Exempt/Non-Exempt Employees, Law Firms, And Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

By Phil Lamos, Chief Legal Counsel, Office of the Chapter 13 Trustee Craig Shopneck (Cleveland, OH)

On December 1, 2016 new rules will go into effect governing who is entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. These rules will change the amount an employee can earn before they can be considered exempt and thus not entitled to overtime pay.

There are a variety of tests to determine if an employee can be considered exempt. One of these tests is the “standard salary” test; an employee who earns a salary below a certain level . . .

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Critical Case Comment

February 3, 2019

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Trustee for the Middle District of TN (Nashville) Where a Chapter 13 plan provides that a mortgage payment will be paid “outside the plan,” the plan does not “provide for” the mortgage payment and, accordingly, the discharge under § 1328 is not applicable to the mortgage obligation. Dukes v. Suncoast Credit Union, 909...

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The Unintended Filing Bar – Don’t Ignore MFR on Surrendered Property

Molly Simons

June 26, 2022

Consider if you will that your client has just filed a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. They have intelligently chosen to surrender a luxury item - a boat or 4-wheeler or even that extra vehicle they don’t need. Because the creditor would like to preserve the value of the collateral by obtaining possession quickly, they file a Motion for Relief shortly after...

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From the Editor

March 24, 2019

By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Discharge - Direct mortgage payments unpaid by debtor were not “provided for” in plan. The confirmed plan stated that the debtor would directly pay two home mortgages to the credit union, but there was no specification of payment terms or other treatment of those mortgages. At the time of confirmation, the...

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Supreme Court Revisits Finality of Orders in Bankruptcy: Comment on Ritzen and Review of “Finality”

February 9, 2020

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction The Supreme Court unanimously held on January 14 that an order denying stay relief was final in Ritzen Group, Inc. v. Jackson Masonry, LLC.1 Thus, the creditor should have appealed the denial instead of waiting until later in the case to seek again to pursue its pre-bankruptcy litigation against...

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Why Your Bankruptcy Client Doesn’t Understand You (And How to Fix the Problem)

Cathy Moran

August 1, 2023

By Cathy Moran, Moran Law Group (Redwood City, CA) Bankruptcy attorneys and their clients often seem to be a pair, divided by their common language. Even without legal jargon, we talk past each other. How do we misunderstand each other? Let me count the ways: Property: I don’t have any property, lost the house to foreclosure last year. Property 2:...

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Critical Case Comment

March 28, 2021

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) Section 1328(i) requires the court to consider the discharge provisions of §§ 1328(a) through (h) and the fact that incomplete personal residence mortgage payments or a forbearance do not preclude but do not compel a COVID-19 Discharge. (Tighe) In re Ritter, 2021 WL 864092 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. March 5,...

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Spitballing Chapter 13’s Image Makeover

Cathy Moran

January 12, 2025

“Three cheers for Jen Lee’s piece on the need to pitch the manifest strengths of Chapter 13. Her advice to use head-to-head comparisons with alternative approaches to debt for the client is right on. An image makeover for Chapter 13 would be even more powerful if we can spread the word to a broader audience, before they’ve shorted their tax withholding, encumbered their exempt homestead, signed on with a profit-focused ‘debt consolidation’ company, or dipped into their retirement funds.” Think Chapter 13 needs an image makeover? Let us hear from you.

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Honorable Kevin R. Anderson, U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Utah

April 7, 2019

Prior to his appointment as a bankruptcy judge for the District of Utah in September of 2015, Judge Anderson served for seventeen years as the Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the District of Utah. During this time, he administered over 70,000 Chapter 13 cases. Judge Anderson was elected president of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT), and he...

Expiration of Debt Limits

The Academy

June 16, 2024

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...

Electronic Filing Scam Targets Attorneys – NEW INFORMATION

The Academy

November 10, 2024

You may have seen notices that courts across the country have received reports of suspicious emails going to attorneys and law firms purporting to be NEFs. These emails are fraudulent and did not come from the Court. Please do not click on any links or files contained within these emails. Please note that a few courts have reported the phishing emails...