A split among courts continues to persist with respect to the statutory interpretation of 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(5)’s equal-monthly-payment provision and the prioritization of payments of the debtor’s attorney’s fees pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 1326(b)(1).
Committees
It often comes as an unwelcome surprise when debtors discover that they cannot force a creditor to take something back that the debtors no longer want, no longer use and no longer intend to pay for.
Student loan debt is (mostly) presumed nondischargeable under § 523(a)(8).[1] Hardship discharge of such debt has become a vanishingly probable outcome.
Beth Stephens and Richard Cole, co-chairs of the ABI Consumer Committee this year, thank all committee members for their support and participation in 2018. The Consumer Committee has a diverse membership.
The Bankruptcy Code contemplates the filing of a joint petition to commence a bankruptcy case for a married couple under § 302(a).
Bankruptcy Code § 707(a) provides that a chapter 7 case may be dismissed “for cause,” including for (1) unreasonable delay, (2) nonpayment of fees or (3) failure to timely file certain information. However, “cause” is not defined, and the statutory examples are illustrative, not exhaustive. Currently, there is a circuit split as to whether bad faith can be “cause.”
The City of Chicago is finding itself entangled in a set of legal issues surrounding the Bankruptcy Code and the enforcement of parking tickets through civil fines, impoundment and license suspension. The interplay of Chicago parking ticket debt and consumer bankruptcy is making for a fascinating legal showdown.
As attorneys are aware, the debtor almost always wants to keep a vehicle when filing a chapter 13 case. Then, post-confirmation, the debtor’s income changes, the vehicle has engine problems or the debtor hits a deer, and the debtor wants to give the vehicle back to the creditor and get a different one.
While a split among the circuits continues to persist with respect to whether the Bankruptcy Code permits a “ride-through” option in the context of a chapter 7 debtor’s statement of intention, the U.S.