Bankruptcy Law Commons^™

The Bankruptcy Revolving Door, Belisa Pang

Northwestern University Law Review

The American consumer bankruptcy system is a costly regime with profound societal implications. Between 2008 and 2023, consumers filed 13.8 million bankruptcy cases across the ninety-four federal bankruptcy districts in the United States, generating over $4 billion in court filing fees alone. When accounting for attorney fees, trustee expenses, creditor costs, and broader economic externalities—such as increased interest rates borne by other consumers—the total financial impact easily reaches tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions, of dollars.

Against that backdrop, this study uncovers a startling phenomenon: nearly 46% of the consumers who filed bankruptcy in 2023 were repeat filers, …

The Equity Dead Zones: Legal Intersectionality Failure Points In Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, Tearria N. Simmons

The Guardianship Journal

Legal intersectionality failure points describe the systemic fractures that occur where overlapping legal, social, and economic inequalities converge, potentially producing compounded barriers to relief. Each failure point marks a site of marginalization. In what ways do individuals already recognized as vulnerable in Chapter 13 bankruptcy face a heightened risk when multiple forms of disadvantage intersect? When these intersections combine in mutually reinforcing ways—racial, economic, and relational disparities colliding with structural deficiencies in family, property, and bankruptcy law—does it result in pronounced negative outcomes, and, if so, what are those outcomes? Within this convergence, could there be a space where compounded …

Breaking Bias: A Singular Chapter Solution For Racial Equity In Consumer Bankruptcy, Jerron R. Wheeler

Faculty Articles

This article explores the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, revealing a looming medical debt crisis among Black families, while examining the intersection of racial bias, attorney practices, and the existing two-chapter consumer bankruptcy system. Proposing a solution, the article advocates for the consolidation of Chapters 7 and 13 into a single chapter, citing the Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2020 (CBRA) as a potential remedy. Further, this article argues that a single chapter would simplify the bankruptcy process, reducing the influence of attorney bias and promoting uniform eligibility criteria. This approach aims to make debt relief more accessible, especially for …

Chapter 13: Let’S Call The Whole Thing Off, Lawrence Ponoroff

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Courts cannot agree on much of anything about chapter 13, and legislators cannot agree and are confused over what to do about it. This state of affairs benefits no one and shows no signs of abating. So, in this Article, I propose to throw in the towel by imagining a world without chapter 13. Spoiler alert: although I am not superstitious, with just a few tweaks and tucks to chapter 7, I think the Bankruptcy Code might just be better off operating like a high-rise elevator that goes directly from floor twelve to floor fourteen. I will lay it out …

Interest Rate Determination Methods In Bankruptcy Chapters 11, 12, And 13, Michael Kleinman

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

The United States Supreme Court's decision in Till v. SCS Credit Corp. established a formula approach for determining interest rates in cases filed under chapter 13 of title 11 of the United States Code (the "Bankruptcy Code"). The Till decision implemented the formula approach, requiring the national prime rate to be augmented by a risk premium to account for the debtor's heightened nonpayment risk. Till is limited to chapter 13 cases, however, courts have applied the Till test in chapter 11 and 12 cases.

This memorandum examines the different methods utilized in bankruptcy to determine appropriate interest rates. Section …

The Housing Bubble And Consumer Banruptcy (Parts Iii And Iv), David G. Carlson

Articles

During the COVID pandemic housing prices have soared. Consumers who have filed for bankruptcy are now looking at enormous realized and unrealized capital gains. This article assesses the chances that these consumer debtors can keep these gains out of the hands of their creditors. Part II of this two-part article addresses chapter 13 issues, which concern plan modification by the chapter 13 trustee to capture realized and unrealized capital gains. It also covers whether a trustee in a converted case can capture these gains. The law of the coverted chapter 7 case is spectacularly contradictory.

The Housing Bubble And Consumer Bankruptcy (Parts I And Ii), David G. Carlson

Articles

During the COVID pandemic housing prices have soared. Consumers who have filed for bankruptcy are now looking at enormous realized and unrealized capital gains. This article assesses the chances that these consumer debtors can keep these gains out of the hands of their creditors. Part I of this two-part article addresses chapter 7 issues, which concern lien stripping, abandonment, and monetary exemptions. It also addresses lien stripping in chapter 13 cases. Part II will address whether a chapter 13 debtor must surrender appreciation value to the chapter 13 trustee or to a trustee in a converted chapter 7 case.

