New Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act Implications and the 2023 Congressional Outlook - The Consumer Finance Podcast
The GENIUS Act represents a significant shift in U.S. bankruptcy law, particularly affecting stablecoin holders. In recent bankruptcy cases, crypto holders have been treated as general unsecured creditors, but this new...more
Under § 506(a)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code, a secured creditor’s claim is secured only to the extent of the collateral’s value. Any amount over that value is bifurcated into a separate unsecured claim. Critically, if a...more
In an important ruling for personal bankruptcy cases in Connecticut, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that Connecticut’s new homestead law, which increased the exempt amount of a “homestead” from $75,000 to $250,000,...more
Bankruptcy Basics for New and Non-Bankruptcy Attorneys - This entry is part of Nelson Mullins’s ongoing “Bankruptcy Basics” blog series that is intended to address foundational aspects of bankruptcy for new and...more
Continuing our series on bankruptcy schedules, Schedule F is used to list all of your general unsecured debts. General unsecured debts are those that are not secured by collateral and are not entitled to priority payment...more
The Fourth Circuit stands alone currently as the only circuit requiring unanticipated, changed circumstances in order to modify a confirmed Chapter 13 Plan. The Eleventh Circuit just joined the majority on a circuit...more
In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, debtors propose a plan to re-pay all or a portion of their debts. The amount to be repaid depends on how much the debtors earn, the amount and types of debt owed, and how much property they own....more
Many steps creditors take in the process of directly or indirectly originating a vehicle finance agreement are designed to protect the creditor in the event its credit risk assessment was off and the consumer defaults. A...more
In SummitBridge Nat’l Invs. III, LLC v. Faison, 915 F.3d 288 (4th Cir. 2019), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that an unsecured or undersecured creditor may include postpetition attorney’s fees and...more
Individuals have several options when filing bankruptcy. Chapter 13 is often preferred for individuals with regular income who wish to keep their homes and other secured assets. In a Chapter 13 filing, the court will approve...more
Lawyers who represent debtors in bankruptcy cases, supported by rulings from many bankruptcy judges, have long taken the position that creditors with unsecured claims whose agreements with their debtors provide for payment of...more
Weird things happen in bankruptcy court. All you high-falutin Chapter 11 jokers out there, cruise down to the bankruptcy motions calendar one day....more
If an individual or business owes unpaid income taxes to the IRS, or to a state, federal bankruptcy laws may provide relief for some, if not all, of these taxes. Generally applicable to “older” federal and state income taxes,...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit—which covers federal courts in North Carolina—recently handed a victory to residential real estate lenders dealing with borrowers who file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy...more
Imagine that you are an unsecured lender who has learned that a borrower has filed for bankruptcy and has little to no assets available to pay creditors. Is there any way to prevent your debt from being extinguished? This...more
The Issue and Background - Debtors David Caulkett and Edelmiro Toledo-Cardona (“Debtors”) each filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief with “underwater” junior mortgages held by Bank of America, N.A. (“Bank”). In other...more
Three significant opinions issued by the US Supreme Court in the last few months will impact lenders and investors. Bank of America v. Caulkett - In a major win for the nation’s mortgage lenders and...more
On June 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court decided Bank of America v. Caulkett, No. 13-1421, together with Bank of America v. Toledo-Cardona, No. 14-163, holding that a debtor in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding may...more
Since its 1989 opinion in Folendore v. Small Business Admin., the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed debtors to completely strip off and void wholly unsecured junior liens in Chapter 7 bankruptcies under Section...more
“Lien stripping” often takes two forms. A debtor’s attempt to void the unsecured portion of a lien when there is some but not enough equity in collateral to fully cover a lienholder’s entire debt is commonly referred to as a...more