This article honors (or dishonors) one of bankruptcy's greatest pieces of literature, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. 1 Early in the story, one of the most famous individual debtors in history, Jacob Marley, the former partner of Ebe…
Editor's Note: Part I was featured in the November 2006 ABI Journal. This part of the article examines the correlation of the following economic indicators to the non-business bankruptcy filing rate (per 1,000 population). I have chosen var…
The changes to "individual chapter 11" wrought by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), which essentially grafted the chapter 13 structure onto chapter 11 for individuals, have been controversial. Iss…
Not surprisingly, "good faith" is an important theme in, and even a prerequisite to, the "fresh start" offered by bankruptcy. Among the Bankruptcy Code's requirements for confirmation of a chapter 13 plan is that it be proposed in good fait…
Debtor Not Estopped from Pursuing Inadvertently Unscheduled Claim In Best v. Kroger Co., 339 B.R. 180 (W.D. Tenn. 2006), a former chapter 13 debtor failed to schedule a pre-petition Title VII claim for sexual harassment and constructive dis…
The House and Senate sprinted to recess for the Nov. 7 elections without completing action on several pending clarifications to bankruptcy law. Bills covering issues ranging from the treatment of tithing to an increase in chapter 7 trustee …
Part I of this article looks at consumer bankruptcy filing rates and attempts to identify some trends and economic indicators that might predict those filing rates. The $64,000 question (which, adjusted for inflation, today would be the "$4…
To enable a fresh start, debtors often seek to avoid judicial liens that impair a claimed homestead exemption. With adjustable-rate mortgages, rising credit costs and increasing delinquencies, there is likely to be more activity in this mot…
As most observers acknowledge, the automatic stay and the discharge injunction are the two cornerstones of consumer bankruptcy law. They are, respectively, a fundamental debtor protection and a fundamental debtor objective. 1 The automatic …
Debtors, chapter 13 trustees and courts around the country are wrestling with whether "projected" disposable income is different than disposable income on the B22C form, and whether "applicable commitment period" is a time period or a multi…