The EITC and the ACTC are both exempt in states with broadly defined “public assistance,” the Ninth Circuit BAP says.

Interpreting the hanging paragraph in Section 523(a), the Ninth Circuit sticks to the Beard test in deciding whether something is close enough to a tax return to justify discharging a tax debt.

A panel of the Ninth Circuit implicitly urged en banc reversal of two decisions holding that a homestead exemption is lost if the proceeds are not reinvested within the time required by state law, even if the exemption was valid on the filing date.

Deducting a discharged loan to a child from her inheritance didn’t violate the discharge injunction.

The BAP decision may have a hint that failure to stop proceedings after bankruptcy can be an automatic stay violation, even after Fulton.

In dicta, the Ninth Circuit BAP says that equitable estoppel cannot be applied against a debtor in view of the debtor’s fiduciary responsibilities.

Even when the debtors are not parties to the suit, the stay is violated when a creditor pursues an action to collect a debt owing by the debtors, so says the Ninth Circuit BAP.

Judge Clarkson laid down guidelines for a lawyer who copies pleadings written by another lawyer in a different case.

Unlike other states, creditors can attach 25% of a judgment debtor’s interest in a spendthrift trust in California.

Until now, there has been surprisingly little precedent directly on point to say that denial of a motion for conversion from chapter 11 to chapter 7 is not a final order subject to appeal