Lenders Can’t Hide from Consequences of Misapplication of Mortgage Payments

Who knew 20 years ago how apparently hard it is to account for money paid to you? Even if accounting for money was your business?

Today’s raft of mortgage accounting issues were not ones I foresaw when I became a bankruptcy lawyer.Yet every day we encounter cases where the foreclosure notice follows the “all current” filing at the close of a Chapter 13 case.

The addition of Section 524(i) to the Bankruptcy Code in 2005 at least recognized the problem of mortgage accounting in a world where mortgages change hands like business . . .

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Cathy Moran, Esq.

Head of Moran Law Group

Cathy Moran has headed her own small firm Moran Law Group in Redwood City, California, for nearly 30 years. Family law and tax issues as they play out in bankruptcy are areas of particular interest to Cathy.

Spoofing and the Legal Profession: No One is Immune

Ryan Bourgeois, Jeffrey Fleming, Lauren O’Neil Funseth

September 8, 2024

Spoofing scams hit with $10.5 trillion warning! If it were measured as a country, cybercrime would be the world’s third-largest economy after the United States and China. As its frequent mention in the news cycle demonstrates, no industry is immune – including the legal profession.

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Judicial Year in Review 2021: Revised Rules and Selected Cases – Part 1 Amended Rules

November 7, 2021

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction This year's changes in the Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure are summarized below. They will be followed, in Part 2, by a digest of selected judicial decisions in the past year of interest for their procedural implications. December 1, 2021, Amendments to Bankruptcy Rules 2005, 3007, 7007.1 and 9036 On...

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Five Things Trustees Should Know About the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019

September 8, 2019

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction Four bankruptcy-related bills were enacted during the 116th Congress and signed into law on August 23, 2019.1 The legislation affected both business and consumer cases. One bill, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA),2 deals on its face with a non-consumer topic. However, it will be of great...

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9th Circuit Joins the Bandwagon

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

June 18, 2023

The Ninth Circuit has now joined its sister Circuit in holding that the Bankruptcy Code does not permita Chapter 13 Trustee to retain the percentage fees collected on payments that a chapter 13 debtor made pre-confirmation in accordance with 26 U.S.C. §586 but, upon dismissal prior to confirmation of the plan, is obligated to return the fee to the debtor,...

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Passing of the Honorable Randall L. Dunn

The Academy

June 25, 2023

Retired United States Bankruptcy Judge Randall (Randy) Lawson Dunn, District of Oregon, died at home on June 7, 2023.

From the Editor

March 31, 2019

By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Debtor’s Attorney - Chapter 13 debtors not required to seek approval to employ special counsel. The Chapter 13 debtors moved to employ special counsel for representation in state-court litigation, but § 327(e) did not apply to Chapter 13 debtors when no request was being made to pay the special counsel from...

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Taggart v. Lorenzen: Supreme Court Stakes Out Middle Ground on Contempt Standard for Discharge Injunction Violations, Leaves Clues About Automatic Stay Violations

June 16, 2019

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction – The Taggart Ruling Last year, the Ninth Circuit in In re Taggart1 ruled that an act in violation of the discharge injunction did not empower a court to find a creditor in contempt, if the creditor believed in good faith that the discharge injunction did not apply—even if...

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Unredeemed Pawned Property and Chapter 13 Plan Confirmation: Must a Pawnbroker Object?

November 1, 2020

From their spring edition of The Quarterly our friends at NACTT have shared a timely piece from creditor attorney Thomas Humphries. _____________________ Thomas Humphries is an attorney with the firm of Sirote & Permutt, PC in Birmingham Alabama. Thomas represents the mortgage banking industry and various creditors in bankruptcy proceedings throughout the State of Alabama. Thomas’s practice includes the defense...

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Meet a Newish Trustee

January 24, 2021

On October 1, 2019, John G. Jansing was appointed Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Southern District of Ohio at Dayton. John took over from Jeff Kellner, who retired and moved to New Hampshire. John had some great mentors: Herb Beskin in Charlottesville, Marge Burks in Cincinnati and Faye English in Columbus. John toured Herb’s office in January 2020 and...

Critical Case Comment – Pigs Get Fat/Hogs Get Slaughtered

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

March 19, 2023

Below-median Chapter 13 debtor bears the burden of justifying a plan longer than three years as confirmation of a five-year plan would be denied as providing insufficient justification to exceed three years. (Robinson) In re Ingram, 2023 WL 2529730 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. March 15, 2023) Case Summary Danny Ingram filed four bankruptcy cases over 20 years. He was single with...

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