How Do You Write a Book?

By Elizabeth Vaughan, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Northern District of Ohio (Toledo)

I get asked this question on a regular basis. It took me a while to figure out the answer.

And of course, the answer is a story.

I remember the long hot days of summer when I was a kid. Cookouts in the back yard, a small plastic pool filled with water, spraying my brothers with the hose. We’d have hamburgers and hotdogs and pop. Then my Dad would bring out the ice-cream maker.

Now this is back in the old days . . .

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The PUMP Act

Mark T. McCarty

June 11, 2023

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released an updated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Minimum Wage Poster that covers employers’ new lactation accommodation obligations under the recently passed Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act. The PUMP Act went into effect on December 29, 2022 and requires employers to provide nursing employees with reasonable accommodations, such as...

In Re Carter: A Hard Case (Maybe) Making Bad Law?

Owen W. Katz

May 21, 2023

Chapter 13 plans and confirmation orders will occasionally include post-confirmation disclosure and turnover requirements for tax returns and refunds and for other types of post-petition recoveries and income. Debtors are expected, on their own and without the need for rigorous trustee oversight, to fulfill the turnover requirements as a condition of plan completion and discharge. What happens when the case...

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Critical Case Comment – Although a Mess, Month-to-Month Lease Assumed

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

June 4, 2023

A month-to-month residential lease can be assumed and defaults cured in a Chapter 13 plan. (Rucker) In re Mattoon, 2022 WL 2080184 (Bankr. E.D. Tenn. June 9, 2022) Case Summary Sarah Mattoon executed a lease with Open Doors in September of 2019. Several of Ms. Mattoon’s family members lived with her in the rented apartment including her “companion” and her...

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Meet the First Black Woman to Serve as Chief Judge for Federal Bankruptcy Court in Cleveland

The Academy

February 4, 2024

February is Black History Month and it’s a time to recognize the past but also honor those who are achieving great things today.

Conflicting Interpretations: A Chapter 13 Trustee’s Compensation After Pre-Confirmation Dismissal or Conversion*Part 1 of 3

Brittani Bushman

January 30, 2022

(Used with expressed permission from the MI Bankruptcy Journal and the Steven W. Rhodes Consumer Bankruptcy Conference) I. Introduction Although the Bankruptcy Code has been around for decades, bankruptcy courts continue to be faced with significant disputes regarding the interpretation of its provisions. An emerging issue that has gained traction in recent years involves the compensation of a chapter 13...

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The Long Reach of R. 3002.1

Cathy Moran

August 20, 2023

What are the consequences of a secured lender’s failure to comply with R. 3002.1 in a prior case when the debtor files again? Significant, it seems. . . . since their attorney said he “didn’t see the need” to do so. [Can you guess, now, how this comes out?]

Members

From the Editor – Claims

June 21, 2020

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Recordation of divorce judgment created secured claim. In Chapter 13 case, the debtor objected to former spouse’s secured claim, with pre-bankruptcy divorce judgment awarding former marital home to the husband but ordering equalization payments to the wife. No security was mentioned in the judgment, but its recordation created a lien under Wisconsin law....

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Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste: The Bankruptcy Amendments in the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2021

January 10, 2021

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Trustee (Nashville, TN) Other than a recluse without any information of current events, we have been made fully aware of the fact that Congress was fashioning a second stimulus/COVID relief bill. The result is the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021; a massive bill with more than 5,300 pages governing a huge expanse of appropriations,...

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How to Build and Strengthen Your Chapter 13 Debtor Practice

The NACTT Emeritus Trustees

July 3, 2022

In these times of fewer case filings, it may be helpful to look at ways that debtor attorneys may build and strengthen their chapter 13 bankruptcy practice. The following are some recommendations and ideas from the Emeritus Trustee Committee:

Chapter 13 Saves the World!

The Academy

May 21, 2023

(The DuPage County Bar Association grants permission to reprint all or part of this article, Chapter 13 Saves the World! by Arthur Rummler, Volume 29, Issue 9, May 2017 edition of the DCBA Brief. Copyright 2017, DCBA Brief, All Rights Reserved.) We are pleased to reprint an article referred to recently by Director Twomey of the Executive Office for United...