Ask Ms. Ps & Qs

By Professor Nancy Rapoport

Dear Readers:

In addition to wishing all of you a healthy and happy New Year, this season is also one in which we can show our gratitude for our many blessings. I’m grateful, of course, for family and friends, for a job that I love, and for the opportunity to be able to chat with all of you from afar about ethics issues.

And this month, I’m grateful for the fact that I have a question (well, a series of questions) to answer:

To what extent must . . .

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Separately Classifying Student Loans in Chapter 13

Scott Waterman

May 12, 2024

Big news . . . Sneak peak . . . Coming in July . . . You are gonna want this article (just sayin’) Starting July 1st, Chapter 13 debtors in Federal Student Loan income-driven repayment plans will no longer need to classify their student loans separately to receive IDR credit. Credit towards forgiveness will be awarded for each month of trustee payments, regardless of payments made directly to the Department of Education.

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

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

October 8, 2023

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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Topp – Upending Till??

Jody Bledsoe

August 27, 2023

The Eighth Circuit recently released its Topp opinion. At issue was the appropriate starting point for determining the discount rate to be used when paying secured claims under a chapter 12 plan. The debtor, who had gained confirmation of his plan before the bankruptcy court, proposed paying claims to Farm Credit Services over 20 years at a rate based on the...

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Duty to Disclose Substantial and Unanticipated Changes in Debtor’s Financial Condition

Angela M. Scolforo

December 11, 2022

In the case of In re Ilyev, 17-12987-KHK (Bankr. E.D. VA July 26, 2022), Judge Kenney granted the Chapter 13 Trustee’s motion to modify the plan to require the Debtor to repay some of the $29,250 of disposable income he retained by not making his mortgage payments during an 18-month Covid forbearance. The Debtor never disclosed to the Trustee, or...

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From the Editor

March 31, 2019

By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Debtor’s Attorney - Suspension of firm upheld. The District court affirmed the 90-day suspension of Law Solutions Chicago, LLC (d/b/a UpRight Law, LLC), with the record supporting the bankruptcy court’s findings that the firm failed to adequately represent the debtor in a “simple” consumer case. Disgorgement of fees was appropriate under...

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Critical Case Comment–The Not DSO POC

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

June 5, 2022

The bankruptcy rights of an ex-member of anunmarrieddomestic couple, now separated are not the same as those of an ex-spouse; the language of a domestic arbitration can clearly dictate if property is vested in the ex or is a simple money judgment. (Hamilton) In re Harshaw, 2022 WL 533701 (7th Cir. February 23, 2022) Case Summary Donald Harshaw was married...

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Claim Preclusion and the Opportunities for Mischief

Cathy Moran

March 27, 2022

I’ve been having nightmares about the 9th Circuit’s decision in Siegel for 20 years. Broad strokes, Siegel (143 F.3d 525 (9th Cir. 1998) holds that a filed claim in a no asset bankruptcy case to which no one objects is entitled to preclusive effect in subsequent litigation by . . . It looks like you are not signed in or...

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While Chapter 7 Filings Continue to Decline, Chapter 13 Filings are Trending Slightly Upward

Kevin R. Anderson

April 24, 2022

Recent headlines noted that March 2022 saw a 33.5% increase in bankruptcy filings over February. This could suggest the coming swell in bankruptcy cases anticipated since the start of the COVID pandemic. However, bankruptcy professionals recognize that consumer filings always spike in March (see chart). This phenomenon is usually attributed to the tendency to avoid filing in January and February...

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Ask Ms. Ps & Qs

Nancy B. Rapoport

June 4, 2023

Dear Readers: We’re now at the season where things go a bit wacky, and one thing that can go wacky has to do with people who are represented by counsel who want to talk with you. “Let’s cut out the middleman,” they think. After all, what harm could it be to save time? Plenty of harm, actually: Model Rule 4.2...

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Bankruptcy Lawyer Must Have Otherworldly Powers

Cathy Moran

November 5, 2023

Just for fun . . .

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Related Articles

Separately Classifying Student Loans in Chapter 13

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

Topp – Upending Till??

Duty to Disclose Substantial and Unanticipated Changes in Debtor’s Financial Condition

From the Editor

Critical Case Comment–The Not DSO POC

Claim Preclusion and the Opportunities for Mischief

While Chapter 7 Filings Continue to Decline, Chapter 13 Filings are Trending Slightly Upward

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Bankruptcy Lawyer Must Have Otherworldly Powers

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