New Bankruptcy Judge Appointment

D. Sims Crawford was appointed as the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division in 2004, after serving as the Trustee’s Staff Attorney for 7 years. Before that, he was engaged in the private practice of law in Birmingham, Alabama. He earned his B.A. from the University of Alabama and his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law. He served as Chair for the Bankruptcy & Commercial Law Section of the Birmingham Bar Association in 2007 and served on the Board of the Birmingham Bar Foundation in 2008-2009. Mr. Crawford currently serves as President of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT), as well as a member of its Due Process Committee and Liaison Committee. He is on the Advisory Board for Epiq Systems, Inc., is certified as a Professional in Human Resources (PHR), is certified in Training and Development, and is a member of the American Bar Association. Mr. Crawford has been selected and approved to serve as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Alabama beginning September 1, 2016 with a duty station in his home town of Birmingham, Alabama.

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2019 Legislation Affecting Bankruptcy Practice – Part VI

December 8, 2019

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Part VI Two Things Debtors Should Know About the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA), Including a Primer on Chapter 11 Confirmation Introduction This series focuses on four bankruptcy-related bills that were enacted during the 116th Congress and signed into law on August 23, 2019.1 One bill, the Small...

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The Complex World of Interspousal Claims in Bankruptcy

Cathy Moran

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Traps and grey areas abound when one spouse files bankruptcy during or after a divorce. Inattention by the non-filing spouse can result in the bankruptcy discharge of spousal claims that might actually be nondischargeable. One of those traps involves the differing treatment in bankruptcy of debts to a former spouse incurred in the course of a divorce (Bankruptcy Code §523(a)15))...

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From the Editor – Plan Modification

June 7, 2020

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) HAVEN Act applied to modification when plan was confirmed prior to Act becoming law. The debtor proposed a plan modification deleting from disposable income $1,789 monthly VA disability benefits. First concluding that the HAVEN Act was applicable law at time of this decision, nothing in the Act, its legislative history or the Official...

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Remember, Landlords Are Sacred Cows in Bankruptcy

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By M. Jonathan Hayes, Resnik Hayes Moradi LLP (Los Angeles, CA) (Reprinted with permission. Originally published by the Los Angeles Daily Journal on May 20, 2021) We have been getting a lot of calls recently as you might expect from distressed small businesses. The “free” government money is starting to run out and panic is setting in. The potential client...

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Critical Case Comment–Be Careful What You Stipulate

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

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Where a stipulation of a settlement of an objection to confirmation provided that a creditor’s claim would be “excepted from discharge pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(6)”, the stipulation would not prevent the discharge of the claim based upon a breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with business relations, unfair competition, defamation, and conversion which resulted in a state jury...

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Ask Ms. Ps & Qs

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By Professor Nancy Rapoport Dear Readers: The Academy staff has raised an important issue: Given the mental health issues associated with the pandemic, what should someone do when he or she sees a colleague lawyer in distress? Before we get to the ethics implications, let’s talk about the mental health issue itself. When people are under great stress, they try...

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Bankruptcy Courts Grapple with the “COVID-19 Discharge” – Appendix B

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Critical Case Comment–“No Realistic Future Prospects”

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

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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....

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Measuring Success in Chapter 13: Successful Dismissals and Conversions

Honorable Brian D. Lynch

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A. Introduction When should we regard dismissal or conversion of a chapter 13 as an unsuccessful bankruptcy? The arguments are familiar.Chapter 13 is the easiest, quickest, and cheapest way to stop foreclosures, repossessions, and garnishments by creditors.Desperate debtors can file a chapter 13 case without schedules, statements, or a plan and buy themselves a stay for a short period. And...

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Thoughts on the Law: Stay at the Crossroads – The Code of the Wild, Wild West?

February 23, 2020

By The Honorable John P. Gustafson, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Ohio (Toledo) There are two legal battles going on that may end up being dysfunctionally related…. 1. What Happens If The Automatic Stay Is Not Extended In A “Second Case Pending Within One Year”? A split of authority has been percolating since 2005, involving the all too...

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