For a number of years, bankruptcy courts have been wrestling with the issue of the status of a debtor's chapter 13 estate once a plan of reorganization has been confirmed. Not surprisingly, the resolution of this issue works a significant i…
The Religious Liberty and Charitable Donation Protection Act of 1998 ("Religious Liberty Act") was the latest move in the battle between the Supreme Court and Congress over a debtor's right to tithe in bankruptcy. The Act directly targets a…
In order to confirm a chapter 13 plan, the court must find that the plan meets the "best interests of creditors." The Eighth Circuit recently arrived at an equitable formula in deciding whether the debtor's interest in an estate in the enti…
The requirement that a chapter 13 debtor submit all disposable income to fund a chapter 13 plan is one of the foundations of chapter 13 practice. It has been seen as a basic protection to unsecured creditors that a debtor is making a best e…
It is not unusual for consumer debtors to have borrowed from a qualified retirement or savings plan pre-petition to meet cash needs. Typically the debtor schedules the plan as a creditor with a claim in the amount of the outstanding balance…
In East Cambridge Savings Bank v. Silveira (In re Silveira), 141 F.3d 34 (1st Cir. 1998), the First Circuit Court of Appeals decided that 11 U.S.C. §522(f) 1 permits only partial avoidance of judicial liens in situations where a debtor has …
In June 1997, the Supreme Court handed down Associates Commercial Corporation v. Rash. 1 Certiorari having been granted to resolve the conflict among the circuits on the issue of valuation in a chapter 13 cramdown, it was hoped that the cou…
How should a secured lender or lessor react when a borrower or lessee files a chapter 7 bankruptcy but continues to make payments? The creditor whose customer "rides through"—making payments and keeping the collateral or leased personalty, …
It is common for consumer debtors to borrow money, generally from small loan companies, and grant them a lien in existing household goods to secure repayment of those loans. The liens granted are referred to as "non-possessory non-purchase-…
Since this author’s last column on post-confirmation interest rates in chapter 13 cases, several court decisions have been added to the mix. Not the least of these is Associates Commercial Corporation v. Rash, 117 S.Ct. 1879, 138 L.Ed.2d 14…