When life intervenes during the course of a Chapter 13 case, we can modify the debtor’s Chapter 13 plan. As I laid out the provisions of §1329 on modifications for that post, I saw the hand of the late Senator Ted Kennedy in this section. I talked earlier here about his role in providing a […]
When The Chapter 13 Plan Has A Flat
The Chapter 13 completion rate for confirmed plans in San Jose is 65%. Nationally, it’s about 35%. So, how do we do it? Lots has to do with the approach of our trustee, Devin Derham Burk and the on-going liaison between the bench and the bar. But at bottom, it’s a skillful and cooperative bar of bankruptcy […]
Don’t File Bankruptcy (Now)
Timing is everything. Hitting a round ball with a cylindrical bat is a matter of timing. Bankruptcy practice is no different. Picking when to file a client’s case may be as important as the decision to file or the choice of chapter. As we approach year’s end, taxes pop to mind as a reason not […]
5 Tricks For Bankruptcy Exemptions
I’ve spent hunks of the past couple of days working exemption issues in cases we’re filing. California has opted out of the federal bankruptcy exemptions but has a bankruptcy-only set of exemptions that largely mirror the federal bankruptcy exemptions. My typical client this year has substantially more income and more assets than the people I […]
How Did The Autopsy Go?
Bankruptcy cases in our offices have a relatively short life span and our involvement in our client’s life ends soon. When the case is over, do you dissect the case and evaluate what went right and not-so-right? Greg Lambert, one of the authors of 3 Geeks and a LawBlog, suggested that firms conduct an After Action Review […]
Bankruptcy Attorney As Storyteller
We get so caught up in putting the right stuff in the right place on the bankruptcy schedules that it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. Having learned that assets subject to a spendthrift trust provision aren’t property of the estate, we omit them from the schedules. Patterson v. Shumate. Forgetting, of course, […]
Whose Property Is It At Conversion?
Twenty years in, it’s still undecided. We have no uniform rule on what happens to equity in an asset, built up during a Chapter 13 plan, when the case converts to Chapter 7. Amazingly, nearly 20 years after subsection (f) was added to 348, courts are split on how it works. But another court has […]
