Is Voluntary Dismissal of a Chapter 13 Case an Absolute Right?

By Daryl J. Smith, Senior Staff Attorney to Sylvia Ford Brown, Chapter 13 Trustee (Memphis, TN) and Katherine L. Rea, Staff Attorney to Pamela Simmons-Beasley, Chapter 13 Trustee (Columbia, SC)

Is there ever a reason to oppose a voluntary dismissal of a chapter 13 that has not been converted from a chapter 7?

Maybe. But will you be successful? Probably not.

So then what are your other options? Sanctions!

Unpacking this dilemma starts, as always, with the Bankruptcy Code: Section 1307(b) provides that “[o]n request of the debtor at any time, if the case has . . .

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The Continuing Saga of Chapter 13 Trustee Fees in Pre-Confirmation Dismissals

Thomas D. DeCarlo

June 25, 2023

Courts continue to wrestle with the issue of trustee fees in pre-confirmation dismissals. The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois has now weighed in in In re Johnson, 2023 WL 3406597 (Bankr. N.D. Il. 2023). The facts are pretty typical. Debtor filed for Chapter 13. After 8 months and 8 confirmation hearings, the Court granted Trustee’s request for...

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4 Reasons to Keep Time Records No One Discusses

Cathy Moran

July 17, 2022

Mention keeping time records to a bankruptcy lawyer and you’re likely met with expressions of utter revulsion. All too many assert that the major appeal of being a bankruptcy lawyer is precisely that they don’t have to keep time. Between flat fee deals with clients, and no look fees in Chapter 13, they feel liberated from the clock and the...

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Private Collection Agencies – What You and Debtors Need to Know

November 17, 2019

Taxpayers who are contacted by a private collection agency on behalf of the IRS might have questions about the program. These taxpayers can visit IRS.gov to find answers to questions they might have. In fact, to better help these taxpayers, the IRS recently updated the private debt collection pages on IRS.gov. These updates added more information for taxpayers whose case...

Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment and Technical Corrections Act

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

June 12, 2022

A new day is coming to high debt borrowers seeking to file Chapter 13 but confounded by the debt limits imposed by 11 U.S.C. § 109(e). Although debt limits have been increasing since the effective date of the Code in 1979, consumer debts have been increasing at a far more rapid rate. Starting in 2009, when the housing crisis first...

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Is This Corporation Really Separate from Its Owners: A Checklist

Cathy Moran

October 1, 2023

In a perfectly executed world, clients who do business via an entity like a corporation or LLC would arrive with their business lives neatly separated from their personal lives. However, that’s not the world I practice in. It’s probably not yours, either. Instead, I have to sleuth out the facts, and compare them to the individual’s version. I see prospective...

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Keep Calm and Carry On – Observations Regarding CBRA

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

October 9, 2022

First, breathe deep and try to relax. The Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative House Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, with minimal notice, set an oversight hearing for September 29, 2022. The subcommittee is charged to deal with matters relating to bankruptcy. The subject of the hearing was to be the “Oversight of the Bankruptcy Code, Part 2: Ensuring a Fresh...

Meet the New Trustee

November 1, 2020

Lloyd T. Kraus was appointed as a Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Eastern District of Texas on August 1, 2019. While Kraus loves his job, he would much rather still be serving as a staff attorney to his best friend and mentor John Talton. Talton was tragically killed in a traffic accident in October of 2018. Kraus received his...

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Beyond Professional Ethics

July 25, 2021

By Merideth Akers, CPA, PHR, Comptroller forBradford W. Caraway (Birmingham, AL) I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Professional in Human Resources (PHR). I suspect that many who read this article are Licensed Attorneys. Others may hold a certification from other professions. These entities have their own rules of professional ethics and conduct that govern what we are...

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First Principles for First Meetings

October 11, 2020

By Cathy Moran, Esq. (Redwood City, CA) Once again, I sat in a 341 meeting where the trustee’s representative purported to deliver vital information to the assembled debtors. She had a captive audience of anxious listeners. She had ostensible power of life and death over their financial future. They needed to know what she had to say. But as communication,...

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Two More Things Trustees Should Know About the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019

October 27, 2019

By Lawrence R. Ahern, III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Part IV Two More Things Trustees Should Know About the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 Introduction Four bankruptcy-related bills were enacted during the 116th Congress and signed into law on August 23, 2019.1 The legislation affected both business and consumer cases. One bill, the Small Business Reorganization Act of...

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