Consumer Bankruptcy

President’s Column As I surpass mile marker 50 on my 100-mile tenure as ABI President, I wanted to present an update to our membership on the progress of various key initiatives and other accomplishments. It is hard not to offer continuing updates on the advances of the

Title lenders continue losing battles to take cars away from debtors, but the lenders have yet to plead and prove their best cases.

Benchnotes By Christina Sanfelippo, Aaron M. Kaufman and Bradley D. Pack District Court Finds that Free-and-Clear Sale Orders Have No Impact on a Purchaser’s Successorship Obligations Under NLRA The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware recently reversed the

An alter ego may be of the same ilk as a partnership or agency, so there may be no inconsistency between the Fifth Circuit opinion and the Bartenwerfer concurrence.

With the U.S. Trustee Program announcing that § 341 meetings for all chapter 7 and 13 cases will be heading to Zoom, there is no turning back now. Most routine consumer bankruptcy cases can now be completed without the debtor ever leaving home.

Gone are the days of plastic grocery bags full of unopened mail from creditors. Gone are the days of printing hundreds of pages of bankruptcy schedules. Gone are the days of debtors listening to prior answers during § 341 meetings and simply parroting responses. Gone are the days of finding parking at the bankruptcy courthouse. Gone are the days of debtors finding it difficult to access a local or nearby attorney (a big win for access to the bankruptcy system). Gone are the days of wet-ink signatures (in some jurisdictions).

When a debtor’s assets appreciate after filing a chapter 13 petition, historically that appreciation has inured to the debtor and not to the estate [1]. That norm is gradually evaporating, as courts are beginning to hold that post-petition appreciation belongs to creditors [2]. The ambiguity in chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code is responsible for shifting appreciation from debtors to creditors.

This ambiguity arrived at the forefront of the bankruptcy bar’s attention through two cases that dealt with post-petition, pre-conversion increases in home values. Although these cases deal with post-petition appreciation in the context of conversion, they underscore the vast differences in how the bench approaches property of the estate in chapter 13.

Oregon Supreme Court allows substitution of a bankruptcy trustee as the real party in interest because denial would chiefly punish the debtor’s creditors.

Tug-of-War over Post-Confirmation Appreciation in Chapter 13 By Krispen Carroll Everybody likes a windfall, the happenstance of financial luck that seems to come out of the blue. American homeowners were justified to feel like they were the beneficiaries of a windfall

Bankruptcy Rule 7070, incorporating Federal Rule 70 along with 28 U.S.C. § 1655, gives bankruptcy courts power to remove liens of record when the lenders don’t do so voluntarily.