TLM 6-9: - Home | Wolters Kluwer Legal Education
TO LEARN MORE ACTIVITIES to accompanyThe ABCs of Debt: A Case Study Approach to Debtor-Creditor Relations and Bankruptcy Law, by Stephen P. Parsons (5th edition)For Chapter One:TLM: 1-1: Using the follow-up questions you came up with in P-H 1-d, 1-b or 1-g, draft a letter to one or more of those clients for review by your supervising attorney requesting that additional information.TLM 1-2: Using the circumstances of David Mendoza from Case Study #2, review the criminal statutes of your state and prepare a brief memo summarizing the crime(s) with which David could be charged in your state as a result of using the false financial statements to procure his loan from City County Bank.TLM 1-3 (Historical): The origins of modern day consumer credit go back to 1812 when Cowperthwaite & Sons, a New York City furniture retailer, began allowing customers to pay for their furniture in installments. The practice of selling on credit coincided with the industrial revolution and fueled the demand for farm equipment like Cyrus McCormick’s Virginia reaper and home appliances like the new Singer sewing machine. An excellent source for learning about the history of consumer credit is Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer Credit, by Lendol Calder (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton U. Press, 1999). Credit cards are so common today that we take them for granted. But they really haven’t been around that long and the history of their development and use is interesting.TLM 1-4 (Historical): Debtor-creditor relations played a significant role in the decision of this country’s founding generation to hold what is now remembered as the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1787. Research the history of Shay’s Rebellion (which actually began in the summer of 1786 and resulted in bloodshed in January 1787) and its role in inspiring the convention in Philadelphia the following summer that resulted in the writing of our great Constitution. As one early historian said concerning the rebels, “They groaned under ancient debts, made still more burdensome by an increase in interest.” Here are some good sources to use: History of the Insurrections in Massachusetts in 1786 and of the Rebellion Consequent Thereon, by Gorge Richards Minot (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971; original dated 1788); Shay’s Rebellion: The Making of an American Agrarian Insurrection, by David P. Szatmary (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980); Shay’s Rebellion, by Leonard L. Richards (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002); and The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Wrote the Constitution, by David O. Stewart (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007).For Chapter Two:TLM 2-1: Credit Reports and Regulation of Credit Reporting AgenciesFor the Individual ConsumerA credit report is a compilation of the debt history and bill-payment record of a consumer. Credit reports are compiled by businesses known as credit reporting agencies (CRAs)or credit bureaus using information supplied by a consumer’s creditors (e.g., credit card issuers, mortgage holders, auto financing companies, landlords), debt collection agencies (see Chapter Six), and public records including court records (e.g., bankruptcy filings and collection suits). The reports are compiled and sold by the credit reporting agency to persons and businesses authorized to investigate the credit worthiness or financial responsibility of the consumer. CRAs and the contents of credit reports, access to them, use of them, and correction of errors in them is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. §1681 et seq., and its implementing regulation, Regulation V (12 CFR Part 222). Many states supplement the provisions of the FCRA with their own statutes or regulations. Separate from the credit report itself, credit reporting agencies calculate and make available for purchase a credit score for the consumer. There are a number of different credit scoring models but the most popular one is the FICO credit-risk score developed by Fair Isaac Corporation of San Rafael, California. FICO scores range between 300 and 850: the higher the score, the greater the perceived credit worthiness of the consumer. The score is calculated based on a statistical analysis of the relevant data in the consumer’s credit report (e.g., length of credit history; types of loans or credit obtained; timeliness of payments; on revolving credit accounts, the ratio of balance owed to credit limits; credit or loan applications denied; collection actions and court judgments; tax or other involuntary liens; bankruptcies filed). Currently the median FICO score is 723.The data contained in the credit report, and the credit score in particular, are used by those authorized to access the data to make decisions such as whether to make a loan or extend credit to the consumer, whether to lease a house or apartment to them, whether to issue a policy of insurance and the amount of the premium (consumers with higher credit scores often get lower premiums), and even whether to hire them for a job. The consumer’s credit score may not only determine whether a loan will be made or credit extended, but the size of loan or amount of credit the lender is willing to extend to the consumer and even the interest rate to be charged. Consumers who present safer credit risks to lenders often receive more generous loans or higher credit limits at lower interest rates and even lower premium rates on insurance.Approximately 3 billion consumer credit reports are issued by credit reporting agencies each year in the United States and more than 36 billion updates are made to credit reports annually.EC: It is increasingly common for employers to perform routine credit checks on job applicants. A 2008 study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that approximately 43 percent of American employers do so, up from 36 percent in 2004. Is it right for a well-qualified person in need of a job to be eliminated from consideration solely because of a poor credit history? Is this a modern form of the old debtor’s prison? Is this issue a greater concern in a time of economic stress and high unemployment? Should we have more controls on the circumstances under which an employer can check a worker’s credit history? Should we have more controls over the use that an inquiring employer can make of that information? There are proposals pending in several state legislatures and in Congress to restrict the use of a credit report/score in making employment decisions unless one’s credit risk is specifically relevant to the position. The EEOC is considering proposing regulations restricting the practice. What do you think?The Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation B, 12 CFR Part 202, implementing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, requires that any scoring model used to calculate a credit score be “empirically derived, demonstrably and statistically sound.” A lender cannot use any credit score that was calculated on a scoring model using