By Peter Fessenden, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee, Retired September 30, 2017 (Portland, ME) To everything there is a season. There was a time to discover how little I knew about being a Chapter 13 trustee. There was a time to make mistakes. There was a time to address those mistakes. There was a time to solve problems. There was a...

Larry Ahern this week begins a two-part examination of whether a Chapter 13 trustee may retain fees paid without a confirmed plan before dismissal. Part 1 is a detailed analysis of McCallister v. Evans, a recent case accepting the trustee's position considering a division in the caselaw and analyzing in detail the relevant statutes. May the Chapter 13 Trustee Keep...

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...

By Veronica D. Brown-Moseley and Stephen F. Relyea1 The automatic stay serves as a shield that immediately protects debtors in bankruptcy and their property from a host of creditor collection actions ranging from foreclosure, repossession, and garnishment to collection letters and phone calls. In most instances, the filing of a bankruptcy case forces creditors to cease all collection actions and...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of TN (Nashville) The automatic stay does not require a creditor pursuing a prepetition nonbankruptcy court action to dismiss that action once a bankruptcy case is filed; requesting continuances and attending status conferences do not constitute “continuation” of the prepetition action for purposes of the automatic stay....

By Joseph A. Bledsoe, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Eastern District of North Carolina (New Bern) Under section 1113(b)(1)(C) of the CARES Act, upon the request of a debtor, and after notice and a hearing, a plan confirmed may be extended up to 7 years from the date the first payment under the original plan came due if...

By Daniel M. Tavera, Law Clerk to the Honorable John P. Gustafson, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio (Toledo) Objections to claims may generally be served on the claimant by first-class mail to the person designated to receive notices on the most recent proof of claim for the creditor. This simplifies the service for claim objections for...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III and Sloan Hastings Section 523(a)(1) excepts from discharge taxes that are priority claims under § 507(a)(8). One of § 507(a)(8)’s provisions makes debts not dischargeable for income taxes requiring the filing of a tax return due during the three years prior to filing bankruptcy. It is this “recent years taxes nondischargeable” moniker that leads many...

A new day is coming to high debt borrowers seeking to file Chapter 13 but confounded by the debt limits imposed by 11 U.S.C. § 109(e). Although debt limits have been increasing since the effective date of the Code in 1979, consumer debts have been increasing at a far more rapid rate. Starting in 2009, when the housing crisis first...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville) Chapter 13 debtor may include a provision in the Chapter 13 plan that only estimates the duration of the plan and, absent an objection, such provision would cause the debtor’s plan to terminate and the debtor receive a discharge when the claims have been...