So You Want To Use Respa, N’est-Ce Pas?

By Debra L. Miller and John Gustafson

Qualified Written Requests – Powerful Discovery Is There For The Asking.

“RESPA” is an acronym for the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, passed by Congress in 1974. The full Act is found in Title 12, Chapter 27 of the United States Code. See, 12 U.S.C. §§2601 – 2617. The amount that a lender can collect as a monthly escrow is governed by RESPA.

The overall Act had, as its initial purpose, preventing undisclosed kickbacks, and other practices that interfered with transparency and legitimate price competition.

First we will focus . . .

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Escrow 102 – Part 3 of 4

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By Michael J. McCormick, Esq., McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLC (Roswell, GA) Escrow 101 – Part 1 Escrow 101 – Part 2 Escrow 101 – Part 3 Escrow 102 – Part 1

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Is Nunc Pro Tunc Really Sunk?

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By James M. Davis, Staff Attorney to Chapter 13 Standing Trustee Henry E. Hildebrand, III (Nashville, TN) Bankruptcy Courts take determinations from the Supreme Court seriously. And rightfully so. But sometimes, some bankruptcy courts are guilty of reading too much into the Court’s statements. The latest example is the soul searching around “nunc pro tunc” (“now for then”) orders. Earlier...

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Ask Ms. Ps & Qs

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Dear Readers: We are all working at what feels like the speed of light these days. (And if we’re not, then we’re upset that work is too slow. Yes, we feel like Goldilocks—work’s either too busy or not busy enough.) But the wonderful Regina has asked me a question that often relates to someone hitting “send” too soon: “When opposing...

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Henry E. Hildebrand, III

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Is an Unemployment Compensation Payment Exempt?

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Mark C. Leffler

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At my firm, we see a lot of consumers who have some combination of high debt and low income. Many of them arrive for their consultations after having been abused by debt collectors and predatory lenders, harmed by mortgage servicing errors, or subjected to inaccurate and derogatory credit reporting. Until fairly recently, after filing bankruptcies for these folks, we usually...

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Cathy Moran

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If all the children in Lake Woebegon are above average, all the small businesses our clients run are quite valuable.If the Chapter 13 trustee is asking the question, anyway. I rail when the Chapter 13 trustee’s business questionnaire asks, “how much would you sell your business for.” Phrased that way, the question implicates all kinds of facts that aren’t in...

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Retirement of the Honorable John E. Hoffman, Jr., Chief Judge

The Academy

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New Judge Appointed

The Academy

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Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit have appointed J. Barrett Marum as the next bankruptcy judge on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California.

Hanging Paragraph, Cars for Non-Personal Use, and PMSI

November 3, 2019

By Gretchen Holland, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the Greenville/Spartanburg Division of South Carolina The hanging paragraph of § 1325(a)(9) prevents bifurcation of a PMSI claim if the collateral securing it was purchased within certain time periods prepetition. A 910-day limitation applies to motor vehicles acquired for the debtor’s personal use. A one-year limitation applies to all other PMSI collateral,...

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