Consumer Bankruptcy

Necessity of a Change in Circumstances for Post-Confirmation Modification of Chapter 13 Plan

A single bankruptcy court may handle hundreds of chapter 13 cases filed each week, and their orderly disposition depends on the finality of confirmed plans.[1] Nevertheless, Congress was aware that chapter 13 debtors frequently encounter turmoil and, less frequently, windfalls in their financial circumstances, rendering modifications of confirmed plans appropriate.

The Battle Between the BAPCPA Exemptions to the Automatic Stay and the Binding Effect of a Confirmed Chapter 13 Plan

Editor's Note: David Morris is the Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office Child Support Division and an adjunct professor at Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Official Form Chapter 13 Plan Draft Published for Comment

Proposed revisions to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure and Official Forms are now published for comment. The proposed revisions affect Rules 2002, 3002, 3007, 3012, 4003, 5009, 7001 and 9009.  Most of the changes affect practice in chapter 13 cases. 

“Bad Actors” and the Automatic Stay

Clients can’t all be sweet little grandmas on Social Security. Sooner or later, every consumer lawyer will end up running into the occasional “bad actor”: someone hoping to dodge criminal fines, restitution or benefits overpayment. Someone who has done something a little sketchy.

Accumulated Funds in the Chapter 13 Trustee’s Hands at Conversion: Who Gets the Money?

The facts are simple. A debtor files for chapter 13 and proposes a plan, which is confirmed. The debtor makes payments pursuant to the terms of the plan but is unable to continue funding the plan a considerable time later. The case is converted to chapter 7, and on the date of conversion, the chapter 13 trustee is holding funds that were earmarked for creditors but have not been paid out. The trustee intends to disburse the accumulated funds to the creditors under the plan, but the debtor files a motion requesting that the trustee refund those funds. So who gets the money?

Goodbye Tension, Hello Pension: The Right to 401(k) Voluntary Contributions vs. Obligation to Repay Dilemma in Chapter 7 Cases

Many Americans are questioning the future solvency of the Social Security program and, although its severity is inconclusive, many doubt that they will receive Social Security payments, causing them to seek additional financial arrangements.

Schlehuber: Understanding Involuntary Conversions of Individual Non-Consumer Cases under § 706(b)

[1]Chapter 7 individual debtors with business debts and surplus income, beware! In Schlehuber v. Fremont Nat’l Bank & Trust Co. (In re Schlehuber),[2] the Eighth Circuit affirmed a Nebraska bankruptcy court’s order to convert an individual debtor’s chapter 7 case to chapter 11 — not under § 707‌(b), as commonly used in consumer cases with facts similar to Schlehuber — but under § 706‌(b). Section 706‌(b) states that “[o]‌n request of a party in interest and after notice and a hearing, the court may convert a case under this chapter to a case under chapter 11 of this title at any time.”[3]

Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2014

[1]On June 12, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced S. 2471, the Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2014,[2] which would amend §§ 101, 104, 109, 521, 522, 523, 707 and 1325 of the Bankruptcy Code to create a new class of “medically distressed debtors.”

The Misinterpretation of 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8)

[1]The common belief that all student loans are protected from discharge in bankruptcy is based on a misunderstanding of 11 U.S.C. § 523‌(a)‌(8). Since 1990, bankruptcy courts have been misreading the statute to prevent any student debt that could be construed as providing educational benefits or advantages from discharge.

Subscribe to %1