Supreme Court Corner: Re Wood and Henderson, 210 U.S. 246 (1908)

By M. Jonathan Hayes

Issue: Where the Bankruptcy Code gives “the court” power to re-examine (and avoid) prepetition transactions between the debtor and his attorneys, may the bankruptcy referee do that in a summary proceeding even when the attorneys are outside of the state and not subject to personal jurisdiction in the state?

Holding: Yes.
Justice William R. Day, 6-3
Brewer dissenting, joined by Peckham and Moody

The debtor gave his attorneys $9,775 “in contemplation of the filing of a petition in bankruptcy against him, within four months of the filing thereof, for legal services to be . . .

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Pump the Brakes: Bad Faith Debtors Are Not Gaming the System (Part II)

January 27, 2019

By Kathryne M. Shaw1 Boleman Law Firm, P.C. (Virginia Beach, VA) Click here for Part 1 In Part I of this article, we reviewed In re Holman, in which the debtors violated their confirmation order and exhibited bad faith . . . It looks like you are not signed in or registered! This content is only available to members. Join...

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Weighted Caseload: Why It Matters and How It Works and Doesn’t Work

Honorable Brian D. Lynch

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“Currently, if a district’s weighted caseload is below one-thousand per the number of judges in that district . . . in all probability, recommend that the circuit not replace the judge.”

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Critical Case Comment – Objection to Entire Housing Allowance Overruled

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

March 3, 2024

This is a potential BIGGIE . . . Where a Chapter 13 debtor incurs one relatively small expense covered by the IRS Local Standards, the debtor is entitled to deduct from CMI the entire allowance to calculate Projected Disposable Income.

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Critical Case Comment – Gotta’ Be Purchase Money to Get the Deduction

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

October 15, 2023

A little bit for everyone in this case . . .In calculating above-median income debtor’s projected disposable income, Chapter 13 debtor may not deduct the “ownership allowance” for transportation expenses if the secured debt in question is secured by a nonpurchase money security interest in a motor vehicle.

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Ask Ms. Ps & Qs

September 27, 2020

By Professor Nancy Rapoport Dear Readers: The Academy staff has raised an important issue: Given the mental health issues associated with the pandemic, what should someone do when he or she sees a colleague lawyer in distress? Before we get to the ethics implications, let’s talk about the mental health issue itself. When people are under great stress, they try...

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Two Supreme Court Decisions with Effects on Bankruptcy Practice

March 1, 2020

By William Houston Brown, Adviser, Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education, Inc. and Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown and Ahern (Nashville, TN) In two February opinions, the Supreme Court addressed issues that appear in bankruptcy cases, one dealing with a common practice of entering nunc pro tunc orders and the other affecting determination of property rights under state law. In a...

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The Effect of “Success” (Or the Lack of It) on Attorneys’ Fees

Lawrence R. Ahern, III

September 18, 2022

Appendix A 1994 Revised Text of 11 U.S.C. § 330(a), with 2005's Minor Changes Highlighted(1994 version highlighted to show additions and deletions in 2005) (a)(1) After notice to the parties in interest and the United States Trustee and a hearing, and subject to sections 326, 328, and 329, the court may award to a trustee, a consumer privacy ombudsman appointed...

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Supreme Court Agrees to Revisit Finality of Orders in Bankruptcy

May 26, 2019

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...

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Less Than 100% Dividend Can a Chapter 13 Plan be Paid off Early?

April 21, 2019

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...

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Of Grace Periods and Mortgage Payments

Cathy Moran

January 23, 2022

The no man's land between the mortgage due date and late payment is a persistent trouble spot for Chapter 13 practitioners. Are there arrears when the case is filed during the grace period and the payment made before it was late? In Borre, Judge Ronald Sargis of ED CA said no. He held that the payment was not in default...

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