Critical Case Comment

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Trustee

In re Currie, 2015 WL 5474475 (Bankr. C.D. Ill. September 17, 2015) (Gorman)

The full amount of the IRS Local Standards can be deducted from a debtor’s Current Monthly Income in order to determine the debtor’s Projected Disposable Income and if the debtor owns a home, the court is not required to differentiate between a housing/utilities portion and the mortgage/rent portion.

Case Summary

Patricia Currie filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition in July of 2014 and calculated her Projected Disposable Income . . .

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.

“Extreme” Serial Filers

Dana M. Estes

May 4, 2025

Courts reserve refiling bars for egregious conduct. Here Attorney Estes looks at two particularly extreme cases.

Members

Objection: Hearsay

July 12, 2020

By Wayne Silver, Wayne Silver Law (Redwood City, CA) There you are, client on the witness stand, judge listening intently, story being told on direct exactly the way you prepared her, things going just swimmingly. And then opposing counsel stands and utters those two lovely words…”Objection, hearsay.” Huh? That’s ridiculous, you confidently think to yourself, just as you hear the...

Members

The Case for Conduit Mortgage Payments

Max Gardner

January 23, 2022

Max Gardner’s Top Ten Reasons The late Waylon Jennings had a hit song years ago called “Sick and Tired of Getting Up Sick and Tired.” The song related to the chronic consumption of alcohol but the analogy to the need for a mandatory rule for mortgage payments through the Chapter 13 Trustee is not that far-fetched. As a debtor’s attorney...

Members

SBRA – The Sequel: Leases in Bankruptcy Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021

February 21, 2021

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction The Academy has focused at length on the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA).1 SBRA deals on its face with a non-consumer topic, but it is of interest also to Chapter 12 and 13 trustees and debtors, creating a new, more debtor-friendly subchapter V of Chapter 11 for...

Members

Critical Case Comment

July 26, 2020

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville) Chapter 13 debtor may include a provision in the Chapter 13 plan that only estimates the duration of the plan and, absent an objection, such provision would cause the debtor’s plan to terminate and the debtor receive a discharge when the claims have been...

Members

The NCBJ Is Turning 100

The Honorable Deborah L. Thorne, The Honorable Kathy A. Surratt-States

April 21, 2024

Judge Deborah Thorne, NDIL, and Judge Kathy Surratt-States, EDMO, on behalf of the NCBJ’s DEI Committee, have written two articles about some of judicial firsts.

In re Crocker: New Approaches to Discharge Enforcement and Student Loan Dischargeability?

November 17, 2019

By Alexander E. Schmidt, Law Clerk to the Honorable John P. Gustafson (Toledo, OH) As any attorney with an eye for case law can tell you, circuit-level opinions that decide matters of first impression deserve extra attention from practitioners. Not only do these opinions oftentimes illuminate the dark corners of the law, they can also raise or provide answers to...

Members

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

The Academy

February 18, 2024

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

Critical Case Comment– Absolute Right to Dismiss But Not the End of the Story

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

December 5, 2021

Although a Chapter 13 debtor has the absolute right to voluntarily dismiss her Chapter 13 case, even after a motion to convert is filed, the Court retains the rights to impose restrictions on the dismissal. (Waites) In re Brittany Frances Minogue, 2021 WL 4453589 (Bankr. D. S.C. September 29, 2021) Summary Brittany Minogue filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 13...

Members

Critical Case Comment–“No Realistic Future Prospects”

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

March 26, 2023

A 34-year-old Chapter 7 debtor could discharge his student loan obligation by establishing that he could not reasonably make payments on the balance, could not maintain a reasonable standard of living, and because the expiration of his payment term had already passed, his standard of living was likely to persist, with no realistic future prospects. (Silverstein) In re Wolfson, No....

Members