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.
Counsel in California, beware: The state’s reciprocal fee-shifting statute means that the losing side — whether it be the debtor, the trustee or the creditor — pays the adversary’s attorneys’ fees if.....
Without a motion by a creditor or party in interest, the bankruptcy court with the first bankruptcy case has the right, sua sponte, to transfer venue of a subsequently filed case by the same debtor or.....
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.....
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.....
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.....
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.....
All acts are void that violate the automatic stay, regardless of whether they are willful or merely technical, according to Bankruptcy Judge Christopher D. Jaime of Sacramento, Calif.
In his December 2.....
Sanctions imposed on a creditor and its lawyers for violating the automatic stay and the discharge injunction may not be the end of the story. As demonstrated in a March 29 opinion by Bankruptcy Judge.....
If a creditor doesn’t cash a $230,000 distribution check on an allowed unsecured claim, is the chapter 7 debtor entitled to the funds 10 years later on the idea that the $230,000 represented a surplus.....
Eventually, the Supreme Court will decide whether debtors can be compelled to arbitrate core and non-core disputes with creditors. For now, at least, courts in the Ninth Circuit are giving short.....