Summertime activities often affect the tax returns people file the following year. Here are some things taxpayers do during the summer along with tips they should consider now: Getting married. Newlyweds should report any name change to the Social Security Administration. They should also report an address change to the United States Postal Service, their employers, and the IRS. This...

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...

Dear Readers: We’re now at the season where things go a bit wacky, and one thing that can go wacky has to do with people who are represented by counsel who want to talk with you.  “Let’s cut out the middleman,” they think. After all, what harm could it be to save time? Plenty of harm, actually:  Model Rule 4.2...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Manufactured home did not become accession to real property. The creditor holding security interest in a manufactured home objected to confirmation, on the basis that § 1322(b)(2)’s anti-modification provision prevented bifurcation of its claim into secured and unsecured parts. The Eighth Circuit noted that the Bankruptcy Code does not resolve the issue of...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of TN (Nashville) The automatic stay does not require a creditor pursuing a prepetition nonbankruptcy court action to dismiss that action once a bankruptcy case is filed; requesting continuances and attending status conferences do not constitute “continuation” of the prepetition action for purposes of the automatic stay....

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Introduction This series has focused on the four bankruptcy-related bills that were enacted during the 116th Congress and signed into law on August 23, 2019. One bill, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA), became effective February 19, 2020. It appears in its entirety in Appendix B to this...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville) When a case converts from Chapter 13 to Chapter 7 prior to the confirmation of a plan, the Chapter 13 Trustee is not permitted to divert funds from the debtor to the debtor’s attorney. In re Lettie, 597 B.R. 637 (Bankr. E.D Wis. 2019)...