From the Editor - Conversion • NACTT Academy

From the Editor – Conversion

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired)

Effect of assignment to debtor’s attorney on conversion. Under Harris v. Viegelahn, the trustee is not permitted to continue with prior practice of paying the debtor’s attorney fees when the confirmed case is converted to Chapter 7, notwithstanding a plan provision that provided otherwise. The Harris ruling, although directly addressing payment to prepetition creditors, is broad enough to encompass unpaid Chapter 13 administrative expenses. However, the court observed that Harris imposes a hardship on attorneys representing debtors in Chapter 13 and . . .

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From the Editor – Lien Issues

September 15, 2019

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Legal rate of interest applies after foreclosure judgment. Applying New Jersey common law on merger, the mortgage was merged into a final order of judgment of foreclosure; therefore, the mortgage was no longer the basis for determining post- judgment interest. The debtor obtained a sale from which the mortgage creditor would be paid,...

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Cathy Moran

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I was the third attorney on this lien avoidance matter. Instead of it being “third time’s the charm”, it came close to being “three strikes and you’re out.” All because of FRBP 7041. This was the set up: debtor’s original counsel filed a number of lien avoidance actions, including the one against a landlord with a large default judgment. The...

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January 6, 2019

By Academy Staff In July of 2016 ConsiderChapter13.org posted an article, “Another Arrow in the Quiver of the ‘Less Than Honest Debtor’.” That article addressed a decision of the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in In re Hurt, 2015 WL 9592064 (Bankr. E.D. Tn. 2015), in which the Court overruled the Trustee’s objection to exemptions. In Hurt,...

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Kevin R. Anderson

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With facts and graphs, Judge Anderson discusses lowest filing levels since ’85, the impact of filings on judgeships, weighted caseloads, judicial vacancies, and recall judges.

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Critical Case Comment – Playing the System – Good or Bad Thing??

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

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Chapter 13 debtor that repeatedly fails to maintain payments to the mortgage servicer directly as provided in the original plan and in all amendments is not acting in good faith and has misled the court as to feasibility of the plan justifying dismissal of the case.

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Expiration of Debt Limits

The Academy

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Welp, it doesn’t look like Congress is going to act . . . As you know, Congress temporarily raised the debt limits for Subchapter V and Chapter 13 debtors. These increased debt limits are set to expire on Friday, June 21, 2024. Without further action by Congress, for Chapter 13 filers, the combined unsecured and secured debt limit will fall...

Critical Case Comment – Bad Faith to Not Pay Both Tests?

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

February 27, 2022

Chapter 13 debtor is not obligated to pay both the disposable income pool and the best interest of creditors test pool to achieve confirmation, only the larger of the two; it is not a manifestation of bad faith that the debtor does not pay both the disposable income pool and the best interest of creditors test amounts. (Altenberger) In re...

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Discharging Student Loans Under §523(a)(8)? Don’t Consolidate After Filing!

Scott Waterman, Josh Cohen

November 12, 2023

If you intend to seek to discharge student loans under §523(a)(8), do not consolidate the loans after the case is filed. Prebankruptcy planning is most important if one wishes to discharge student loans. A recent Texas Chapter 7 case highlights the pitfalls if one does not act accordingly. Debtors obtained 27 separate student loans prior to when they filed their...

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