Yes. The Canadian Old Age Security benefits received by the debtors were not included in the debtors’ current monthly income under Code § 101(10A) because § 101(10A)(B) excludes from the calculation of current monthly income any benefits received under the Social Security Act and a U.S.-Canadian treaty, the Agreement with Respect to Social Security, mandates…

Finding Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, 758 F.3d 1254 (11th Cir. July 10, 2014) “particularly persuasive” on an issue on which debtors have had difficulty getting traction, the district court held that a creditor’s filing a proof of claim for a time-barred debt in a bankruptcy case may violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act,…

Two recent Court of Appeals decisions took different approaches in determining whether a debtor’s nonpayment of a tax liability was “willful” for the purpose of Code § 523(a)(1)(C), which renders a tax debt nondischargeable if the debtor “willfully attempted in any manner to evade or defeat such tax.” The Tenth Circuit, in In re Vaughn,…

Yes. Affirming In re Salas, 2014 WL 92728 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. Jan. 9, 2014), the district court held that the Chapter 13 debtor, in calculating her projected disposable income, could deduct a first mortgage payment that she was not actually making, where the debtor retained the property and sought to work out a mortgage modification…

The Chapter 7 debtors’ case would be dismissed for cause under Code § 707(a) where the debtors derived a significant portion of their household income from the cultivation and sale of marijuana under a license granted by the state of Colorado following the legalization of marijuana in that state, and the marijuana plants, which the…

Yes. Affirming In re Seare, 493 B.R. 158 (Bankr. D. Nev. April 9, 2013), the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel held that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in sanctioning an attorney who, in representing a married couple that filed a Chapter 7 petition, entered into a retainer agreement with the debtors that…