Do you know which ignored prefiling issue triggers the most reopened bankruptcy cases? I’ve got no data but my money’s on avoidable judicial liens. We as bankruptcy attorneys have gotten so caught up in avoiding consensual mortgages where they are totally unsecured that we forget to look for the easy stuff. Stuff that is available […]
Here Are 3 Ways To Cram Down A Car In Spite Of The Hanging Paragraph
There are three labeled exits from the 910 freeway. Find one and you save your client thousands of dollars. Miss them all and you do your client a disservice. The infamous hanging paragraph in §1325(a) prohibits bifurcation of a creditor’s claim secured by a vehicle into a secured claim and an unsecured claim. Specifically: section […]
Top Ten Takeaways From NACBA Convention
A week after the NACBA convention, I’ve almost caught up on practice paperwork, continuing education reporting, and sleep. Now’s the time for some reflection on the experience as a whole. Here’s my list of big-picture ideas and to-do’s . How about you? What stood out for you at NACBA if you were lucky enough to […]
What I Learned In San Antonio, And What We Missed
After a long weekend with 900 bankruptcy colleagues, I’ve been thoroughly reminded about all that remains to be learned about this marvelous profession. What did I learn, and what was missing? I took my first bankruptcy case 32 years ago, and looking back, I blanch at what I didn’t know then. Even now, I see […]
Evidence Rules In Mortgage Litigation
Judge Pamela Pepper convened a “hearing” on related disputes involving a debtor’s mortgage, the creditor’s standing, and the payment history on the loan. The various parties to the dispute sought to obtain, introduce and exclude evidence at the mock hearing. The comments are almost exclusively hers as she analyzed what we’d just seen. This is […]
Low Down On AG Mortgage Settlement
A last minute addition to the program for Saturday was a presentation on the nation wide mortgage settlement between the states’ Attorneys General and the five major servicers. Here are my notes from the presentation by Joseph A. Smith, Jr. the court appointed monitor of the settlement. The presentation was accompanied by a concise and […]
Stripping in San Antonio
John Rao, NACBA Vice President, and Judge Leif Clark presented the program on lien stripping. John Rao: language in Nobelman points to 506(a) to determine the creditor’s status. Are they really a secured creditor subject to the modification prohibition of 1322(b)? If not, they can be stripped. Remember this isn’t 522(f) lien avoidance. Exemptions play […]
