By Angela M. Scolforo, Staff Attorney to Herbert L. Beskin, Chapter 13 Trustee for the Western District of Virginia Since January 2019 alone there have been about 250 student loan discharge cases decided in the federal courts.1 One site reports that student loan debt in the United States totals $1.73 trillion, across 43.2 million borrowers, and the debt is growing6...

A Chapter 13 plan can be confirmed to pay a 100% dividend to unsecured creditors while maintaining payments to a student loan creditor as a long-term debt (which will not satisfy the student loan in the commitment period) without committing all available disposable income. (Mullin) In re Victoria Florita Durand-Day, 2022 WL 14938726 (Bankr. N.D. Tex. October 26, 2022) Case...

Even though the Model Plan in the district provides that the applicable commitment period starts from confirmation, the debtor may not apply pre-confirmation payments toward payments made during the applicable commitment period but must apply those payments in addition to the applicable commitment period payments. (Applebaum) In re Batoha, 2022 WL 1310943 (Bankr. E.D. Mich. May 2, 2022) Case Summary...

Appendix A 1994 Revised Text of 11 U.S.C. § 330(a), with 2005's Minor Changes Highlighted(1994 version highlighted to show additions and deletions in 2005) (a)(1) After notice to the parties in interest and the United States Trustee and a hearing, and subject to sections 326, 328, and 329, the court may award to a trustee, a consumer privacy ombudsman appointed...

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...

By Michael J. McCormick, Esq., McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLC (Roswell, GA) Official Form 410A1 On December 1, 2015, Official Form 410A (herein, “Form 410A” or “the Form”) became effective. This attachment to the proof of claim is only required if the loan is secured by the debtor’s principal residence. In addition to a breakdown of the arrears to be...

By Riley F. Tunnell, Esq., Godwin Bowman PC (Dallas, TX) The COVID-19 pandemic is not the product of a single cause. So, our remedial efforts must address a myriad of causes and rapidly developing effects. The CDC believes that delaying the onset of the mass-eviction to a time when we may be better able to manage this virus is a...

Percentage fees collected by a Chapter 13 trustee prior to confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan must be returned to the debtor by the trustee if Chapter 13 plan is not confirmed. (Ebel) Goodman v. Doll, 2023 WL 216778 (10th Cir. January 18, 2023) Case Summary Daniel Doll filed Chapter 13 in November of 2017. The debtor complied with 11...

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) My Google Alert popped up a lovely win for a Chapter 13 homeowner, but all I could see was the train wreck that lies ahead. The bankruptcy court ruled that the confirmed (and completed) plan trumped a late-filed mortgage proof of claim. Payment of the amount provided in the plan cured the prepetition...

Introduction Following Part 1's review of the December 1, 2021 changes in the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, Part 2 and