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 the Ninth Circuit, forgetting to raise discharge as a defense in state court isn’t fatal. At least if the creditor later asks the bankruptcy court to rule on whether the debt was discharged, the.....
In August, Congress adopted the so-called HAVEN Act, which allows military veterans to exclude disability benefits from the calculation of “current monthly income.” In practical terms, the new law.....
On an issue where the lower courts are split, the Sixth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel held that a pre-petition personal guaranty is a contingent debt that is discharged, even as to post-petition.....
A nonprecedential opinion from the Eleventh Circuit shows how Taggart v. Lorenzen allows courts to rule on contempt motions without actually deciding whether there was a violation of the discharge.....
The standards under Taggart limiting the imposition of contempt sanctions for violating the discharge injunction do not apply when the creditor’s violation of the automatic stay continues after.....
Ordinarily, there is a clear winner and a clear loser when a circuit court decides an appeal. In a dischargeability case involving allegedly false representations and pretenses, the First Circuit.....
A bankruptcy court order awarding damages for willful violation of the automatic stay is a final order that must be appealed immediately, even if the court hasn’t yet ruled on how much the debtor is.....
Circuit decisions are rare where the concurrence is more significant than the panel opinion. In a bankruptcy that has already generated gobs of law at all levels, Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton.....
Bankruptcy Judge John E. Waites, sitting in Columbia, S.C., refused to compel arbitration of “core” bankruptcy issues. Not surprising.
In a case involving a consumer, he also decided that.....
The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit used a case involving the split of authority over Section 1322(c)(1) to opine on the binding effect of a BAP opinion on a later BAP panel in the.....