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Heather Giannino and Hannah Hutman, co-chairs of ABI’s Consumer Bankruptcy Committee, thank all committee members for their participation this year.

Over the past year, case law around privacy and data security has been evolving in crypto industry bankruptcies, as courts grapple with familiar issues in a new industry. Debtors, unsecured creditors’ committees and other proponents of greater privacy for creditors of crypto companies argue that greater precautions are required because crypto company creditors are more likely than creditors of other types of companies to be targeted by identity theft and scams.

With the U.S. Trustee Program announcing that § 341 meetings for all chapter 7 and 13 cases will be heading to Zoom, there is no turning back now. Most routine consumer bankruptcy cases can now be completed without the debtor ever leaving home.

When a debtor’s assets appreciate after filing a chapter 13 petition, historically that appreciation has inured to the debtor and not to the estate [1]. That norm is gradually evaporating, as courts are beginning to hold that post-petition appreciation belongs to creditors [2]. The ambiguity in chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code is responsible for shifting appreciation from debtors to creditors.

One of the most highly anticipated events of the year, ABI’s online Consumer Practice Extravaganza (CPEX) will return October 30-November 10, with on-demand access for an additional 60 days. Now in its third year, CPEX offers a wealth of CLE for the incredibly low price of just $100. Sessions this year will feature such topics as student loan discharge, chapter 13, subchapter V and artificial intelligence, as well as presentations on changes to forms and other matters.

Congress’s decision to use the passive voice has cost at least one debtor the discharge of a significant debt. The U.S. Supreme Court in Bartenwerfer v. Buckley ended a long journey through the Ninth Circuit for a debtor whose husband committed fraud and when she sought to discharge the debt that resulted from a judgment for that fraudulent action.[1] Instead of analyzing whether the debtor was culpable in the fraud, the Supreme Court instead held that the debt — not the debtor — was the subject of 11 U.S.C.

Consumer and business bankruptcy attorneys alike have been conditioned to feel fear or awe, depending on the circumstances, at hearing the name Clifford White for almost 20 years. When White announced in 2022 that he would retire, consumer practitioners had been looking forward to the announcement of the new director, mostly to identify the focus that the U.S. Trustee Program would take.