While Chapter 7 Filings Continue to Decline, Chapter 13 Filings are Trending Slightly Upward

Recent headlines noted that March 2022 saw a 33.5% increase in bankruptcy filings over February. This could suggest the coming swell in bankruptcy cases anticipated since the start of the COVID pandemic. However, bankruptcy professionals recognize that consumer filings always spike in March (see chart). This phenomenon is usually attributed to the tendency to avoid filing in January and February so folks can receive and spend tax refunds, thereby avoiding the requirement to turn them over to the bankruptcy trustee. An additional factor is that by March, holiday bills and tax liabilities are coming due, and folks may . . .

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Hon. Kevin R. Anderson

United States Bankruptcy Judge, District of Utah (Salt Lake City)

Prior to his appointment as a bankruptcy judge for the District of Utah in September of 2015, Judge Anderson served for seventeen years as the Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the District of Utah. During this time, he administered over 70,000 Chapter 13 cases. Judge Anderson was elected president of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT), and he also served on several national committees regarding Chapter 13 legislation, rules, forms, and policy. Judge Anderson has frequently written and presented on Chapter 13 issues, including for The Norton Bankruptcy Law Advisor, The ABI Journal, The NACTT Quarterly, and The NACTT Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education. He is also a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. Prior to his appointment as Chapter 13 trustee, Judge Anderson practiced for thirteen years as a commercial litigator with an emphasis in civil fraud, real property, and representing Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 trustees. He also clerked for the Honorable David N. Naugle, Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California. Prior to law school, he worked for two years as a data system specialist testing military and commercial jet engines for General Electric.

Assessable Yet Not Assessed Taxes Could Cost You a Malpractice Claim

August 1, 2021

By Cathy Moran, Esq., (Redwood City, CA) Eighteen years elapsed between the close of the 2003 tax year and the Tax Court’s 2021 decision Barnes v. Comm'r, T.C. Memo. 2021-49 (U.S.T.C. May 4, 2021) regarding the debtors’ 2003 tax liability. While the most recent decision in the debtors’ battle with the IRS challenged the discretion of a tax officer in...

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Meet an AO Trustee

February 24, 2019

On June 26, 2017, Bradford W. Caraway was appointed as the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division. He replaced D. Sims Crawford who had been appointed as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Alabama. Trustee Caraway maintains his office in Birmingham. At the time of his appointment as Standing Trustee,...

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From the Editor – Discharge Injunction

March 14, 2021

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Section 524(i) applies only to long-term debts not discharged through plan. Whether § 524(i) applied to short-term secured debts that are paid in full and discharged through a Chapter 13 plan was a matter of first impression, with the Court finding no other court had yet decided precise question. Factors used in Supreme...

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A Confirmed Plan with a Marijuana Wrinkle

May 19, 2019

By Gretchen D. Holland, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the Greenville/Spartanburg Division of South Carolina Although this is a chapter 11 case, it has chapter 13 implications because the confirmation requirement that a plan be “proposed in good faith and not by any means forbidden by law” is identical in both chapters (§ 1129(a)(3) and § 1325(a)(3)). Garvin v. Cook...

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Critical Case Comment – Don’t File a Individual Chapter 13 If the Assets Are Owned by an LLC; It Will Cost You – BIG

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

September 25, 2022

Where a debtor and debtor’s counsel initiated a Chapter 13 petition in an effort to halt a foreclosure against property held by the debtor’s LLC, and where the debtor took no steps to correct the filing, sanctions would be imposed against debtor’s counsel. (Grabill) In re Scaccia, 2022 WL 1216284 (Bankr. E.D. La. April 25, 2022) Case Summary Scaccia owned...

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Trustee May Use Any Law Available to Avoid a Transfer

March 17, 2019

By Herbert L. Beskin, Chapter 13 Trustee for the Western District of Virginia (Charlottesville) *Special thanks to Gretchen D. Holland for editing this article. Facts In Vieira v. Gaither (In re Gaither), Bankr. D. S.C., # 18-01317-dd, Adv. Pro. 18 80040-dd, Chapter 7 case; 11/30/18 opinion (Duncan); 2018 Bankr. LEXIS 3816, the Debtors’ son died in an aviation accident in...

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Recent Trends in the Interpretation of Midland v. Johnson and the Applicability of the FDCPA to Bankruptcy Cases

January 3, 2021

By Mark C. Leffler, Boleman Law Firm, PC (Richmond, Hampton, and Va. Beach, VA) Part I: Derby v. Portfolio Recovery Associates Recently, Hon. Keith L. Phillips of the Eastern District of Virginia Bankruptcy Court issued his fourth and final written opinion in the Derby v. Portfolio Recovery Associates adversary proceeding, Adv. Pro. No. 18-03097-KLP, 2020 Bankr. LEXIS 2589 (Bankr. E.D.Va....

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Critical Case Comment – Service Counts

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

October 2, 2022

Debtor’s filing application to extend or impose the automatic stay must comply with the service requirements of Rule 7004 as to all creditors or the stay cannot be imposed or extended. (Johnson) In re Hardy, 2022 WL 1196963 (C.D. Cal. April 21, 2022) Case Summary Kimberly Hardy had a long history in consumer bankruptcy. She had filed eight cases, including...

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Critical Case Comment – Fee Wars: The Battle Over Debtor Attorney Compensation

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

March 31, 2024

Debtors’ attorney’s fees can be calculated as a percentage of the presumptively reasonable “no-look” fee for cases involuntarily dismissed prior to confirmation and is an allowed administrative claim which can be paid under § 1326(a)(2).

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Foreclosure Sales as Fraudulent Transfers: Study Summary

Edward C. Boltz

June 9, 2024

Attorney Boltz shares a summary of a new study which looks at the Supreme Court ruling that noncollusive, regular foreclosure sales aren't voidable by a bankruptcy trustee, but collusive or irregular sales can be challenged by unsecured creditors, who can cloud the title if fraud is involved. The study explores when these sales can be avoided.

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