Consumer Bankruptcy

Rochelle’s Daily Wire

Expert analysis of the latest court decisions affecting consumer debtors — covering discharge, mortgage servicing, student loans, exemptions, and more.

Cases covered: 1,408 (all-time)
Covering all circuits
Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Sep 18, 2025 M. Margaret McKeown
Affirming the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, the Ninth Circuit explained why the costs of an attorney’s disciplinary proceeding are not dischargeable in California. Paradoxically, similar costs from.....
Aug 27, 2024 Johnnie B. Rawlinson
The Ninth Circuit bent over backwards to hold that sovereign immunity protects a state from the imposition of compensatory and punitive damages for filing an involuntary bankruptcy petition that was.....
A decision from the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel is emblematic of courts inveighing against Kelly v. Robinson, 479 U.S. 36 (1986), where the Supreme Court held that criminal restitution is.....
Apr 11, 2023 Christopher M. Klein
Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Klein decried the “widespread belief that student loans are virtually impossible to discharge in bankruptcy.” In his April 5 opinion, Judge Klein said, Only the most.....
Nov 23, 2022 Edward M. Chen
To avoid forcing a debtor to pay the same tax lien twice, the majority on a Ninth Circuit panel held that a trustee may not avoid a lien securing a tax penalty and preserve the avoided lien for the.....
Nov 04, 2022 Mary Jo Heston
Surveying recent authorities from around the nation, Bankruptcy Judge Mary Jo Heston of Tacoma, Wash., laid out the factors that control categorizing a lien as judicial or statutory. The distinction.....
Feb 02, 2022 Daniel P. Collins
A trustee can avoid a lien for a tax penalty. It stands to reason, does it not, that a debtor can avoid the same lien but preserve the lien for the debtor’s benefit, to the extent the lien impairs the.....
Nov 19, 2019 Peter C. McKittrick
In a circuit that permits discharging a portion of student loans, Bankruptcy Judge Peter C. McKittrick of Portland, Ore., discharged part of a debtor’s student loan debt, “which she has no hope of.....