By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) Administrative fees and claims existing when Chapter 13 plan was confirmed would reduce the amounts received by unsecured creditors in a Chapter 7 under the “best interests of creditors test;” unsecured creditors, expected to receive payments over three years, must be paid the “present value” of that stream of...

The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2023 (H.R. 3315) enacted on December 19, 2023 extends for an additional four years the existing exemption from the means test for qualifying reservists and National Guard debtors who are called to active duty or to perform a homeland defense activity for not less than 90 days. See 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(2)(D)(i). A debtor...

By Jan Sensenich, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the District of Vermont I think it was in junior high school when I first started wearing glasses. I remember not liking the idea of having to wear glasses. I thought I could see just fine. As far as I knew, I was seeing what I needed to see. But I also...

By James J. Robinson, Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Alabama Is the trustee’s service worth her commission? The Eleventh Circuit recently issued its opinion in In re Dukes, 909 F.3d 1306 (11th Cir. 2018), which spoke primarily to the issue of what it means for a mortgage to be “provided for” in the plan. The court found...

The recent push for student loan forgiveness has been met with increasing opposition. The rationales for not providing a generally applicable path for student loan forgiveness or cancellation have included arguments based upon imagined unfairness to those previously able to pay off their loans, which seems to be both short-sighted, as well as a “red herring” argument. It does not...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Junior mortgage lienholder not affected by modifications of senior mortgage. Under Pennsylvania law, the prepetition modification of terms of the senior mortgage had recapitalized interest and costs already owed but had not created new liabilities. As a result, the junior mortgage holder was not materially prejudiced. The Chapter 13 debtors could avoid the...

By Gretchen D. Holland, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the Greenville/Spartanburg Division of South Carolina Although this is a chapter 11 case, it has chapter 13 implications because the confirmation requirement that a plan be “proposed in good faith and not by any means forbidden by law” is identical in both chapters (§ 1129(a)(3) and § 1325(a)(3)). Garvin v. Cook...

In examining the effect of vesting of property of the estate at confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan, bankruptcy court examines the impact of five different theories on how post-confirmation property is to be treated, settling on the “Estate Replenishment Theory,” but does not decide if the debtors can receive the proceeds. (Fenimore) In re Marsh, 2023 WL 215263 (Bankr....

By Cathy Moran, Esq., Moran Law Group (Redwood City, CA) Chapter 13 debtors got a huge “gift” among the COVID relief provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, signed December 27, 2020 by the president. Debtors may get a full -compliance discharge of dischargeable debts if they have a residential mortgage and have not made all the payments required...

Courts continue to wrestle with the issue of trustee fees in pre-confirmation dismissals. The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois has now weighed in in In re Johnson, 2023 WL 3406597 (Bankr. N.D. Il. 2023).  The facts are pretty typical.  Debtor filed for Chapter 13. After 8 months and 8 confirmation hearings, the Court granted Trustee’s request for...