Joining the Tenth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit also has held that chapter 13 trustees are not paid their fees when cases are dismissed before confirmation. The identical issue was argued on February 15 before the Second Circuit.
In short order, we’ll have either unanimity or a split of circuits. A split will give rise to an issue worthy of a grant of certiorari by the Supreme Court.
Notably, the Ninth Circuit’s opinion on June 12 adopted reasoning in an amicus brief filed in support of the debtor by the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center and National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.
Some exemption planning is permissible, but Bankruptcy Judge Pamela W. McAfee of Raleigh, N.C., had a case where it went too far. Indeed, marriage can be a badge of fraud.
In an opinion on February 13.....
Based on the broad definition given the word “claim,” a creditor has standing to bring a nondischargeability suit against an individual debtor for embezzlement when the debtor didn’t embezzle from the.....
On an important issue about judicial estoppel in bankruptcy cases, the Fifth Circuit handed down a nonprecedential opinion on January 13 raising exactly the same issue coming before the Supreme Court.....
For debtors in chapter 7, the sale of cryptocurrency is considered “income” in the calculation of current monthly income and in deciding whether there is a presumption of abuse, in the eyes of.....
The amendment to Bankruptcy Rule 2003(e) didn’t create a bright-line rule automatically cutting off the time for objecting to exemptions when the trustee doesn’t announce and file a statement.....
Circuit Judge Thomas L. Ambro has written another gem.
For the Third Circuit in an opinion on September 3, Judge Ambro drew the boundaries between the rules of preclusion and the Rooker-Feldman doctrin.....
Believe it or not, a debtor can have a homestead exemption in property in another country, even when the debtor doesn’t live there. Bankruptcy Judge Pamela W. McAfee explained how it works in a July 7.....
Debtors and trustees should read a Fifth Circuit opinion to understand how the sale of a debtor’s claims should be structured to prevent the sale from being champertous and void.
The debtor severely.....
On an issue where the circuits are divided, Bankruptcy Judge Patricia M. Mayer of Reading, Pa., decided that she could not employ equity to extend a deadline that had expired — in this case, the.....
Holding that a debtor’s lawyer has no Seventh Amendment right for a jury to decide what the debtor owes for fees in connection with a chapter 7 case, the Third Circuit upheld bankruptcy courts’ power.....