By Merideth Akers, CPA, PHR, Comptroller for Bradford W. Caraway (Birmingham, AL) I have taught Compensation and Benefits to candidates preparing to take the Professional in Human Resources certification exam. These two topics include a great amount of employment law. So, I know just enough about employment law to be scared… or maybe cautious is a better term. I am...

The Bankruptcy Code produces some difficult results. Sometimes those results pass difficult and extend into problematic. The Bankruptcy Court for the District of Idaho crossed well over difficult in In re Clifford, 2022 WL 16727279 (Bankr. D. Id. 2022). The question addressed in Clifford is one that comes up in every Chapter 13 case – how do we calculate “Current...

By Robert (Bob) Schuman, Owner/Managing Broker, Network Financial Group Is it 2008 again? For us in the mortgage industry, we woke up this week feeling as if during the night, we were transported back to 2008 when the mortgage industry basically collapsed. Then, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA were the exceptions. As of March 25, 2020, like everything...

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction As of April 16, 2020, more than 22,000,000 people in the United States were reported to have filed for unemployment aid, "a staggering loss of jobs that has wiped out a decade of employment gains and pushed families to line up at food banks as they await government help."1...

By Jay S. Jump, CEO, CertificateofService.com (Pasco, WA) One of the most important issues in serving your Chapter 13 Plans, Motions to Modify, Motions to Incur, Fee Applications, and other necessary documents served or noticed under the bankruptcy rules is using the most recent Master Mailing List (“MML”) from the Court. Your Court Clerk maintains and updates, on a regular...

The CARES Act, Public Law 116-136 had amended several parts of the Bankruptcy Code, but included sunset provisions terminating March 27, 2021. The COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act of 2021, H.R.1651, passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President on March 27, 2021, extended some provisions for another year. Section 1113 of the CARES Act had amended...

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) Bankruptcy debtors with delinquent utility bills got a measure of protection from interruption in their service under an amendment to the Bankruptcy Code in the omnibus spending bill enacted December 27,2020. Individual debtors cannot have their utilities disconnected as long as they make some payment for service provided promptly after the commencement of...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Separate classification and preferential treatment of student loan debt. The Chapter 13 trustee and debtors’ attorney attempted to change the traditional approach in the District, seeking approval of a permissible fair discrimination in favor of student loan debt in plans so long as the preferential treatment and discrimination was no more than 20%....

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) and William J. Purdy, III, Simmons & Purdy (Soquel, CA) Ever guarantee the debt of another? Ever meet anyone who has? Chances are if you’re in business and the business is a C-corporation, an S-corporation, an LLC, or a partnership, when that business borrows money, the lender will require one or more persons...

(Used with expressed permission from the MI Bankruptcy Journal and the Steven W. Rhodes Consumer Bankruptcy Conference) III. Contrasting the Majority and Minority Interpretations The majority and minority approaches differ as to (1) the interpretation of the use of "collect" in § 586(e); (2) the operative effect of parallel provisions in chapters 11 and 12 on the interpretation of §...