Big Banks & Small Consequences In Chapter 13, Alexandra P.E. Sickler

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Mortgage creditors struggle to properly service mortgages in chapter 13 cases, as evidenced by numerous cases describing violations of Bankruptcy Rule 3002.1. The consumer bankruptcy system, however, is not calibrated to compel systemwide compliance from these large, institutional repeat actors. This Essay argues that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is well-suited to support the consumer bankruptcy system by exercising its monitoring and enforcement powers to promote, and even compel, mortgage creditor compliance in chapter 13 cases.

Biting The Bullet: A Bipartisan Solution To Increase Debtors' Access To Chapter 7 Relief While Exempting Firearms In A Bankruptcy Case, Ishaq Kundawala

Articles

Imagine an individual who is too broke to file for bankruptcy relief.' This irony is far too often a reality in America, especially for people living in underserved communities. Debtors are simply unable to skimp and save up even a thousand dollars to pay their bankruptcy attorney. Paying their bankruptcy attorney upfront in full is the only ticket to seeking Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief. For a variety of reasons, Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief is the most advantageous type for a majority of poor and middle-class individuals and families.4 It provides these individuals and families with an expedient, fresh financial start …

The Approval Of Retirement Contributions In Chapter 13 Payment Plans, Jennifer Hepner

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

In the United States, employees often contribute a portion of their annual income to their 401(k) retirement plans. These contributions may fluctuate based on age, income, or additional contributions by employers. At the same time, chapter 13 debtors are often required to pay at least a portion of what is owed to creditors as part of their court-approved payment plans. A court will only approve a debtor's chapter 13 payment plan if a debtor contributes all of his "projected disposable income" to pay creditors over the "applicable commitment period." While disposable income is defined as the "current monthly income …

The Debtor’S Absolute Right To Dismiss A Chapter 13 Case, Jared Brady

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Under section 1307(b) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”), a debtor has an absolute right to dismiss a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. A bankruptcy case may be voluntarily filed under any chapter so long as the individual is eligible to be a debtor under the chapter selected. Section 1307(b) requires the court, on request of the debtor, to dismiss a Chapter 13 case if the case has not already been converted from Chapter 7 or Chapter 11.

This memorandum addresses a debtor’s right to dismiss a Chapter 13 case in three sections. Section one …

Fines, Fees, And Filing Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey

Scholarly Works

This essay was written in conjunction with the “Court Debt”: Fines, Fees, and Bail, Circa 2020 symposium held during the Association of American Law Schools' 2019 annual meeting. The essay details the extent to which "court debt" -- civil and criminal fines, fees, and interest -- can be dealt with by filing bankruptcy. In short, although filing bankruptcy on balance may help people deal with court debt and other debts, the barriers that people face to filing raise questions about the accessibility of civil courts and suggest that the consumer bankruptcy system itself is yet another place in which race …

Driven To Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne

Scholarly Works

Over the last ten years, 15.1 million people filed for bankruptcy owning 16.4 million cars. These cars provided access to work, education, medical care, childcare, food, and other life necessities. They also were major household investments, the most expensive asset most bankruptcy filers owned other than a house. Using original data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, we document what happens to car owners and their car loans when they enter bankruptcy. In brief, we find that people who file bankruptcy own automobiles at the same rate as the general population, and that they overwhelmingly indicate that they want to use …

Race And Bankruptcy: Explaining Racial Disparities In Consumer Bankruptcy, Edward R. Morrison, Belisa Pang, Antoine Uettwiller

Faculty Scholarship

African American bankruptcy filers select Chapter 13 far more often than other debtors, who opt instead for Chapter 7, which has higher success rates and lower attorneys’ fees. Prior scholarship blames racial discrimination by attorneys. We propose an alternative explanation: Chapter 13 offers benefits, including retention of cars and driver’s licenses, that are more valuable to African American debtors because of relatively long commutes. We study a 2011 policy change in Chicago, which seized cars and suspended licenses of consumers with large traffic-related debts. The policy produced a large increase in Chapter 13 filings, especially by African Americans. Two mechanisms …

