Misconceptions & Muddied Waters: Are Student Loan Discharge Standards Any Clearer?

By Natalie Scott, The Scott Law Group

Two recent decisions in our circuit may have offered the first “break” for student loan debtors in years. In April, the Ninth Circuit BAP issued In re Roth, 490 BR 908 (9th Cir BAP 2013). In May, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided a case I’ve worked on for years, Hedlund v. Educational Resources Inst., Inc., 718 F3d 848 (9th Cir 2013).

Both decisions allowed debtors to discharge student loan debt. Roth reversed a bankruptcy court’s denial of discharge in a case . . .

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Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste: The Bankruptcy Amendments in the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2021

January 10, 2021

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Trustee (Nashville, TN) Other than a recluse without any information of current events, we have been made fully aware of the fact that Congress was fashioning a second stimulus/COVID relief bill. The result is the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021; a massive bill with more than 5,300 pages governing a huge expanse of appropriations,...

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Creditors’ Rights and Debtors’ Protections at the Intersection of Consumer Bankruptcy and UCC Article 9

November 29, 2020

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) PART VI – CONSUMER FORECLOSURE PROCEDURES (CONCLUSION) Introduction In the consumer bankruptcy field, trustees and debtors' counsel often are uncomfortable with the rules in Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). In this series for the NACTT Academy, we have looked at numerous topics involving the interplay of Article...

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The Hanging Paragraph – Hanging on Every Word Part 1 of 4

June 14, 2020

By Anthony J. Gomez, CPA, former extern to the Honorable John P. Gustafson, Northern District of Ohio at Toledo I. Cramdown Pursuant to 11 U.S.C. §1325(a)(5)(B) Section 1325(a) sets forth the requirements for a court to confirm a chapter 13 bankruptcy plan. In respect to each secured claim provided for in a plan, 11 U.S.C. §1325(a)(5) provides the following three...

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Meet a Newish Trustee

January 24, 2021

On October 1, 2019, John G. Jansing was appointed Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Southern District of Ohio at Dayton. John took over from Jeff Kellner, who retired and moved to New Hampshire. John had some great mentors: Herb Beskin in Charlottesville, Marge Burks in Cincinnati and Faye English in Columbus. John toured Herb’s office in January 2020 and...

2019 Legislation Affecting Bankruptcy Practice

August 18, 2019

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) PART I Overview Introduction Four bankruptcy-related bills have been passed by both the House and the Senate this term. The legislation was sent to the President for signature on August 13, 2019.1 The bills were not controversial and had bipartisan support. The legislation affects both business and consumer cases. One...

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Best Practices in Bankruptcy: Power of Attorney or Guardian

Michael B. Joseph

June 12, 2022

It is always troublesome when an individual bankruptcy petition is filed by power of attorney. It may be less of a concern in a chapter 7 case when the debtor is in the military, incarcerated, or temporarily disabled. More worrisome is the incompetent or advanced aged debtor who has been placed in a chapter 13 by someone holding a power...

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Meet a New Trustee

The Academy

December 19, 2021

One of our very newest trustees is very familiar to many of us. After serving ten years as Chief of Staff (a/k/a Staff Attorney) to Martha Bronitsky, on August 1, 2021, Nima Ghazvini was appointed Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Districts of Hawaii, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands. What you may not know is that Ghazvini was born in...

A Guide to the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 – Revised June 2022

Paul W. Bonapfel

November 9, 2022

Click here to see PDF – SBRA Guide June 2022 Compilation FINAL Click here to see PDF – SBRA May-June Supplement Final

From the Editor – Debtor’s Attorney

May 17, 2020

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) No attorney fees for Chapter 7 work in converted case. In a case that began as Chapter 7 and converted to Chapter 13, the debtor’s attorney sought fees for work in the Chapter 7 phase under § 330(a)(4)(B) rather than § 330(a)(1). The Court found the better interpretation of § 330(a)(4)(B)’s language “in...

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4 Reasons to Keep Time Records No One Discusses

Cathy Moran

July 17, 2022

Mention keeping time records to a bankruptcy lawyer and you’re likely met with expressions of utter revulsion. All too many assert that the major appeal of being a bankruptcy lawyer is precisely that they don’t have to keep time. Between flat fee deals with clients, and no look fees in Chapter 13, they feel liberated from the clock and the...

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