrow ruling that was only about...

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From the Editor – Plan Modification

June 7, 2020

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) HAVEN Act applied to modification when plan was confirmed prior to Act becoming law. The debtor proposed a plan modification deleting from disposable income $1,789 monthly VA disability benefits. First concluding that the HAVEN Act was applicable law at time of this decision, nothing in the Act, its legislative history or the Official...

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Critical Case Comment – Pre-Confirmation Payments

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

June 26, 2022

Even though the Model Plan in the district provides that the applicable commitment period starts from confirmation, the debtor may not apply pre-confirmation payments toward payments made during the applicable commitment period but must apply those payments in addition to the applicable commitment period payments. (Applebaum) In re Batoha, 2022 WL 1310943 (Bankr. E.D. Mich. May 2, 2022) Case Summary...

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Is an Unemployment Compensation Payment Exempt?

May 17, 2020

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction As of April 16, 2020, more than 22,000,000 people in the United States were reported to have filed for unemployment aid, "a staggering loss of jobs that has wiped out a decade of employment gains and pushed families to line up at food banks as they await government help."1...

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The PUMP Act

Mark T. McCarty

June 11, 2023

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released an updated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Minimum Wage Poster that covers employers’ new lactation accommodation obligations under the recently passed Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act. The PUMP Act went into effect on December 29, 2022 and requires employers to provide nursing employees with reasonable accommodations, such as...

Meet a New Trustee

The Academy

February 4, 2024

Daryl J. Smith, Esq., was appointed as the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Western District of Louisiana on October 1, 2023. Smith’s office is in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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WE LOVE AND WILL MISS YOU, HELEN

Elizabeth Vaughan

July 31, 2022

Helen Morris, the Standing Chapter 13 and 12 Trustee for West Virginia is retiring at the end of this fiscal year. I first met Helen over lunch at NACTT, where we chatted about a non-legal interest we both share, writing fiction. I was delighted to discover, then as now, a friend with a razor wit, a wicked sense of humor...