The no man’s land between the mortgage due date and late payment is a persistent trouble spot for Chapter 13 practitioners.  For example, are there arrears when the case is filed during the grace period and the payment made before it was late? In Borre, Judge Ronald Sargis of ED CA said no. He held that the payment was not...

By Peter Fessenden, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee, Retired September 30, 2017 (Portland, ME) To everything there is a season. There was a time to discover how little I knew about being a Chapter 13 trustee. There was a time to make mistakes. There was a time to address those mistakes. There was a time to solve problems. There was a...

BULLETIN SMALL BUSINESS REORGANIZATION ACT POSTSCRIPT CARES Act Passed by Senate Increases Eligibility to Small Business Debtors with Aggregate Debts Up to $7,500,000 And Other Changes Early last Thursday morning, the Senate passed a substitute for H.R. 748, called the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (the “CARES Act”). The bill passed the House on Friday, and the President...

Bankruptcy Court found violation of automatic stay to be “technical”, thus no damages. Ninth Circuit BAP did not agree. Continuing to pursue state court fraudulent transfer action after transfer or filed for Chapter 7 relief violated the automatic stay; even if the violation of the stay is “technical”, damages, including attorneys’ fees and costs, should be assessed against the violator....

Chapter 13 Trustees occupy unique positions.  Every day they work with the courts, clerks’ offices, debtors, creditors, and their attorneys, and the Office of the United States Trustees.  Within ethical bounds, it is important that Chapter 13 trustees build and maintain relationships with each of these constituents.  Civility, professionalism, and trust are the mainstays for all of these interactions. We...

By Professor Nancy Rapoport Dear Readers: The Academy staff has raised an important issue: Given the mental health issues associated with the pandemic, what should someone do when he or she sees a colleague lawyer in distress? Before we get to the ethics implications, let’s talk about the mental health issue itself. When people are under great stress, they try...

Although she steps into very large shoes, Julie Philippi is a welcome addition to the Chapter 13 Trustee fraternity. Ms. Philippi was appointed as the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Western District of New York on January 1, 2020. Those large shoes were left by retiring NACTT icon, Albert Mogavero. “Al” served as Standing Trustee for 42 years (yep,...

By Eric K. Fox, Esq. (Hendersonville, TN) Jane Debtor has a home with a mortgage. An unsecured creditor obtains a judgment against Jane for, say, a credit card debt. Creditor’s attorney records a certified copy of the judgement order with the county register of deeds, thereby converting the unsecured claim against Jane in personam, to a secured claim against her...

By Scott Waterman, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Reading) Citing Pennsylvania law, a Federal District Court in In re Hamilton (Hamilton v. Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency), ___ B.R. ____ (E.D. Pa. 2020) refused to apply the equitable subordination doctrine to reorder the priority of mortgages after the first mortgage lender granted the debtors a loan modification prior...

At the NACTT 2023 Mid-Year Trustee Meeting in January the presentation that resonated the most with me was one about the dark web. The presenter, Mark Lanterman (CTO Computer Forensic Services), said something that haunts me still: your biggest security risk is your people. Mind blown. We spend so much time, energy, and resources on physical security and network security,...