prohibited factors such as gender, race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, that all or part of the applicant’s income derives from public assistance, or that the applicant is or is likely to become a parent. The age of an applicant cannot be used as a negative factor by the scoring model though it can be considered as a relevant predictive variable. When credit is denied to an applicant, the applicant is entitled to be notified in writing of the adverse action and, upon request made within 60 days following the notification, be given specific reasons for the denial. General statements that the application did not meet the lender’s minimum requirements or that the applicant’s credit score was too low are insufficient. The Dodd-Frank Act, referenced earlier in connection with payday loans, now requires the lender to provide the borrower with his or her credit score any time that score was a factor in the decision to deny a loan or credit application. See P-H 3-k.Example If a consumer applies for a car loan and is turned down, it is insufficient for the lender to explain the denial by saying, “Your credit score wasn’t high enough.” The lender must advise the consumer in writing of the denial and, if the applicant timely requests an explanation, say something like, “According to your credit report you made several late payments on your last car loan,” or “You’re carrying too much credit card debt from month to month for us to feel confident that you can handle these payments.” Anytime the credit score was a reason for the denial the lender must also tell the borrower what their credit score was.There are 30-some-odd true CRAs around the country but only three nationally recognized agencies:Experian ()Equifax () andTransUnion ()These three CRAs maintain records on more than 200 million Americans compiled from more than 10,000 information providers.Personal information that appears in a consumer’s credit report includes full name—including maiden name and known variations used (e.g., Bob for Robert, Beth for Elizabeth)—nicknames, current and recent addresses, Social Security number, driver’s license by state of issue and number, date of birth, and current and previous employers.Financial/credit information appearing in the report includes a list of accounts opened in the consumer’s name or that list the consumer as an authorized user (e.g., as on a spouse’s account); account details, including date the account was opened and type of account (e.g., revolving credit or installment loan); loan or credit limit; payment terms; balances; and payment history, including late payments. Closed or inactive accounts may stay on the report for several years after the last activity in them. Unpaid child support obligations and overdrawn checking accounts may also be reported and rmation acquired from public records and made part of the report may include bankruptcy filings, collection suits and judgments, foreclosure actions and repossessions, involuntary liens, prejudgment attachments, and writs of execution and wage garnishments. Most public record information remains on the report for seven rmation that cannot be included in a credit report includes checking or savings accounts, bankruptcies that are more than ten years old, charged-off debts or debts placed for collection that are more than seven years old, gender, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, medical history, or criminal convictions more than seven years old.The FCRA carefully regulates who can access a consumer’s credit report. Illustration TLM 2-1-a lists the persons and entities entitled to access a consumer’s credit report and score.Lawyers and those assisting them in collection efforts on behalf of clients must use great caution before attempting to access a debtor’s credit report without the debtor’s written consent. 41 U.S.C. §1681q provides as follows:Any person who knowingly and willfully obtains information on a consumer from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses shall be fined under Title 18, imprisoned for not more than two years, or both.Illustration: PERSONS ENTITLED TO ACCESS A CONSUMER’S CREDIT REPORTPotential lenders or extenders of creditPotential landlordsCurrent creditors making inquiry to determine whether the consumer continues to meet the terms of an accountInsurance companies to whom the creditor has made applicationEmployers and potential employers (usually only with the consumer’s written consent)Companies the consumer allows to monitor their account for signs of identity theftAgencies considering the consumer’s application for a government license or benefitA state or local child support enforcement agencyAny government agency (although they may be allowed to view only certain portions)Someone using the report to provide a product or service the consumer has requestedAnyone having written authorization from the consumerThe consumer himselfEC: Jim is a legal professional working for the attorney who represents Carroll Properties, Inc., a real estate leasing company. Carroll Properties has leased a house to a couple, Mike and Shirley Dunbar, for the past year. The lease is up and the Dunbars would like to renew but they made a couple of late payments near the end of the year’s lease term. Carroll Properties hasn’t decided whether to re-lease the space to them. The client has asked its lawyer to check the Dunbars’ credit report and the lawyer has assigned that task to Jim. Can Jim legally and ethically go ahead and access the Dunbars’ credit report without more?EC: Jim’s supervising attorney has also been retained by Kimberly Chang to file a negligence lawsuit against William Dupree. Chang was involved in a car accident in which Dupree was the other driver, and Chang alleges that Dupree was at fault. Jim’s supervising attorney directs him to access Dupree’s credit report to see what assets and liabilities it might disclose. Can Jim legally and ethically access Dupree’s credit report without more? Would it be okay for Jim to contact the credit reporting agency and identify himself as a bank officer considering a loan to Dupree in order to obtain the credit report? Why or why not?Major issues that arise in connection with credit reports are the frequency of errors contained in them and the difficulty consumers have historically encountered in getting errors removed or corrected. A study released by the California Public Interest Research Group in June 2004 () found that 79 percent of the consumer credit reports surveyed contained some kind of error or mistake. Partially in response to this problem and partially in response to the growing problem of identity theft, Congress passed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA). FACTA amended the FCRA to allow consumers to obtain a free copy of their credit report once every 12 months from each of the three leading CRAs (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). In cooperation with the Federal Trade Commission, the three companies operate the Web site where consumers may request their report. The free report mandated by FACTA is a summary only and does not include the consumer’s credit score. The