SMALL BUSINESS REORGANIZATION ACT POSTSCRIPT #2 Recommendation of Technical Amendment to Repair Flaw in CARES Act Attempt to Increase Small Business Eligibility under SBRA Introduction In a bulletin published March 30, the Academy announced enactment on March 27 of the "Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act" (the "CARES Act"),1 and that the Act (applying only to cases commenced on...

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction In Ritzen Group, Inc. v. Jackson Masonry, LLC (In re Jackson Masonry, LLC),1 the Sixth Circuit reviewed circuit authority on finality of orders for appellate purposes and affirmed the district court's dismissal of an appeal from an order denying stay relief. The Court of Appeals said that, under 28...

By Chris Hawkins, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP (Birmingham, AL) The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently issued an opinion that may have far-reaching procedural implications for debtors and trustees in Chapter 13 cases. In Microf LLC v. Cumbess, the court articulated multiple canons of statutory interpretation in holding that a chapter 13 debtor’s proposal to...

For many of the consumer debtors my firm represents, the primary purpose of filing bankruptcy is to save their home or other real estate from being foreclosed upon by their mortgage servicer. We help those debtors file and comply with chapter 13 plans that propose to resolve their defaulted mortgages in a variety of ways, which might include curing pre-petition...

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) Mention tax calculations to a bankruptcy attorney and 7 out of 10 freeze on the spot. I'm not a tax attorney, they retort. That's right, but, if you are a bankruptcy attorney, that doesn't relieve you from knowing enough tax to get the means test right. Not to mention not giving up your...

So, what happens to post-petition appreciation of assets during a Chapter 13? Does the Debtor get to keep the money? Or does the Chapter 13 Trustee get it for the benefit of creditors? That was the question for the Court in In re Klein, 2022 WL 3902822 (Bankr. D. Colo. 2022). The question in Klein is a bit different than...

Angela M. Scolforo was appointed as the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Western District of Virginia on April Fool’s Day. She replaced Herbert L. Beskin who served as the Trustee for 20 years, retiring in March of this year. Angela received a B.A. in English from College of the Holy Cross in Worchester, Massachusetts, in1987. She did not immediately go...

By Herbert L. Beskin, Chapter 13 Trustee for the Western District of Virginia (Charlottesville) The Seventh Circuit thought that it had finished dealing with the intersection of cars, fines, Chapter 13, and the City of Chicago when it rendered its decision earlier in 2019 in “Steenes I.” In re Steenes, 918 F.3d 554 . Alas, it was not to be,...