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.
The Seventh Circuit, per Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook, has issued the third in a series of opinions emphatically requiring bankruptcy courts to make case-specific findings of fact when a chapter 13.....
Adopting the broader, “plain language” interpretation of Section 554(c), District Judge Jill N. Parrish of Salt Lake City affirmed a decision by Bankruptcy Judge Joel T. Marker and held that an asset.....
On an issue where the lower courts are divided, Bankruptcy Judge Joseph G. Rosania, Jr. of Denver decided that the net proceeds from liquidation of an exempt asset belong to creditors under a chapter.....
Hard cases make bad law, but Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth E. Brown of Denver took a hard case to make good law. Although the debtor was not a sympathetic character, Judge Brown reached a result implied.....
The PACER system for filing documents electronically in bankruptcy court is not user-friendly. Indeed, the system is tediously idiosyncratic and intolerant of the uninitiated.
Bankruptcy Judge R.....
Even if the bankruptcy court’s order was final and appealable, the order of the district court deciding an appeal isn’t necessarily a final order conferring the right of appeal to the court of appeals.....
Bankruptcy Judge Jack B. Schmetterer of Chicago discharged about $73,000 in student loans owed by a 53-year-old single woman who had been unemployed for 16 months, had no income, was not eligible for.....
On a question where the lower courts are split, Bankruptcy Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar of Chicago took sides with the minority by holding that violating a PACA trust does not give rise to denial of.....
At least in Illinois, unused vacation pay is exempt as wages, no matter how much, according to Seventh Circuit Judge Frank H. Easterbrook.
The debtor lost his job and filed bankruptcy one week later.....
As a matter of constitutional law, the Seventh Circuit reduced punitive damages from $3 million to $582,000 when the jury had awarded the debtor $582,000 in compensatory damages as a consequence of.....