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...

The Bankruptcy Code produces some difficult results. Sometimes those results pass difficult and extend into problematic. The Bankruptcy Court for the District of Idaho crossed well over difficult in In re Clifford, 2022 WL 16727279 (Bankr. D. Id. 2022). The question addressed in Clifford is one that comes up in every Chapter 13 case – how do we calculate “Current...

The facts in In re DeWitt, 2022 WL 4588320 (Bankr. S.D. Ohio 2022), are a bit “unusual”. Debtor filed Chapter 13 to reinstate her mortgage. The mortgage was “non-escrowed” and Debtor was required to pay property taxes directly. Surprisingly, she did not pay her property taxes. The first time, the Lender paid the property taxes but decided not to pursue...

So, what happens to post-petition appreciation of assets during a Chapter 13? Does the Debtor get to keep the money? Or does the Chapter 13 Trustee get it for the benefit of creditors? That was the question for the Court in In re Klein, 2022 WL 3902822 (Bankr. D. Colo. 2022). The question in Klein is a bit different than...