The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that 11 U.S.C. § 1307(b) requires a bankruptcy court to dismiss a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition upon a debtor’s request, even if the debtor filed his or her petition in bad faith.

A copy of the opinion in In re Ronald Smith is available at: Link to Opinion.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently affirmed a trial court’s denial of a consumer’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan that proposed a “partial surrender” of a cross-collateralized loan.

In so ruling, the Fifth Circuit held that the text of 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(5) allows debtors to select a different option “with respect to each allowed secured claim,” but it does not allow a debtor to select different options for different collateral securing the same claim.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of a borrower’s petition seeking relief under the federal All Writs Act for purported violations of the automatic bankruptcy stay in continued foreclosure proceedings and purported violations of the borrower’s rights to remove the state court proceedings to the bankruptcy court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that loans incurred by a debtor to pay university tuition were “qualified education loans” under the Bankruptcy Code and thus were not dischargeable.

In so ruling, the Sixth Circuit rejected the debtor’s arguments that:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that property in which a debtor’s dependent son lived part-time with his father qualified for the so-called homestead exemption contained in section 522(d)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code, regardless of state law.

The year 2020 in bankruptcy law started with an eye on increasing the ability of small businesses to utilize the Chapter 11 process in a more efficient and less expensive way, which lead to a record number of commercial filings, a reduction in consumer filings, and a test of the bankruptcy system.

SBRA aka Subchapter V

Last week saw the government further extend COVID-19 emergency insolvency provisions until 31 March 2021. Since April, these have:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently reversed an award of summary judgment in favor of a defendant debt collector against claims that it violated the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by attempting to collect a debt that was discharged in bankruptcy and no longer owed.

What are the principal types of insolvency proceedings?

In our previous update dated 5 November 2020, we looked at when it is reasonable for insolvency practitioners to continue litigation. In this article, we explore the circumstances in which personal costs orders may be made against liquidators.

Key points