Educational Webinars

One of the most popular benefits of Academy membership is the recorded and archived webinar library. Complete access to all webinars (including the Staff Training Library) is a benefit of Academy membership.

Getting Ready for the New POC Forms is now available. This 90 minute webinar is a must see. Trustee Deb Miller and Attorney Michael McCormick did a stellar job of blitzing through . . .

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Here’s What People Should Know About Taking Early Withdrawals from Retirement Plans

April 21, 2019

Taxpayers may need to take money out of their individual retirement account or retirement plan early. However, this can trigger an additional tax on top of other income tax they may owe. Here are a few key things for taxpayers to know: Early Withdrawals. An early withdrawal normally is taking cash out of a retirement plan before the taxpayer is...

Mary Ida Townson Appointed U.S. Trustee for Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Guy A. Van Baalen

January 2, 2022

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland recently appointed Mary Ida Townson as the U.S. Trustee for Florida, Georgia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (Region 21). Ms. Townson assumed her duties in June and replaced Nancy Gargula, who is the U.S. Trustee in Region 10 and who had served as the interim U.S. Trustee in Region 21...

Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Student Loans and Act Introduced by Senators Durbin and Cornyn

August 8, 2021

by William Houston Brown, Adviser, Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education, Inc. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on August 3, 2021, on student loans, and during the Committee hearing, Senator Durbin, Chair of the Committee, stated that he would be introducing an Act to amend student loan discharge provisions in the Bankruptcy Code. That Act was subsequently introduced by...

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Small Business Chapter 11 Update, Where Are We Eight Months In?

November 22, 2020

By M. Jonathan Hayes We are now eight months into the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, which took effect in February. The act attempted to establish a cheaper, quicker route for small businesses to reorganize under new Subchapter V of the bankruptcy code. Here are a few of my observations over the past several months. First, some small businesses...

From the Editor – Dismissal

August 2, 2020

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Dismissal with 180-day bar affirmed. The debtors had filed eight Chapter 13 cases over eight years, with each dismissed, and in 2019 the spouses filed three more cases. A mortgage creditor moved for relief from the automatic stay and dismissal in each of the cases. The cases were dismissed with a 180-day bar...

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ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy – Statement of Intention: Deadlines and Consequences

June 23, 2019

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III and Sloan Hastings Section 521(a)(7) requires a chapter 7 debtor to file a statement of intention for “debts secured by the property of the estate.” The debtor must choose to (1) reaffirm the debt, (2) surrender the collateral, or (3) redeem the collateral. Reaffirming the debt contractually binds the debtor to pay the debt even...

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Did You Really Rely Upon That?

Angela M. Scolforo

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...

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How My Law Firm Learned to Stop Leaving Money on the Table Part 2 – The “Other Appropriate Relief” of Rule 3001

Mark C. Leffler

May 8, 2022

At my firm, we see a lot of consumers who have some combination of high debt and low income. Many of them arrive for their consultations after having been abused by debt collectors and predatory lenders, harmed by mortgage servicing errors, or subjected to inaccurate and derogatory credit reporting. Until fairly recently, after filing bankruptcies for these folks, we usually...

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From the Editor – Lien Issues

September 15, 2019

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Manufactured home did not become accession to real property. The creditor holding security interest in a manufactured home objected to confirmation, on the basis that § 1322(b)(2)’s anti-modification provision prevented bifurcation of its claim into secured and unsecured parts. The Eighth Circuit noted that the Bankruptcy Code does not resolve the issue of...

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Complete Termination of The Automatic Stay Under §362(c)(3)(A) According to the First Circuit

March 3, 2019

By Carri Hayden Johnson, Staff Attorney to O. Byron Meredith, Chapter 13 Trustee (Savannah, GA) The filing of a bankruptcy petition acts as a stay of certain actions against the debtor or the debtor’s property. The automatic stay is essentially the fundamental reason that a debtor seeks relief in the form of bankruptcy, as it allows the debtor a brief...

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