Thoughts on the Law: Stay at the Crossroads - The Code of the Wild, Wild West? • NACTT Academy

Thoughts on the Law: Stay at the Crossroads – The Code of the Wild, Wild West?

By The Honorable John P. Gustafson, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Ohio (Toledo)

There are two legal battles going on that may end up being dysfunctionally related….

1. What Happens If The Automatic Stay Is Not Extended In A “Second Case Pending Within One Year”?

A split of authority has been percolating since 2005, involving the all too common case, where a debtor with a second bankruptcy case pending within one year has failed to seek an extension of the automatic stay within the 30-day statutory time period. The issue that divides the . . .

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How My Law Firm Learned to Stop Leaving Money on the Table Part 4 – Making Willful Stay Violations Pay Off

Mark C. Leffler

June 12, 2022

In this series of articles, I’ve described how my firm developed a litigation practice area to generate revenue that isn’t dependent on new bankruptcy cases. As debtor attorneys around the country wait for bankruptcy cases to return to pre-COVID levels, I hope these articles might inspire others to create income for themselves while obtaining valuable remedies for their clients. Today,...

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Tax Projections and the Means Test – Part II

September 22, 2019

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) I wrote earlier about calculating the projected income tax deduction on the means test when the year of filing situation looks much like last year. But what if things aren't the same year over year? Your job as a bankruptcy attorney becomes more complicated. It's suddenly more than figuring the tax refund or...

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ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy – A Chapter 7 Trustee’s Sale of Encumbered Property

July 7, 2019

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) The Commission heard from several individuals and attorneys that related tales of Chapter 7 trustees negotiating a “carve out” with a lienholder on the debtor’s real property when there was no equity available in the property. The way this works is that when property came into a Chapter 7...

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National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2023

The Academy

December 31, 2023

The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2023 (H.R. 3315) enacted on December 19, 2023 extends for an additional four years the existing exemption from the means test for qualifying reservists and National Guard debtors who are called to active duty or to perform a homeland defense activity for not less than 90 days. See 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(2)(D)(i). A debtor...

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: New Ideas for Treatment of Student Loans in Bankruptcy

May 12, 2019

By Robert B. Branson and Tammy Branson, Branson Law PLLC (Orlando, FL) Congress’ goal of bankruptcy is for the honest debtor to get a fresh start. Since most federally guaranteed student loans are nondischargeable, the current outcome is a “false start” instead of a fresh start. Resolving a $1.5 trillion student loan crisis is problematic in that the caselaw was...

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CARES Act Financial Hardship ‘Laundry List’

April 5, 2020

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) During the free Academy webinar The CARES Act – Impacts on Chapter 13 on April 2, 2020, the panel – Judge Wm. Houston Brown (Retired), Amanda DeBerry and I – referred to the importance of detailing the reasons for modifications or suspensions to be related to financial hardship stemming...

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The Bankruptcy Moot Court Experience – Duberstein 2019

August 25, 2019

By Cameron Kelly & Michael Carroll, Law Students, The University of Texas School of Law I. Starting the Journey Instead of starting class by cold-calling people, Professor Westbrook chose to suspend my terror briefly. While I was thankful for the reprieve from what would inevitably be a disappointing cold call, I was more thankful for what he had to say....

From the Editor

March 31, 2019

By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Debtor’s Attorney - Chapter 13 no-look fee subject to Hawai’i’s general excise tax. Construing the State’s excise tax, the Chapter 13 debtor’s attorney could not collect the required excise tax in addition to the agreed upon no-look fee. The district’s Rights and Responsibilities Agreement between debtor and attorney did not contain...

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Critical Case Comment – Time is of the Essence

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

May 21, 2023

Chapter 13 plan cannot be modified to treat a priority claim as general unsecured after the time for reconsideration of the order has passed. (Easterbrook) Matter of Terrell, 39 F.4th 888 (7th Cir. July 12, 2022) Case Summary The Terrells’ Chapter 13 plan proposed a classification to pay the State of Wisconsin in full as a priority claim because, they...

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Weighted Caseload: Why It Matters and How It Works and Doesn’t Work

Honorable Brian D. Lynch

December 31, 2023

“Currently, if a district’s weighted caseload is below one-thousand per the number of judges in that district . . . in all probability, recommend that the circuit not replace the judge.”

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