Reflections and Ruminations on the “R” Word

A former standing trustee considers a new chapter of life – an alternative to retirement. You gotta read all the way to the end!! “It was almost two years ago that across from the dinner table my wife of 45 years, and office manager of 35 years, announced that she was ‘done’.”

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Jan M. Sensenich

Member of the Vermont Bar Association Bankruptcy Section and the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees

Jan M. Sensenich graduated from Windham College in Putney, Vermont in 1978 and Vermont Law School in 1983. He served as Core Faculty Member and Director of the Woodbury College Legal Clinic from 1983 to 1987 and from 1990 to 1992. Jan was an Associate with Jerome I. Meyers, P.C. from 1987 to 1990 when he opened his own practice concentrating on bankruptcy matters in both Vermont and New Hampshire. Jan served as Vermont’s Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 Standing Trustee from 1991 to 2024 and was a member of the adjunct faculty of Vermont Law School from 1994 to 2010 where he taught Bankruptcy. Jan has been a member of the Vermont Bar Association Bankruptcy Section and the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees since 1992 and served on the NACTT Due Process Committee.

The Irony of Filing a Motion to Dismiss with Prejudice

April 12, 2020

By Daryl J. Smith, Senior Staff Attorney to Sylvia Ford Brown, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Memphis, TN) Are chapter 13 serial filers abusing the bankruptcy system? Maybe or maybe not. There are many reasons debtors file multiple bankruptcy cases across the nation, including but not limited to parking tickets, court fines, utilities, lack of financial literacy, foreclosure, past due rent,...

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ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy – Introduction

April 21, 2019

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) Introduction In 2016, the American Bankruptcy Institute’s president, Eugene Wedoff, retired bankruptcy judge from the Northern District of Illinois, proposed to the ABI Board that a commission be established to examine the current status of consumer bankruptcy laws, rules, and cases with the goal of its making general suggestions...

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Justice Sotomayor’s Direction in Fulton Becomes Reality in Amended FRBP 7000(1)(A)

Karen D. Visser

April 6, 2025

After Fulton cast doubt on how Chapter 13 debtors could recover vehicles repossessed before filing, a 2024 amendment to Rule 7001 clarified the issue.

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2022 Bankruptcy Procedure Year in Review: Revised Statute and Rules and Selected Cases Part 10 Once Again: The Supreme Court Hands Down a Procedure Rule in Dupree v. Younger

Lawrence R. Ahern, III

June 11, 2023

Introduction This series reviews developments in bankruptcy procedure during the past year. One new rule and amendments to 16 rules took effect December 1, 2022. Many reflected changes necessitated by the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA), and had been in place in the same or similar form on an interim basis since that legislation took effect.

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Good or Bad Faith?

Hale Andrew Antico

September 10, 2023

The Ninth Circuit BAP held that the chapter 13 debtors converted their case to Chapter 7 in good faith and therefore a post-petition inheritance was not property of the chapter 7 estate.

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The Untouchables – Starring Social Security Income

Nicole P. Novak

March 5, 2023

In a recent opinion, an Ohio bankruptcy court joined the majority of other courts by holding the Code excludes Social Security Act (“SSA”) benefits from disposable income.i The issue was brought before the Court by the Chapter 13 Trustee’s objection to confirmation. The objection to confirmation asserted the Debtors failed to commit all disposable income to their plan and included...

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Lisa L. Lambert Appointed as U.S. Trustee for the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas

The Academy

December 1, 2024

Lisa L. Lambert has been appointed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland as the U.S. Trustee for the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas (Region 6). Lambert replaces Kevin M. Epstein, who filled the Region 6 role in an interim capacity and who continues to serve as the U.S. Trustee for the Southern and Western Districts of Texas (Region 7).

United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa Ten Years After

May 3, 2020

By Hon. Brian Lynch, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Western District of Washington, Tacoma Division When the Supreme Court issued United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa1 on March 23, 2010, commentators were perplexed.2 On the one hand, the Court upheld the 9th Circuit’s ruling allowing a hardship discharge of student loans in a chapter 13 plan. The Court held that...

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Did Congress Mean What It Said in Section 1328(i)?

April 25, 2021

By Pardis Akhavan, Resnik Hayes Moradi LLP (Encino, CA) The bankruptcy court in In re Ritter, 2021 WL 864092 (Bkrtcy C.D. Cal, 2021)(J. Tighe),denied debtors’ motion for an immediate discharge under Section 1328(i) ruling that Congress apparently did not intend that a chapter 13 debtor who obtains a loan modification should also receive a discharge, on that basis alone at...

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Diaz: Is it Really a Tax Refund?

December 20, 2020

By Cathy Moran, Esq., Moran Law Group (Redwood City, CA) On its face, Diaz (Diaz v. Viegelahn, No. 19-50982 (5th Cir. Aug. 26, 2020)) is a pretty straightforward decision that struck down a local form plan as violating a below-median income debtor's right to use her tax refund to finance necessary expenses for maintenance and support. On a deeper level,...

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