Life In The Sweatbox, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne

Scholarly Works

The time before a person files bankruptcy is sometimes called the financial “sweatbox.” Using original data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, we find that people are living longer in the sweatbox before filing bankruptcy than they have in the past. We also describe the depletion of wealth and well-being that defines people’s time in the sweatbox. For those people who struggle for more than two years before filing bankruptcy — the “long strugglers” — their time in the sweatbox is particularly damaging. During their years in the sweatbox, long strugglers deal with persistent collection calls, go without healthcare, food, and …

Tipping The Scales: Balancing The Weight Of Equity With Loan Rescissions In Bankruptcy, Corey Scott Hadley

Maine Law Review

Prior to the passage of the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) in 1968, consumers were vulnerable to many deceptive practices employed by creditors when participating in loan transactions. Following the passage of TILA, it was the hope of Congress that consumers would now have the tools necessary to fend off predatory or deceptive credit terms buried within the fine print of a loan agreement. One of the options afforded to consumers facing a suspect loan agreement is the right to rescission. When lenders, creditors, and other parties in the credit transaction “fail to provide the consumer with proper disclosures about the loan …

"No Money Down" Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article reports on a breakdown in access to justice in bankruptcy, a system from which one million Americans will seek help this year. A crucial decision for these consumers will be whether to file a chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy. Nearly every aspect of their bankruptcies — both the benefits and the burdens of debt relief — will be different in chapter 7 versus chapter 13. Almost all consumers will hire a bankruptcy attorney. Because they must pay their attorneys, many consumers will file chapter 13 to finance their access to the law, rather than because they prefer …

Attorneys' Fees And Chapter Choice: Exploring "No Money Down" Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In a forthcoming article in the Southern California Law Review, the authors use new data from the ongoing Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP) to explore the "no money down" bankruptcy. This article summarizes that article and discusses the law that influenced the creation of "no money down" chapter 13s, which households are more likely to file with "no money down," and why this type of chapter 13 case might be less than optimal for the consumer bankruptcy system. Both studies draw data from a debtor's bankruptcy court records and written questionnaires mailed to the debtors to collect demographic information and details …

Consumer Bankruptcy Pathologies, Edward R. Morrison, Antoine Uettwiller

Faculty Scholarship

This paper questions several long-standing descriptions of consumer bankruptcy in the United States. We focus on Chapter 13, which discharges debts after consumers pay disposable income to creditors for up to five years. Many studies document pathologies, including high failure rates, racial disparities, low creditor recoveries, and attorney biases. We observe the same patterns in new data drawn from Cook County, Illinois, but show that these pathologies are central tendencies that ignore substantial heterogeneity across consumers. Several pathologies are driven by subsets of consumers; some disappear once we take account of consumer heterogeneity. We present new evidence that some pathologies …

'No Money Down' Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne

Scholarly Works

This Article reports on a breakdown in access to justice in bankruptcy, a system from which one million Americans will seek help this year. A crucial decision for these consumers will be whether to file a chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy. Nearly every aspect of their bankruptcies — both the benefits and the burdens of debt relief — will be different in chapter 7 versus chapter 13. Almost all consumers will hire a bankruptcy attorney. Because they must pay their attorneys, many consumers will file chapter 13 to finance their access to the law, rather than because they prefer …

Ten Years After Consumer Bankruptcy Reform In The United States: A Decade Of Diminishing Hope And Fairness, Robert J. Landry Iii

Catholic University Law Review

The tenth anniversary of the effective date of Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (Reform Act), the largest reform to the consumer bankruptcy in the United States in a quarter of a century, will be marked in October of 2015. Prior to, and since its passage, scores of scholars have theorized about the impact of the Reform Act. The vast majority of research since its passage shows that the Reform Act has not had a long-term impact on filing rates. With this backdrop, the paper explores how the virtues of fairness for creditors and hope for individuals …

Not So Secure: Should Social Security Benefits Be Considered In The Good Faith Analysis Under 11 U.S.C. § 1325(A)(3)?, Casey J. Davis

Akron Law Review

Part II of this Comment provides background information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy. This section is important because it provides a foundation for the remainder of this Comment. Part III of this Comment explores the source of this split and how the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (“BAPCPA”) has affected this issue. Within Part III, this Comment will discuss why Congress enacted BAPCPA, the largest overhaul of bankruptcy law since its origin, and why BAPCPA did not affect the good faith requirement under § 1325(a)(3) even though BAPCPA drastically altered bankruptcy law. In addition, this section also …