consumer must pay a small fee to receive his or her credit score unless he or she has been denied a loan or credit based on the score, in which case the lender denying the application must disclose the score to the consumer.Under FCRA, both the CRA and the information provider are responsible to correct inaccurate or incomplete information in a credit report. When the consumer notifies the CRA of a dispute concerning an inaccurate or incomplete entry, the agency must investigate the dispute within 30 days of receipt unless it deems the complaint frivolous and respond in writing to the consumer when the investigation is complete. The agency must also contact the information provider, who must investigate and respond to the credit agency. If one credit reporting agency confirms an inaccuracy and corrects it, it must also notify the other two national agencies so those records can be corrected as well. The Illustration below shows a consumer dispute letter form.Illustration: CONSUMER DISPUTE LETTER REGARDING ALLEGED CREDIT REPORT ERRORDateYour NameYour Address, City, State, Zip CodeComplaint DepartmentName of CompanyAddressCity, State, Zip CodeDear Sir or Madam:I am writing to dispute the following information in my file. I have circled the items I dispute on the attached copy of the report I received.This item (identify item(s) disputed by name of source, such as creditors or tax court, and identify type of item, such as credit account, judgment, etc.) is (inaccurate or incomplete) because (describe what is inaccurate or incomplete and why). I am requesting that the item be removed (or request another specific change) to correct the information.Enclosed are copies of (use this sentence if applicable and describe any enclosed documentation, such as payment records, court documents) supporting my position. Please reinvestigate this (these) matter(s) and (delete or correct) the disputed item(s) as soon as possible.Sincerely,Your nameEnclosures: (List what you are enclosing.)(Source: Federal Trade Commission Consumer Protection Web site: bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre21.shtms)FACTA also contains provisions intended to help reduce identity theft, including authorizing consumers to place alerts on their credit histories if identity theft is suspected or if deploying overseas in the military, thereby making fraudulent applications for credit more difficult. Under FACTA, mortgage lenders must now provide consumer borrowers with a Credit Disclosure Notice that includes their credit scores, range of scores, credit bureaus, scoring models, and factors affecting their scores.Notwithstanding these attempts at regulation, the number of errors found in consumer credit reports remains high and many “investigations” into complaints of errors amount to nothing more than reconfirming inaccurate information provided by creditors. Effective September 1, 2012, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau assumed direct oversight of the 30 largest credit reporting agencies, which together make up about 94 percent of the industry. There are high hopes among consumer advocates that the CFPB will finally put real teeth in regulating credit reporting agencies and the creditors who submit information to them.P-H: In a study released in early 2013, the FTC reported that 26 percent of the participants surveyed cite at least one major error in their credit history as maintained by one of the big four CRAs. Most errors are caused by inaccurate data provided to CRAs by lenders and other creditors. For 5.2 percent of the survey participants, the error in their credit history produced a quantifiable negative result, which made it more costly for them to acquire a loan or insurance. Consumers successfully dispute an error and achieve a correction to their credit report that results in an upward adjustment of their credit score about 13 percent of the time, according to the study. See a summary of the study at opa/2013/02/creditreport.shtm. What other findings of the study are interesting to you? For the industry’s happy face response to the FTC report, see the press release of the Consumer Data Industry Association at : Look at the CFPB site () and determine 1) what reports the CFPB has issued since September 1, 2012, regarding CRAs, and 2) what regulations for CRAs it has proposed or implemented.For a Business EntityWhen a loan is made or credit extended to a business entity, it is usually referred to as a trade credit transaction. There are a number of business credit reporting agencies that collect trade credit information on corporations including limited liability companies and some other types of business, rather than consumers, using the business’s name and employer identification number (EIN) assigned by the IRS. Some of the leading business credit bureaus (not to be confused with companies that provide ratings for corporate bonds) are Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, Equifax Business, and Business Credit, USA.In addition to a credit report, these business credit bureaus calculate a credit score for businesses, usually using a scoring model producing a score range of 0 to 100 with 75 or better being good to excellent. The information in the credit report and the business credit score is made available to subscribing members of the credit bureau for a fee. Business credit bureaus are subject to the provisions of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Federal Reserve Board Regulation B to the extent applicable. They are not subject to the provisions of FCRA except to the extent that they may collect consumer data.Credit reports and scores can become confusing for sole proprietorships (an unincorporated business having a single owner) and partnerships (an unincorporated for-profit business owned by more than one person) that engage in business depending on the credit worthiness of their individual owners. The credit report for such a business may contain a mix of personal as well as business data and the credit score may be based on both personal and business transactions and circumstances.TLM 2-2: Illustration: Personal GuarantyGUARANTY AGREEMENTTHIS GUARANTY, is made this June 1, YR-3, by Abelard Mendoza and wife, Maria Mendoza (the “Guarantors”), to City County Bank of Capitol City, Columbiana (the “Lender”).WHEREAS Lender is the owner and holder of that certain Promissory Note (the “Note”) dated June 1, YR-3 in the original principal amount of $10,000 executed by David Mendoza, (the “Borrower”);WHEREAS to induce Lender to enter into the loan transaction evidenced by the Note (the “Loan”), Guarantor has agreed to guaranty the obligations of Borrower; andWHEREAS Lender is unwilling to enter into the Loan unless Guarantor guarantees the payment thereof;NOW THEREFORE, as a material inducement to Lender to enter into the Loan, Guarantor agrees with Lender as follows:1. The above recitals are true and correct and are incorporated herein.2. To induce Lender to enter into the Loan, Guarantors guarantee and promise to pay to Lender or order, on demand, in lawful money of the United States any and all indebtedness of Borrower to Lender associated