Is The Chapter 13 “Super Discharge” Still Super?

By Megan E. Craig, Southwestern Law School, J.D. Candidate 2015

What can make Chapter 13 a super choice for a debtor? The super discharge! Common causes of bankruptcy include debt from divorce, an accident, traffic tickets, payments on taxes, or a previously filed bankruptcy. 1 What a relief for debtors that many of these debts, while non-dischargeable in a Chapter 7, remain dischargeable in a Chapter 13.

Indeed, the super discharge still has some life left despite the passage of the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention Consumer Protection Act that narrowed its scope . . .

It looks like you are not signed in or registered! This content is only available to members.

Or Sign In Below:

No Author Biography has been linked to this Article.

First Principles for First Meetings

October 11, 2020

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) Once again, I sat in a 341 meeting where the trustee’s representative purported to deliver vital information to the assembled debtors. She had a captive audience of anxious listeners. She had ostensible power of life and death over their financial future. They needed to know what she had to say. But as communication,...

Members

New Payment Option Available to Taxpayers in Private Debt Collection Program

October 13, 2019

IRS officials announced on 10/8/19 that a new payment option has been added to the private debt collection program to make it easier for those who owe to pay their tax debts. Taxpayers now can choose the convenient option of a preauthorized direct debit to make one payment or a series of payments toward their federal tax debt. With direct...

Members

The Government Shutdown and Chapter 13 Plan Arrearages – What Do We Do Now?

January 21, 2019

By Jan M. Sensenich, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the District of Vermont As we reach the end of the first month of the partial government shutdown, with no end in sight, 800,000 federal workers have started missing their paychecks. As the shutdown continues, Chapter 13 trustees are weighing how best to address the inevitable question from federal government employee...

Members

The Day the Music Died

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

May 8, 2022

I never set out to be a bankruptcy lawyer, much less a trustee. It was always my intent to be trial lawyer. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and the captive audience of a jury; having to think fast on your feet was exciting. Facing jurors and witnesses with a modicum of confidence was what my view of...

Reaffirmations Impose Impossible Demands on Bankruptcy Counsel

February 28, 2021

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) When BAPCA gutted the ipso facto clause, reaffirmation was left as the only way a debtor could be assured of retaining his wheels. Car lenders took sides back then, then changed sides, on whether they would automatically repossess a vehicle when the debt was not reaffirmed. Some wanted the in terrorem effect of...

Members

Navigating Secured Creditors Who File Unsecured Chapter 13 Claims

October 31, 2021

By Eric K. Fox, Esq. (Hendersonville, TN) Jane Debtor has a home with a mortgage. An unsecured creditor obtains a judgment against Jane for, say, a credit card debt. Creditor’s attorney records a certified copy of the judgement order with the county register of deeds, thereby converting the unsecured claim against Jane in personam, to a secured claim against her...

Members

Beyond Professional Ethics

July 25, 2021

By Merideth Akers, CPA, PHR, Comptroller forBradford W. Caraway (Birmingham, AL) I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Professional in Human Resources (PHR). I suspect that many who read this article are Licensed Attorneys. Others may hold a certification from other professions. These entities have their own rules of professional ethics and conduct that govern what we are...

Members

Critical Case Comment – Nothing Requires a Plan to Provide for All Secured Claims

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

December 12, 2021

If a Chapter 13 plan makes no provision for a mortgage obligation, omits any treatment of the mortgage claims, and prohibits the Trustee from making disbursements toward the claims, the claims are not provided for by the plan and the plan can be confirmed over the objection of the creditor and the trustee; nothing requires a plan to provide for...

Members

Court Supervised Student Loan Modification

July 7, 2019

By Robert B. Branson and Tammy Branson, Branson Law PLLC (Orlando, FL) On June 10, 2019, Chief Judge Michael Williamson entered Administrative Order 2019-1 Prescribing Procedures for Student Loan Modification Program “SLP” in the Middle District of Florida, which goes into effect August 1, 2019. The SLP Program was a district-wide effort created with input from all three divisions of...

Members

U.S. Trustee Fee Unconstitutional

The Honorable William Houston Brown

June 12, 2022

On June 6, the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in Siegel v. Fitzgerald1 held that the increase in U.S. Trustee fees in Chapter 11 cases violated the uniformity requirement of the Constitution’s Bankruptcy Clause,2 because the fee increase in 2017 only applied to in the U.S. Trustee districts and didn’t apply to the Bankruptcy Administrator districts in Alabama and North Carolina....