From the Editor – Priority Claims

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

Attorney fee judgment was domestic support obligation and priority claim. The Chapter 13 debtor objected to the priority claim filed by ex-husband, but the debt arose from a prepetition contested determination of child custody in state court. The state court entered judgment for $20,000 for the ex-husband’s attorney fees to be paid by the debtor. Citing prior circuit authority on attorney fees and factors applied to the determination, the fees in this case were incurred in a three-day trial over custody, after which custody . . .

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