with the Loan and any other obligation, indebtedness or liability of every kind and description, direct or indirect, absolute or contingent, due or to become due, now existing or hereafter arising that Borrower may owe to Lender in accordance with the terms of this Guaranty.3. The obligations of Guarantors hereunder are contingent on Borrower’s default on the obligations to Lender for which payment is sought from Guarantors and on Lender’s inability to collect said obligation from Borrower, as default and collection may be defined from time to time by the laws of Columbiana. However, once such default has been established, the obligations of Guarantors on such obligations will be deemed independent of the obligations of Borrower, and a separate action or actions may be brought and be prosecuted against Guarantors and Guarantors waive the benefit of any statute of limitations affecting their liability hereunder or the enforcement thereof.4. Guarantors authorize Lender, without notice or demand and without affecting its liability hereunder, from time to time to (a) renew, compromise, extend, accelerate or otherwise change the time for payment or otherwise change the terms of the indebtedness or any part thereof, including increase or decrease of the rate of interest thereon; (b) take and hold security for the payment of this Guaranty or the indebtedness guaranteed, and exchange, enforce, waive, and release any such security; (c) apply such security and direct the order or manner of sale thereof as Lender in its discretion may determine; and (d) release or substitute any one or more guarantors. Lender may assign this guaranty in whole or in part.5. Guarantors waive any defense arising by reason of any disability or other defense of Borrower except for defenses based on Lender’s default or by reason of the cessation from any cause whatsoever of the liability of Borrower. Guarantors waive all notice of acceptance of this Guaranty, notice of maturity, payment or default of any indebtedness, and any other requirement or notice necessary to bind Guarantors hereunder, including but not limited to presentment, notice of dishonor and protest.6. Guarantors acknowledge that the Loan herein guaranteed may be assigned or transferred (in whole or in part), or made subject to a participation agreement with other lenders or persons. Guarantors agree that the rights and benefits hereof shall be fully exercisable by Lender’s assignees, transferees, or participants in such loans or indebtedness, or any portion thereof, and that no assignment, transfer, or participation shall invalidate or diminish Guarantors’ duties and obligations hereunder.7. Guarantors agree to pay reasonable attorneys’ fees (including attorneys’ fees on appeal) and all other costs and expenses which may be incurred by Lender in the enforcement of this Guaranty.8. This Guaranty shall be interpreted, construed and enforced according to the laws of the State of Columbiana.IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned Guarantors have executed this Guaranty the day and year first above written.______________________ /s/ _____________________Abelard Mendoza, Guarantor_______________________ /s/ ____________________Maria Mendoza, GuarantorFor Chapter Three:TLM 3-1: For each of the statutory liens discussed in this chapter, determine whether your state recognizes them and outline the procedure to be followed in creating and perfecting those liens. Also determine in what public office federal tax liens are to be filed in your state. See if your state recognizes any possessory liens other than those mentioned in this chapter and include them in your summary. Prepare a memorandum summarizing your research.TLM 3-2: Assume the RCS dispute discussed in this chapter occurs in your state. Prepare a memorandum summarizing how a mechanics lien works under the laws of your state. Who can file such a lien? What are the controlling time frames for filing the notice of lien and filing suit to enforce the lien for general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, architects, etc. Can a mechanics lien be filed by contractors who work on residential property (that is restricted in some states)? Is there a relation back feature under the statute in your state and, if so, how does it work? Does the relation back feature work differently for one who contracted directly with the owner (general contractor and architect) than for one who did not (subcontractor, supplier to contractor or subcontractor)? TLM 3-3: To protect subcontractors and suppliers on federal projects, where the contract price exceeds $100,000.00, the Miller Act, 40 U.S.C. §3131, requires general contractors to provide a surety bond which guarantees payment for work done in accordance with the terms of the contract. Many state and municipal governments similarly require contractors on public works projects to be bonded. Research the laws of your state to determine if any similar requirements are imposed on contractors involved in state or local public works projects. Prepare a memorandum summarizing your research.TLM 3-4: Who can claim an artisan’s lien under the laws of your state? What priority, if any, do such liens enjoy over pre-existing claims to the burdened property? Prepare a memorandum summarizing your findings.TLM 3-5: Take a close look at the provisions of 26 U.S.C §6323(b) detailing the kinds of claims to property that will take priority over an existing perfected federal tax lien. We considered one such claim in connection with the tax lien of a state government. What other kinds of claims can take priority over the perfected federal tax lien? What was the policy dictating Congress’s decision to allow such priorities to exist? TLM 3-6: State Child Support LienNORTH CAROLINA CHILD SUPPORT LIEN STATUTE (N.C. GEN. STAT. §44-86)LIENS FOR OVERDUE CHILD SUPPORT§44-86. Lien on real and personal property of person owing past-due child support; definitions; filing required; discharge.(b) Lien Created.—There is created a general lien upon the real and personal property of any person who is delinquent in the payment of court-ordered child support. For purposes of this section, an obligor is delinquent when arrears under a court-ordered child support obligation equals three months of payments or three thousand dollars ($3,000), whichever occurs first. The amount of the lien shall be determined by a verified statement of child support delinquency prepared in accordance with subsection (c) of this section.(c) Contents of Statement; Verification.—A verified statement of child support delinquency shall contain the following information:(1) The caption and file docket number of the case in which child support was ordered;(2) The date of the order of support;(3) The amount of the child support obligation established by the order; and(4) The amount of the arrearage as of the date of the statement.The statement shall be verified by the designated representative in a IV-D case and by the obligee in a non-IV-D case.(d) Filing and Perfection of Lien.