When a chapter 13 bankruptcy debtor’s circumstances change during the case, making it difficult for the debtor to continue making payments under the chapter 13 plan, the debtor should ask his or her lawyer about converting the case to chapter 7. North Carolina bankruptcy lawyer Adrian Lapas posted an article here recently (February 4, 2011) explaining how converting a chapter 13 [...]
Means Testing
Five years after bankruptcy reform, and millions of cases later, the Supreme Court is still deciding issues affecting the most basic administration of bankruptcy cases. The latest case, In re Ransom, held a debtor may not deduct an ownership expense on the Statement of Current Monthly Income [B22C] for a vehicle that was not encumbered [...]
Few concepts are as difficult to grasp for a potential bankruptcy debtor than the “means test,” which Congress added to the bankruptcy law in 2005. To be sure, the means test can be confusing, and it has been roundly criticized both by lawyers and by judges in bankruptcy court decisions. While this brief article will [...]
The new median family income numbers used for determining whether a debtor can file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy went into effect today, November 1, 2010. The numbers are provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. The means test was one of the major changes that occurred as part of Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) [...]
A little over a year ago, Bankruptcy Law Network contributor Cathy Moran wrote a post on this blog about the 9th Circuit’s decision in the MBNA v. Ransom case. At issue was the question of whether an above-median debtor could claim the “ownership deduction” in a means test calculation even if that debtor owned his [...]
The income figures used for determining bankruptcy eligibility are changing again November 1, 2010. The numbers come from the Census Bureau, which reports median family income by state. The U.S. Trustee takes that data and updates the bankruptcy means test. The U.S. Trustee expects to post modified revised means test charts to its website on [...]
