From the Editor – Best Interests of Creditors Test

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

Debtors’ attorney fees are not deductible costs for hypothetical liquidation. The debtors valued nonexempt assets and deducted their Chapter 13 attorney fees, and the trustee’s objection to confirmation asserted that the fees were not part of the hypothetical Chapter 7 liquidation calculation. The court agreed, after reviewing factors in the best interests test. The plan proposed to pay Chapter 13 attorney fees and nothing to unsecured creditors. Although Chapter 7 administrative expenses are included in the hypothetical calculation, subtracting Chapter 13 attorney fees would be contrary to Tenth . . .

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.

Related Articles

July 28, 2019
By Robert (Bob) Schuman, Owner/Managing Broker, Network Financial Group I’m a mortgage broker. In that role, I see close up the immense relief that a homeowner feels when they file Chapter 13. They are no longer forced to deal with collection calls and a multitude of letters that are aggressive and intimidating, threatening to take their car, foreclose on their...
Photo 2 2019 second
September 11, 2022
The Mississippi Bankruptcy Court in The Huntington National Bank vs. Ashley Mosby, case #21-11614, adversary case #21-1028, on September 1, 2022, denied the bank’s request to declare a debt non-dischargeable because the bank did not rely upon the debtor’s false statement. In this case the Debtor purchased a 2020 Dodge Challenger, financed by the bank, without disclosing she intended to...
Members
rummler
May 21, 2023
(The DuPage County Bar Association grants permission to reprint all or part of this article, Chapter 13 Saves the World! by Arthur Rummler, Volume 29, Issue 9, May 2017 edition of the DCBA Brief. Copyright 2017, DCBA Brief, All Rights Reserved.) We are pleased to reprint an article referred to recently by Director Twomey of the Executive Office for United...
September 20, 2020
By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Debt buyer was debt collector under FDCPA. The Ninth Circuit agreed with the Third Circuit that an entity purchasing consumer debts qualified as a debt collector under the Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692(a)(6), even though it outsourced the actual debt collection activity. McAdory v. M.N.S. & Assoc., LLC, 952 F.3d 1089 (9th Cir....
Members
January 20, 2019
By John P. Gustafson, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Ohio, Western Division (Toledo, OH) Click here for Part 1 of 6 Click here for Part 2 of 6 Click here for Part 3 of 6
Members
February 17, 2019
By Veronica D. Brown-Moseley, Boleman Law Firm, P.C. (Virginia Beach, VA) Many things can, and often do, change between the time debtors file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition and the end of their case. A variety of circumstances impact a debtor’s ability to afford their Chapter 13 plan payments, including but not limited to: medical problems, disability, loss of employment,...
Members
February 9, 2020
By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Unreasonable fees for proof of claim. $4,000 fee for private mortgagee’s proof of claim and objection to proposed plan was unreasonable, and creditor was denied recovery of $7,500 attorney fee for responding to debtor’s objection to proof of claim. The Court considered Fannie Mae’s guidelines for maximum fees related to proof of claim...
Members
March 15, 2020
By Scott Waterman, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Reading) Citing Pennsylvania law, a Federal District Court in In re Hamilton (Hamilton v. Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency), ___ B.R. ____ (E.D. Pa. 2020) refused to apply the equitable subordination doctrine to reorder the priority of mortgages after the first mortgage lender granted the debtors a loan modification prior...
Members
August 8, 2021
By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Trustee, Middle District of TN (Nashville) Chapter 13 trustee is not compelled to return the percentage fee taken from a Chapter 13 case when the case is dismissed prior to confirmation. Harmon v. McCallister, 2021 WL 3087744 (9th Cir. BAP July 20, 2021) (Gan) Case Summary Douglas and Christine Harmon filed a Chapter...
Members
June 14, 2020
By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Attorney sanctioned for filing identical schedules in two cases without updating financial information. The same attorney represented a debtor in two cases filed sixteen months apart, but the attorney filed essentially identical schedules in both cases, violating Rule 9011 by failing to make reasonable inquiry before filing the second case. The schedules in...
Members