—The verified statement shall be filed in the office of the clerk of superior court in the county in which the child support was ordered. At the time of filing the verified statement, the designated representative in a IV-D case and the obligee in a non-IV-D case shall serve notice on the obligor that the statement has been filed. The notice shall be served and the return of service filed with the clerk of court in accordance with Rule 4 of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. The notice shall specify the manners in which the lien may be discharged. Upon perfection of the lien, as set forth herein, the clerk shall docket and index the statement on the judgment docket. The clerk shall issue a transcript of the docketed statement to the clerk of any other county as requested by the designated representative in a IV-D case or the obligee in a non-IV-D case. The clerk receiving the transcript shall docket and index the transcript. A lien on personal property attaches when the property is seized by the sheriff. A lien on real property attaches when the perfected lien is docketed and indexed on the judgment docket.(1) IV-D Cases.—In IV-D cases, the filing of a verified statement with the clerk of court by the designated representative shall perfect the lien. The obligor may contest the lien by motion in the cause.(2) Non-IV-D Cases.—In a non-IV-D case, the notice to the obligor of the filing of the verified statement shall state that the obligor has 30 days from the date of service to request a hearing before a district court judge to contest the validity of the lien. If the obligor fails to contest the lien after 30 days from the time of service, the obligee may make application to the clerk, and the clerk shall record and index the lien on the judgment docket. If the obligee files a petition contesting the validity of the lien, a hearing shall be held before a district court judge to determine whether the lien is valid and proper. In contested cases, the clerk of court shall record and index the lien on the judgment docket only by order of the judge. The docketing of a verified statement in a non-IV-D case shall perfect the lien when duly recorded and indexed.(e) Lien Superior to Subsequent Liens.—Except as otherwise provided by law, a lien established in accordance with this section shall take priority over all other liens subsequently acquired and shall continue from the date of filing until discharged in accordance with G.S. 44-87.(f) Execution on the Lien.—A designated representative in a IV-D case, after 30 days from the docketing of the perfected lien, or an obligee in a non-IV-D case, after docketing the perfected lien, may enforce the lien in the same manner as for a civil judgment.(g) Liens Arising Out-of-State.—This State shall accord full faith and credit to child support liens arising in another state when the child support enforcement agency, party, or other entity seeking to enforce the lien complies with the requirements relating to recording and serving child support liens as set forth in this Article and with the requirements relating to the enforcement of foreign judgments as set forth in Chapter 1C of the General Statutes.TLM 3-7: The IRS recently eased and expedited the process of subordinating a federal tax lien to a private mortgage if the agency concludes that doing so may ultimately assist in collecting the tax debt. The process of lien subordination normally takes at least 30 days but, with this announcement, the IRS has promised to expedite the process due to the severe economic downturn. With interest rates dropping, distressed homeowners are seeking to refinance their homes to lower their monthly mortgage payment to a range they can handle. But if a federal tax lien has been placed on the property and has priority over the existing mortgage, most lenders are reluctant to refinance, knowing that the first proceeds of the loan must go to satisfy the tax lien. Subordination of the tax lien to the existing private mortgage is expected to remove that obstacle and encourage lenders to process the refinancing of the private mortgage. As that refinanced loan is paid down, the prospects for ultimate payment of the tax lien will improve. Similarly, distressed homeowners seeking to sell their homes may be effectively prevented from doing so by the presence of a federal tax lien on the property. Interested buyers would either have to borrow sufficient funds to satisfy both the tax lien and the existing private mortgage or purchase the property subject to the tax lien, which they are not likely to do. However, if the tax lien is already subordinate to the existing private mortgage on the property and the value of the property does not exceed the balance of the private mortgage having priority, the homeowner can apply to the IRS for a discharge of the tax lien to enable the sale of the property free and clear of that lien.Read the IRS announcement at: 3-8: More than 40 states recognize a healthcare or hospital lien either by statute or regulation. Nebraska was the first in 1927. How broad are those liens? For example, assume X is injured in a car accident and files a negligence lawsuit against Y, the other driver. X was treated in a hospital for injuries resulting from the accident and that hospital has asserted a healthcare lien in connection with amounts owed to it for the services rendered. Now the insurer who issued X’s auto insurance policy pays out medical benefits under the policy to other providers of X but not to the hospital. Does the hospital lien attach to the proceeds of that insurance policy such that the insurance company violated the hospital’s lien rights in not including it in the payout? Or does the lien only attach to proceeds of X’s lawsuit against Y? Read the decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court in Shelby County Healthcare Corp., v. Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co. at . How did the Tennessee Supreme Court decide that issue and on what basis? How do the courts of other states see it differently? Does your state recognize the healthcare lien? If so, see if you can locate a decision of the courts of your state dealing with the issue raised in Shelby County.For Chapter Four:TLM 4-1: Neither the FDCPA nor state regulation can insure that debt collectors will not be abusive in ways that may or may not be technical violations of the regulations. Go to wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/more/collect.html and read the article posted there, When the Debt Collector Comes Calling.TLM 4-2: Interview an experienced debt collection attorney or paralegal or someone affiliated with a debt collection company. Use the information you have learned from this chapter to prepare your questions. Among your questions consider asking 1) what procedures they have in place to insure compliance with the FDCPA; 2) whether and how they train new employees to do collection work; 3) which provisions of the FDCPA are most difficult to comply with; and 4) how they would change the FDCPA if they could. Prepare a memorandum summarizing your interview.TLM 4-3: A good article on writing an effective and legal demand letter is A Shot Across the Bow: How to Write an Effective Demand Letter, by Bret Rappaport in the Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (JALWD) Vol. 5 Fall 2008 at page 32.TLM 4-4: Many consumers are learning to fight back against abusive debt collectors. Read the article at . Financial guru Dave Ramsey goes off on debt collector abuses at . Watch the ABC Report on debt collection abuses at 4-5: Over the past generation, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has identified a strong congressional policy arising from the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. §1, et seq., in favor of enforcing contractual arbitration agreements that has been applied to drastically limit the power of state law or even private agreement of the parties to limit or negate such agreements. In essence the Supreme Court has ruled in numerous contexts that state common law, statutes, or regulations raised as a defense to the enforcement of an arbitration agreement are preempted by the FAA to the extent that they “apply only to arbitration or that derive their meaning from the fact that an agreement to arbitrate is at issue.” AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333, 339 (2011). See, e.g., Volt Info. Scis. Inc. v. Bd. of Trs. of Leland Stanford Junior University, 489 U.S. 468 (1989) (parties to an arbitration agreement involving an interstate transaction that would normally be governed by the FAA cannot choose in the agreement to be governed instead by state law); Doctor's Assocs. v. Cassarotto, 517 U.S. 681 (1996) (a state cannot require that a contract containing an arbitration clause also contain special notice requirements to ensure that the clause is conspicuous and clear); Preston v. Ferrer, 552 U.S. 346 (2008) (a state cannot prohibit the arbitration of a particular kind of claim); Hall Street Associates, LLC v. Mattel, Inc., 552 U.S. 576 (2008) (a contract containing an arbitration clause may not grant a court discretion to engage in a broader review of the arbitration award than allowed by the FAA); Stolt-Neilsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp., 559 U.S. 662 (2010) (a member of a class cannot be compelled to submit to a class action arbitration when he has not agreed to do so); AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333 (2011) (state rule declaring class arbitration waivers unconscionable in consumer contracts preempted by FAA); American Exp. Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, 133 S. Ct. 2304 (2013) (plaintiffs have no right to litigate a statutory claim for antitrust violation via a class action notwithstanding a mandatory arbitration clause and no-class action arbitration clause in order to achieve the “effective vindication” of their statutory right to sue); Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 584 U.S. ___, ___ Sup. Ct. ___ (2018); 2018 WL 2292444 (private-sector non-union employers can use class action arbitration waiver provisions in employment agreement to bar employees from joining in a class action or collective arbitration to contest alleged wage and hour violations).??????Notwithstanding the FAA and its broad construction by SCOTUS, a few federal statutes specifically restrict the use of mandatory binding arbitration clauses in predispute contracts. Those include:????The Motor Vehicle Franchise Contract Arbitration Fairness Act, 15 U.S.C. §1226, prohibits automobile manufacturers from requiring their franchisees to agree to binding arbitration on a predispute basis.????The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, Subtitle F §670, 10 U.S.C. §987, prohibits creditors from requiring military personnel and dependents to arbitrate consumer credit disputes.????The Farm Bill of 2008, 7 U.S.C. §97(c), requires that growers and producers of livestock or poultry be provided an opportunity to decline to be bound by arbitration provisions on predispute basis.????The Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2009 amended U.S.C. §1303 by including the “Franken Amendment,” detailed in 48 C.F.R. §§222.7400-7405, restricts the use of mandatory arbitration agreements by prohibiting defense contractors from requiring employees or independent contractors to agree to arbitrate claims for violation of civil rights or for sexual assault or harassment.The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 grants the Securities Exchange Commission authority to issue rules prohibiting or limiting the use of predispute agreements with respect to securities claims brought by customers or clients of brokers or dealers and rules prohibiting or limiting the use of predispute agreements with respect to securities claims brought by customers or clients of investment advisors.????Dodd-Frank prohibits lenders from imposing mandatory arbitration in residential mortgages or home equity loans.????Dodd-Frank restricts the enforcement of provisions waiving rights or requiring arbitration in civil cases alleging retaliation by a government agency wherein fraud is reported.TLM 4-6: HISTORY OF THE DEBT BUYING INDUSTRYThere has always been some market for debts that a creditor has given up on and is considering writing off as uncollectible. But the industry boomed as a result of the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s (read the history at bank/historical/history/167_188.pdf) when 118 state and federally insured savings and loan (S&L) institutions holding $43 billion in assets failed in a 2-year period. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insured deposits in those institutions, took over those failing S&Ls and made good all amounts on deposit at the expense of the taxpayers. The Resolution Trade Corporation (RTC) was then formed by the FDIC and began to actively seek buyers willing to purchase the assets of closed S&Ls, including both current and delinquent accounts. Auctions were held around the country at which performing and nonperforming accounts were bundled and sold to the highest bidder with no opportunity by the bidder to evaluate the specific accounts in the bundle purchased. Thus was birthed the modern debt or asset buying industry.For Chapter Five:TLM 5-1:POSTJUDGMENT INTERROGATORIES FROM CAPITAL CITY MEDICAL EQUIPMENT (CCME) TO PEARL MURPHY[STYLE OF CASE OMITTED FROM ILLUSTRATION]INTERROGATORIES IN AID OF JUDGMENTBecause you have failed to pay the full amount of the judgment against you entered in favor of plaintiff, plaintiff has the right to attempt to enforce that judgment by execution on your assets. Plaintiff also may inquire concerning the existence and location of those assets.Pursuant to Rules 33 and 69 of the Columbiana Rules of Civil Procedure you are required to make full and complete answers to the questions set forth below. These answers must be made in writing, under oath, within thirty (30) days after service upon you. Attach additional sheets if necessary to completely answer questions.Should you fail to answer, the court may enter an order imposing sanctions against you. If you do not understand your duty to answer these questions, you should consult a lawyer. If you do not have or know a lawyer, then you should go to or telephone the office set forth below to find out where you can get legal help.