By Ken Siomos, Staff Attorney for Marsha L. Combs-Skinner (Newman, IL) The December 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, more commonly known as the second covid-19 stimulus bill, contains a few bankruptcy related provisions, but none stood out more with respect to Chapter 13 than the newly created § 1328(i). This provision provides that a court may grant a full 1328(a)...

Rebecca A. (Becky) Herr was appointed Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the District of Maryland on October 1, 2019 and maintains her offices in Annapolis. Ms. Herr’s appointment came on the heels of the retirement of Chapter 13 Standing Trustee Nancy Spencer-Grigsby. But Herr is no stranger to NACTT, The Academy, and the Chapter 13 Trustee community. So, let’s start...

By Angela M. Scolforo, Staff Attorney to Herbert L. Beskin, Chapter 13 Trustee for the Western District of Virginia “How long?” is a common plea. When my children were young and we travelled they would ask, “how long before we get there?” In scripture we find David, Habakkuk and Zechariah (none of whom were Debtors’ attorneys) all crying out, “how...

Chapter 13 plans and confirmation orders will occasionally include post-confirmation disclosure and turnover requirements for tax returns and refunds and for other types of post-petition recoveries and income. Debtors are expected, on their own and without the need for rigorous trustee oversight, to fulfill the turnover requirements as a condition of plan completion and discharge. What happens when the case...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) During the free Academy webinar The CARES Act – Impacts on Chapter 13 on April 2, 2020, the panel – Judge Wm. Houston Brown (Retired), Amanda DeBerry and I – referred to the importance of detailing the reasons for modifications or suspensions to be related to financial hardship stemming...

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) PART II – BASICS OF PERFECTION OF SECURITY INTERESTS Introduction Current circumstances, with a pandemic and a recession, portend a wave of bankruptcy filings. In the consumer bankruptcy field, trustees and debtors' counsel often are uncomfortable with the rules in UCC Article 9. In this space, we have previously looked...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville) While in personam liability of a junior mortgage on the debtor’s residence is discharged by a Chapter 7, the lien survives and constitutes an allowed unsecured claim in the debtor’s subsequent Chapter 13 case. In re Hopper, 2021 WL 3435445 (Bankr. E.D. N.Y. Aug....

By Kara K. Gendron, Esquire, Mott & Gendron Law (Harrisburg, PA) The recent Supreme Court decision in City of Chicago v. Fulton1 will change the law in most Circuits. Prior to this case, there was a split among the circuits as to whether the post-petition retention of property taken pre-petition constitutes a violation of the automatic stay under §362(a)(3) of...

By Regina Logsdon, Executive Director, The Academy d/b/a ConsiderChapter13.org Robert (“Bob”) G. Drummond has been the only standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the District of Montana since 1992. Originally from Montana, Mr. Drummond graduated from Montana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Business, and received a Juris Doctorate in Law with Honors from the University of...

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...