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.
In Tyler v. Hennepin County, 598 U.S. 631 (2023), the Supreme Court decided in May 2023 that a real estate tax foreclosure can violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment when a municipality.....
On two important questions, the Third Circuit handed down a decision on modification of chapter 13 plans that should apply equally to modified chapter 11 plans:
1. When the debtor moves to modify a.....
A troubling decision from a district court in New Jersey seems to have disregarded the power of a bankruptcy court under Section 329 to rule on the adequacy of disclosures and the amount of.....
The Supreme Court’s decisions in Bullard and Ritzen didn’t undercut the Third Circuit’s longstanding “pragmatic approach” to judging finality in bankruptcy cases, nor did they undermine In re Brown, 9.....
Directing a vulgar insult at a debtor is no violation of the automatic stay. Indeed, basing a contempt motion on a text message to a debtor that said, “You’re such a piece of s—t,” “has absolutely no.....
The Supreme Court created a problem for cash-starved debtors when the Court held in Lamie that a discharge prevents a lawyer from requiring a chapter 7 debtor to pay for post-petition services after.....
A lender and its lawyer were sanctioned under Bankruptcy Rule 9011 for filing a dischargeability complaint against a consumer based only on the allegation that it must have been fraud because the.....
“[W]hen an attorney learns that a client has engaged in fraudulent or unauthorized conduct,” the lawyer “must take reasonable remedial measures, including, if necessary, disclosure to the tribunal,”.....
Once a debtor has completed plan payments, the bankruptcy court has power under Bankruptcy Rule 7070 to clear title by removing liens that were stripped off in the debtor’s chapter 13 plan.
In.....
A settlement term sheet signed after mediation by the debtor, her nondebtor husband and the creditor was enforceable, according to Bankruptcy Judge Ashely M. Chan of Philadelphia, even though the.....