[Lawyer Referral Service address and telephone number omitted from Illustration.]1. State whether you are currently employed. If so, state whether you are paid weekly, semimonthly, biweekly, monthly, or in some other fashion. If you are self-employed, state the name of your business, address, nature of your business, and annual income.ANSWER:2. ACCOUNTS: State whether or not you maintain any checking or savings accounts. If so, state the name and location of the banks or savings and loan association or building and loan association or credit union and the branch or branches thereof, the identification (account) numbers of each account, and the amount or amounts you have in each account. If you maintain any of these jointly with another person, give their name and address. Also provide the above information with respect to any such bank accounts that were maintained and were closed within the past twelve (12) months.ANSWER:3. REAL ESTATE: Do you have an ownership or interest in any real estate anywhere in the United States? If so, set forth a brief description thereof, including the lot size and type of construction; the location, including the state, county, and municipality; the volume and page number of the official record; and state further whether you own it solely or together with any other person or persons and give their full name and address. If any of the above properties are mortgaged, supply the name and address of the lender[s], the date and amount of the mortgage, where it is recorded, the monthly payments, and the balance now due.ANSWER:4. DEBTS, NOTES & JUDGMENTS: State the names and addresses of any and all persons whom you believe owe you money and set forth in detail the amount of money owed, the terms of payment, and whether or not you have written evidence of this indebtedness and, if so, the location of such writing. Also, state if the matter is in litigation and, if so, give full details. If you hold a judgment or judgments as security for any of these debts, state where and when the judgment was recorded, and the county, number, and term where the judgment is recorded. If you hold this judgment jointly with any other person or persons, give their name and address.ANSWER:5. INSURANCE: State whether or not you are the owner of any life insurance contracts. If so, state the serial or policy number or numbers of said contract, the face amount, the exact name and address of the insurance company, the named beneficiary or beneficiaries and their present address. If you own this insurance jointly with any other person or persons, give their name and address.ANSWER:6. MORTGAGES: State whether you own any mortgages against real estate owned by any other person in the United States. If so, state whether or not you own this mortgage with any other person or persons and, if so, supply their full name and address. State further the names and addresses of all borrowers and the state and county where said mortgage is recorded together with the number of the volume and the page number.ANSWER:7. AGREEMENTS: State whether you have any agreements involving the purchase of any real estate anywhere in the United States. If so, state with whom this agreement is made, and state whether or not any persons are joined with you in the agreement. Supply full names and addresses of all parties concerned. If the agreement is recorded, provide the state and county of recordation, volume and page numbers.ANSWER:8. STOCKS, SHARES, OR INTERESTS: State whether or not you own any stocks, shares, or interests in any corporation or unincorporated association or partnership, limited or general, and state the location thereof. Include the names and addresses of the organizations and include the serial numbers of the shares or stock. If you own any of the stock, shares, or interests jointly with any other person or persons, give their name and address.ANSWER:9. GOVERNMENT, MUNICIPAL, OR CORPORATE BONDS: State whether or not you own individually or jointly any corporate or governmental bonds including U.S. Savings Bonds. If so, include the face amount, serial numbers, and maturity date, and state the present location thereof. If you own any of these bonds jointly with any other person or persons, give their name and address.ANSWER:10. SAFETY DEPOSIT BOXES: State whether or not you maintain any safety deposit box or boxes. If so, include the names of the bank or banks, branch or branches, and the identification number or other designation of the box or boxes. Include a full description of the contents and also the amount of cash among those contents. If you maintain any of these jointly with any other person or persons, give their full name and address.ANSWER:11. TRANSFERRED ASSETS AND GIFTS: If, since the date this debt to [creditor] was first incurred, you have transferred any assets (real property, personal property, chose in action) to any person and/or, if you have given any gift of any assets, including money, to any person, set forth, in detail, a description of the property, the type of transaction, and the name and address of the transferee or recipient.ANSWER:12. INHERITANCE: State whether or not, to your knowledge, you are now or will be a beneficiary of or will inherit any money from any decedent in the United States, and state the place and date of death, the legal representative of the estate, and the location of the court where the said estate is administered or to be administered.ANSWER:13. ANNUITIES: State whether you are a beneficiary of any trust fund and, if so, state the names and addresses of the trustees and the amount of the payment and when the payment is received.ANSWER:14. PERSONAL PROPERTY: Set forth a full description of all furnishings and any other items of personal property (including jewelry) with full description, value, and present location. State also whether or not there are any encumbrances against that property and, if so, the name and address of the encumbrance holder, the date of the encumbrance, the original amount of that encumbrance, the present balance of that encumbrance, and the transaction that gave rise to the existence of the encumbrance. If you own any personal property jointly with any other person or persons, give their name and address.ANSWER:15. RENTAL INCOME: State whether you are the recipient, directly or indirectly, of any income for the rental of any real or personal property, and, if so, state specifically the source of payment, the person from whom such payments are received, and the amount and date when those payments are received.ANSWER:16. MOTOR VEHICLES: State whether or not you own any motor vehicles. Include a full description of such motor vehicles, including color, model, title number, serial number, and registration plate number. Also show the exact name or names in which the motor vehicles are registered, the present value of those motor vehicles, and their present location and place of regular storage or parking. State also whether or not there are any liens or encumbrances against those motor vehicles and, if so, the name and address of the encumbrance, the present balance of the encumbrance, and the transaction that gave rise to the existence of the