The Chapter 13 Debtor's Absolute Right To Dismiss, Daniel J. Sheffner

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article discusses the current state of the Chapter 13 dismissal circuit split, providing an overview of 1307(b) and other relevant sections of the Bankruptcy Code, illustrative pre Marrama case law on either side of the divide, and the Marrama decision itself. This Part examines Marrama’s role in shifting the debate from one based primarily on 1307’s text to that of the bankruptcy courts’ general powers to sanction bad faith conduct, as well as lower courts’ responses to that decision. Part III examines Law, paying special attention to the Court’s discussion of the limitations placed on bankruptcy courts’ statutory and …

Whether Undistributed Chapter 13 Payment Plan Funds Held By A Chapter 13 Trustee Should Be Distributed To The Debtor Or The Debtor’S Creditors After Conversion From Chapter 13 To Chapter 7, Rosa Aliberti

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Qualified individuals seeking to reorganize their debts may file under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. Under chapter 13, a debtor makes payments according to a court approved payment plan, which is administered by a chapter 13 trustee, and remains in possession of all the property of the estate. Once a debtor makes all his payments under the chapter 13 payment plan, he has a right to seek a discharge, provided that he meets certain requirements. These requirements include that the debtor: (1) certifying that he paid all domestic support obligations prior to the certification being made; (2) received …

Self-Employed Debtors Face A Hard Truth When Calculating Their Current Monthly Income For The Applicable Commitment Periods Under Chapter 13 Plans, Arthur Rushforth

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

A bankruptcy court may confirm a debtor’s chapter 13 plan of reorganization if the requirements of section 1325(a) of the Bankruptcy Code are satisfied. If the chapter 13 trustee or an unsecured creditor objects to the confirmation of the plan, however, the bankruptcy court may only confirm the plan if it either provides for the repayment in full of claims or that the debtor must devote all of his projected disposable income towards payments of his unsecured creditors during the plan’s “applicable commitment period.” The debtor’s applicable commitment period is five years if the debtor’s current monthly income exceeds …

Discharging Non-Filing Co-Debtor Debt Under Chapter 13, Carly Krupnick

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

During chapter 13 proceedings, both the debtor and the non-filing co-debtor are protected from their creditors by a stay. Once a bankruptcy petition is filed, section 362(a) of the Bankruptcy Code creates an “automatic stay” that operates by halting almost all actions by creditors against the debtor and his property to collect a prepetition debt. In a chapter 13 bankruptcy case, section 1301(a) provides that the filing of the petition also automatically creates a co-debtor stay that generally prevents a creditor from taking any “act[ion], or commenc[ing] or continu[ing] any civil action, to collect all or any part of …

Should A Bankruptcy Court Consider A Debtor’S Social Security Income When Determining Whether His Chapter 13 Plan Is Feasible?, Sarah M. Roe

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code provides individuals the opportunity to reorganize their debt obligations. This adjustment chapter permits an individual debtor to keep his nonexempt assets but requires that he make payments for three to five years through a repayment plan. During this repayment period, the individual debtor uses his disposable income to fulfill his debts. After all of the payments are made to creditors, the debtor receives a discharge.

If the trustee or an unsecured creditor objects to the plan, a court must determine if the plan can fulfill the unsecured claim and allow the debtor’s “projected …

The Unlucky Penny: How $0.01 In Collateral Value Can Limit The Debtor's Ability To Strip Off A Junior Mortgage In A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Proceeding, Keri Mahoney

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Home Mortgage Strip Down In Chapter 13 Bankruptcy: A Contextual Approach To Sections 1322(B)(2) And (B)(5), Mark S . Scarberry, Scott M. Reddie

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mortgage Wars Episode V - The Empiricist Strikes Back (Or Out): A Reply To Professor Levitin's Response , Mark S. Scarberry

Pepperdine Law Review

Professor Adam Levitin has responded to my recent symposium article critiquing proposed congressional legislation that would allow modification (including strip down) of home mortgages in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. A portion of my Critique criticized his empirical studies concerning the likely effect of the proposed legislation on mortgage interest rates and availability, and also criticized the arguments he has made in support of the proposed legislation. The Critique did note, however, that the insight involved in conceiving of such empirical studies was impressive. Surprisingly, Professor Levitin’s Response fails to deal with the substantial case authority discussed in my Critique. He treats …