New Trustee Named

Tracy Updike of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has been named as a Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Northern District of Indiana. Updike will be filling the trusteeship vacated by Debra Miller when she accepted a trusteeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee.

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Consumer Bankruptcy Education

The NACTT Academy offers a comprehensive community for bankruptcy professionals seeking to advance their education in consumer bankruptcy.

Bankrupt Attorney Cannot Discharge State Court Sanctions

Nicole P. Novak

September 11, 2022

In a recent opinion, the 9th Circuit BAP affirmed a bankruptcy judge’s decision that sanctions order by a state court were nondischargeable under § 523(a)(6)i and that the state court proceeding precluded litigating the issue in bankruptcy.ii The sanctions originate from a California doctor’s defamation suit against two former patients. The Doctor initiated the action against two women who wrote...

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The Hanging Paragraph – Hanging on Every Word Part 4 of 4

July 5, 2020

By Anthony J. Gomez, CPA, former extern to the Honorable John P. Gustafson, Northern District of Ohio at Toledo V. The Good Faith Requirement The hanging paragraph was enacted to protect creditors. It accomplishes this by prohibiting the bifurcation of certain secured debts that were acquired shortly before the time of filing. Despite a Chapter 13 debtor’s inability to bifurcate...

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Meet a New AND Newish Trustee

The Academy

March 27, 2022

Krista M. Preuss was appointed as the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Southern District of New York on February 1, 2018. She succeeded Jeffrey Sapir after his retirement. On October 1, 2021, she was appointed as the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Eastern District of New York, succeeding Marianne DeRosa upon her retirement. Yep, two trusteeships. Can you...

Rules, Means-Test Amounts and Miscellaneous Fees: Changes Wrap Up 2020

November 15, 2020

Lawrence R. Ahern, III Brown & Ahern Nashville, Tennessee Appendix B Adjustments to Means Test Amounts (Cases Filed On or After November 1, 2020) The tables on the following page provide median family income adjustments reproduced in a format designed for ease of use in completing Bankruptcy Forms 122A-1 and 122C-1. STATE 1 EARNER FAMILY SIZE 2 PEOPLE 3 PEOPLE...

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Separately Classifying Student Loans in Chapter 13

Scott Waterman

May 12, 2024

Big news . . . Sneak peak . . . Coming in July . . . You are gonna want this article (just sayin’) Starting July 1st, Chapter 13 debtors in Federal Student Loan income-driven repayment plans will no longer need to classify their student loans separately to receive IDR credit. Credit towards forgiveness will be awarded for each month of trustee payments, regardless of payments made directly to the Department of Education.

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Courts are Expanding the Protections of Bankruptcy Rule 3002.1

Debbie Langehennig, Cameron Kelly

October 9, 2022

As a prerequisite to a claim’s payment, Rule 3002.1 requires certain secured creditors to provide to the trustee and the debtor notice of the full value of the secured creditor’s claim, including any “fees, expenses, and charges” related to the claim. Two bankruptcy courts have demonstrated a willingness to expand the reach of Rule 3002.1’s noticing requirements. These courts generally...

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In re Lazaro: Non-Monetary Default and § 1322(b)(5)

James M. Davis

June 4, 2023

Can a debtor provide for a non-debtor’s loan under § 1322(b)(5) even if the plan does not address a non-monetary default on the claim? In re Lazaro suggests the answer may be “yes.” In that case, the Court held not only that the Debtor’s plan could provide to cure a monetary default on a loan taken out by the Debtor’s...

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Volunteering is Great But Not If You Expected Payment

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

June 9, 2024

Although Acevedo does not prohibit the court from entering an order ex post facto, to obtain an order authorizing employment of a professional effective from the date of filing application, must be based upon compelling and unusual circumstances.

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Overruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law – A Book Review

M. Jonathan Hayes

October 6, 2024

“What, he [Gorsuch] explains, jumped out at me is that not only are there too many laws and administrative rules, but there are too many laws and rules created by agencies -- by individuals not chosen by we the people, and often in the far-away land we call Washington.”

From the Editor

March 24, 2019

By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Discharge - Direct mortgage payments unpaid by debtor were not “provided for” in plan. The confirmed plan stated that the debtor would directly pay two home mortgages to the credit union, but there was no specification of payment terms or other treatment of those mortgages. At the time of confirmation, the...

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