In 1995, in Field v. Mans, 1 the U.S. Supreme Court held that the standard for creditor reliance in fraud cases under §523(a)(2)(A) is justifiable reliance. Although not a credit card case, the Court shed light on what type of investigation…
Congress is once again embarking on the quest that is approached about every two decades—the search for a "fair" consumer bankruptcy system. As Congressman George W. Gekas (R-PA) noted upon the introduction of his reform bill H.R. 3150, the…
The Fourth Circuit was right on target last year when it held that C1322(c)(2) does not permit the bifurcation of an undersecured claim into separate secured and unsecured claims, as several bankruptcy courts had held. Witt v. United Compan…
Editor's Note: For more analysis of automatic stay abuses and in rem orders, see Chaves, "In Rem Bankruptcy Refiling Bars: Will They Stop Abuse of the Automatic Stay Against Mortgagees?," 24 Cal. Bankr. J. 1 (Winter 1997). Among the many co…
In last month's "Consumer Corner" column, Tom Ray discussed the significant split among the Courts of Appeal over whether a debtor is required to reaffirm an indebtedness in order to retain collateral, or whether the debtor can simply retai…
While the National Bankruptcy Review Commission (NBRC) is considering wholesale changes to reaffirmation procedures, including what debts can be reaffirmed, [1] it is imperative that Congress resolve a split among the circuits over the issu…
Section 1322(b)(2) of the Bankruptcy Code provides that a chapter 13 plan may "modify the rights of holders of secured claims, other than a claim secured only by a security interest in real property that is the debtor's principal residence.…