Consumer Bankruptcy

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

The committee is proud to have organized and hosted another very successful Consumer Practice Extravaganza (CPEX) in partnership with ABI’s professional staff, Co-Chairs Jeffrey Fraser and Summer Shaw, and a robust planning committee. Committee leadership serving on the CPEX planning committee included Heather Giannino (Co-Chair), Jeffrey Fraser (Special Projects Leader), Karlene Archer (Education Director), Mike Miller (Communications Manager) and Kara Gendron (Membership Relations Director).

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. Crypto assets can be attractive to scammers and other bad actors due to the anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions and difficulty tracing crypto assets.

The Sixth Circuit holds that a debtor cannot recover attorneys’ fees from the U.S. Trustee under the EAJA in a contested matter, but leaves open the possibility of liability for counsel fees in a losing adversary proceeding.

President’s Column Congratulations to ABI’s 2023 “40 Under 40” Class Last month’s induction of the newest class of ABI’s “40 Under 40” honorees, whose achievements have been described in the front section of this issue, marked another highlight event for me. My column

Legislative Highlights “National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2023” Passes in House, Awaits Senate Consideration The House of Representatives passed H.R. 3315, the “National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2023,” via voice vote on

Select Comments/Questions Posed by SCOTUS Justices During Oral Argument in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4 heard oral argument in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma LP. The issue before the court is whether the Bankruptcy Code authorizes a court to

Property Disclosure Duties in Chapter 13 By Sumner A. Bourne The consumer bankruptcy system, where the economic resources for investigating debtors’ financial affairs are especially limited, relies on accurate and predictably timed debtor-filed schedules to function

Recognition of Income-Based Repayment of Student Debt in Disposable Income By Michael Polkoff Student loan debt has generated significant discourse on how it should be treated during bankruptcy, 1 yet the income-based-repayment (IBR) alternative intended to reduce the

Being an heir by itself doesn’t bring a decedent’s estate into the heir’s bankruptcy estate.

The Exchange: Turning Over Tax Refunds After ACP Expiration to Obtain a Longer Plan Term By Michael T. Brown The Bankruptcy Code 1 limits a chapter 13 debtor with “below-median income” 2 to a repayment term of three years 3 “unless the court, for cause, approves a