Underwater Junior Mortgage Strip Off: Should a Court Strip Off a Wholly Unsecured Lien When the Debtor is Ineligible for Discharge?

By Vera Kanova, J.D. Candidate, May 2013, The Pennsylvania State University, The Dickinson School of Law

I. Introduction

Consider a familiar scenario: a woman with unmanageable credit card debt and two underwater mortgages on her principal residence files a Chapter 7 petition and receives a discharge. She has kept her mortgages current, but still struggles to make payments post-discharge. Within a few years, she seeks her bankruptcy counsel's advice, and he tells her that she might be able to file a Chapter 13 case to avoid the second mortgage. Should a . . .

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By Daniel M. Tavera, Law Clerk to the Honorable John P. Gustafson, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio (Toledo) Objections to claims may generally be served on the claimant by first-class mail to the person designated to receive notices on the most recent proof of claim for the creditor. This simplifies the service for claim objections for...

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Judicial Year in Review 2021: Revised Rules and Selected Cases – Part 1 Amended Rules

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Practice Point: Just because it is an unsecured claim does not mean that it should be ignored. Review all claims for inappropriate violations and disclosure of personal identifiers! Keep track of serial violators for possible use in future requests for contempt and sanctions. With all of the emphasis these days on transparency and the requirement for more and more information...

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From the Editor – Discharge

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By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Failure to pay postpetition fees under Rule 3002.1 did not prevent discharge. The debtor had completed payments to the trustee and postpetition mortgage payments to the creditor, but she had not paid $1,370 in postpetition fees that had been asserted by the mortgage creditor and noticed to the debtor under Rule 3002.1. That...

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IRS Attempting to Collect on Virtual Currency

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IRS has begun sending letters to virtual currency owners advising them to pay back taxes, file amended returns; part of agency’s larger efforts. On July 26th, the IRS announced that it has begun sending letters to taxpayers with virtual currency transactions that potentially failed to report income and pay the resulting tax from virtual currency transactions or did not report...