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new bankruptcy law changes
bankruptcy in northern district of Georgia
Georgia bankruptcy practice and procedure

Jonathan Ginsberg’s Observations About Bankruptcy Practice and  Procedure Changes Under the New Bankruptcy Law

The new bankruptcy law went into effect on October 17, 2005 and since that time I have filed many cases under the new rules.  Several of these cases involve debtors who straddle the line between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, and several have given rise to litigation.  I will add or delete my observations over time.  Here are my observations so far:

• required documentation production is a must - the new law requires that debtors produce a great deal of documentation, including copies of tax returns, proof of pay stubs for the six months prior to filing, proof of budget expenditures, proof of mortgage payments, proof of insurance and other documents.  At my office I am now requiring that these documents be provided to me before we file
   
• both Chapter 7 trustees and Chapter 13 trustees are scrutinizing budgets carefully.  If you tithe, they will want proof.  If you belong to a health club they will want to know why.  I even had an objection to a $5 per month allocation for newspaper/magazine subscriptions.  Assume that every item on Schedules I and J (your budget) will be scrutinized
   
• there seems to be a trend to disallow budget allocations for college aged children.  I am currently dealing with objections from both a Chapter 7 trustee and a Chapter 13 trustee to budget allocations for a college aged child’s vehicle, housing and living expenses. I do not know yet how this will turn out
   
• the Chapter 13 trustees in the Northern District of Georgia have flip-flopped on several long standing policies.  For example, pre-October 17, we always provided that student loans could be paid as a special class/100% in the Chapter 13 plan.  Under the new law, student loans are paid like any other unsecured debt, which means that after the bankruptcy is over the debtor will have to deal with this student loan debt
   
• I will continue to report on consumer bankruptcy practice under the BAPCPA changes to the bankruptcy law. You can keep up with what I am doing on my Atlanta bankruptcy blog.  My colleague, Scott Riddle, publishes another Georgia bankruptcy blog that discusses 11th Circuit and Georgia bankruptcy case law, and I am a regular contributor to the Bankruptcy Law Network family of blogs.

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