Critical Case Comment

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Trustee (Nashville, TN)

Where a mortgage servicer fails to provide a detailed accounting when it disputes a trustee’s notice of final cure payment and fails to provide a timely response to the notice, the failure of the mortgage servicer’s counsel to comply with the deadlines set by the court justifies an award of attorney’s fees and an order precluding the introduction of any contrary information in the bankruptcy case or any subsequent case; the mortgage servicer was precluded from introducing any evidence that the mortgage obligation was not . . .

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Legal Aid and Who Are Our Chapter 13 “Customers”

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By Rachel Jones, Staff Attorney to Chapter 13 Standing Trustee Chris Micale, Western District of Virginia (Roanoke) The events of 2020 have had a devastating impact on the very low-income population. The working poor are struggling, particularly those working in sectors such as hospitality and tourism. State and Federal funding and local programs such as food banks and community action...

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Critical Case Comment–84 Months: Lifesaver or Anchor?

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

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From the Editor

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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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“ . . . practice and procedure accomplishing the lien strip have been slow to evolve since 2017. . . . in the jurisdictions that opted out of usage of the Form 113 Plan, multiple iterations for lien stripping and release are found.”

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From the Editor

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By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Attorney Fees - Chapter 13 debtor’s attorney not entitled to recovery under § 330 of fees that were incurred in defending prior attorneys’ sanctions motion. The debtor’s prior attorneys had sought to impose sanctions on the current attorney, and that attorney successfully defended against sanctions. However, the fees incurred by the...

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Escrow 101 and 102

Michael J. McCormick, Esq.

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In the fall of 2021, Michael McCormick provided subscribers with an EXCELLENT, expository, seven-part outline on mortgage escrow. This information is just as relevant today as when we first published it with one important update . . . When the next escrow analysis is performed and the servicer has received less than 12 payments of escrow (and often zero, as is often the case after the borrower received a forbearance during the COVID pandemic), the escrow balance will be far less than anticipated!!

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Small Business Reorganization Act…(“SBRA”) H.R. 3311 – PART ONE

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By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Hardship discharge denied. Section 1328(b)’s requirements for hardship discharge are conjunctive and failure to satisfy any one of three conditions results in denial. Reviewing judicial decisions on requirements of the statute, the court considered “the extent of a debtor’s accountability and degree of control; the substantiality and foreseeability of the changed circumstances at...

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