By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Junior mortgage lienholder not affected by modifications of senior mortgage. Under Pennsylvania law, the prepetition modification of terms of the senior mortgage had recapitalized interest and costs already owed but had not created new liabilities. As a result, the junior mortgage holder was not materially prejudiced. The Chapter 13 debtors could avoid the...

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) Because its treatment varies so, we need to be asking more pointed questions of clients about both insurance policies and the debtor as beneficiary. Unmatured life insurance Starting with exemptions, §522(d)(7) makes an unmatured life insurance policy exempt without limit. So, the insurance element of a policy owned by the debtor is exempt...

Andrew B. Finberg has been appointed as a Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the District of New Jersey.  Finberg is picking up the mantle left by happily retiring Isabel Balboa.

Introduction This series reviews developments in bankruptcy procedure during 2022. Amendments to 16 rules and one new rule took effect December 1, 2022. Many reflected changes necessitated by the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA),1 and have been in place in the same or similar form on an interim basis since that legislation took effect.

Faced with abusive and serial bankruptcy cases,courts have fashioned various sanctions to put a stop to gaming the system. The favored sanction of the majority of courts is to enter an order of dismissal with prejudice under Section 349(a) of the Bankruptcy Code that adds a condition prohibiting refiling another bankruptcy case for a set period of time. See Lundin...