encumbrance.ANSWER:17. PENSION: State whether you are a participant in or the recipient of any pension or annuity fund and, if so, state specifically the source of payment, the person to whom such payments are made, the amount of the payments, and date when those payments are received.ANSWER:18. OTHER ASSETS: If you have any asset or assets that are not disclosed in the preceding 17 interrogatories, please set forth all details concerning those assets.ANSWER:[Attorney’s signature and certificate of service omitted from illustration.]TLM 5-2 (Historical): The whole history of asset protection is interesting. A seminal article regarding various legal devices that make it possible for debtors to evade liability to creditors is The Death of Liability, by Lynn LoPucki, 106 Yale L.J. 1 (1996). Start with that article, then read Federal Trade Commission v. Affordable Media, 179 F.3d 1228 (3d Cir. 1999), an interesting case involving an off shore asset protection trust. A more extensive resource in this area is Asset Protection: Concepts and Strategies for Protecting Your Wealth, by J.D. Adkisson and Chris Riser (New York: McGraw-Hill 2007).TLM 5-3: To gain some understanding of how final judgments may be enforced internationally, start with the articles at files/bul12.htm and . TLM 5-4 (Historical): There were many causes of World War II, but international debtor-creditor relations played a fascinating role. Research the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and the harsh monetary reparations the prevailing allies imposed on Germany in that treaty with devastating consequences to the German economy. And the economic suffering of that country is generally believed to have played a large part in Hitler’s rise to power there. And the war in the Pacific with Japan that began with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 is thought to have been precipitated by the decision of the Roosevelt administration in August 1941 to stop selling oil to Japan. At the time, the United States accounted for 80% of Japan’s oil imports. As a consequence, the Japanese elected to expand militarily into Southeast Asia to secure alternative sources of oil, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor was a strategy aimed at preventing or delaying an American response to that military expansion. Read up on it yourself and prepare a memorandum summarizing your own findings and conclusions. There are numerous sources for the causes of World War II but here are a few: Europe Between the Wars, by Martin Kitchen (London: Longman, 2000); Versailles and After: 1919 – 1933, by Ruth Henig (London: Routledge Press, 1995); The Road to Pearl Harbor: The Coming of the War Between the United States and Japan, by Herbert Feis (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971); Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945, by Robert Dallek (New York: Oxford University Press USA, 1995).For Chapter Six:TLM 6-1 (Historical): If you would like to trace the history of debtor punishment/relief in more detail, there are a number of excellent sources available to you. Good histories of bankruptcy in this country can be found in Debt’s Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America, by David A. Skeel, Jr. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 2003), A History of the Bankruptcy Law, by F. Regis Noel (NY: William S. Hein & Co. 2002), Bankruptcy in United States History, by Charles Warren (NY: William S. Hein & Co. 1994) and Kennedy and Clift, An Historical Analysis of Insolvency Laws and their Impact on the Role, Power, and Jurisdiction of Today’s United States Bankruptcy Court and its Judicial Officers, Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice 9 (January/February 2000): 165–200). For a comprehensive history of the treatment of debtors by different societies over the centuries, consult Leventhal, The Early History of English Bankruptcy, 67 U. Pa. L. rev. 1 (1919); Countryman, Bankruptcy and the Individual Debtor—and a Modest Proposal to Return to the Seventeenth Century, 32 Catholic U.L. Rev. 809 (1983); Reisenfeld, Evolution of Modern Bankruptcy Law, 31 Minn. L. Rev. 401 (1947); and Ford, Imprisonment for Debt, 25 Mich. L. Rev. 24 (1926).TLM 6-2: Ever dream of winning the lottery? It may not be the financial nirvana you envision. According to one estimate, one in three lottery winners go bankrupt within five years of winning. Read the article, Winning Big Can Lead to Bankruptcy, by Gerri L. Elder at 6-3 (Historical): The financial services industry spent more than $100 million lobbying for the passage of BAPCPA in the eight years it was under consideration. As the name of the new law suggests, an underlying premise of BAPCPA was that there has been widespread fraudulent use of individual bankruptcy filings. Critics of the law assert that the frequency of such abuse has been exaggerated and that the Code already contained sufficient safeguards to catch and prevent most attempted abuse. Critics also point out that the law contained no constraints whatsoever on the lending industry despite 1) its massive credit card solicitation efforts (5 billion a year) aimed at Americans of all ages, income levels and levels of financial sophistication; 2) hidden fees and penalties in credit card contracts which often grant the issuer the arbitrary right to shorten payment due periods and to increase the minimum payment amount as well as interest and fees; 3) payday loans targeting unsophisticated and vulnerable consumers; and 4) aggressive subprime mortgage lending to unqualified or marginally qualified borrowers. Moreover, critics assert that the law did nothing to address abuse of the Code by wealthy filers who in many states can still utilize asset protection trusts to shield assets from creditors or take advantage of generous or even unlimited homestead exemptions in many states to keep their homes while middle class debtors in other states lose theirs and who, having little credit card debt, can still discharge “business debt” as easily as before.TLM 6-4: Does state law have an influence on the bankruptcy filing rates of the various states? Read the article, Explaining the Puzzle of Cross-State Differences in Bankruptcy Rates, by University of Brigham Young professors Lars Legren and Frank McIntyre published in the University of Chicago Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 52 (May 2009) (abstract available free at journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/596561 or good summary at article/705312221/State-law-is-factor-in-bankruptcy.html) then consider the following questions: 1) What appears to be the connection between the relative harshness of a state’s garnishment law and its bankruptcy filing rate? 2) Why do you think bankruptcy filings are higher in states having higher numbers of young adults? 3) How do the “practices and norms” that develop in a particular area result in a preference for either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13? 4) Why are Chapter 13 filings higher in the Southeast? 5) What is the connection between a preference for Chapter 13 filings over Chapter 7 and a state’s higher overall bankruptcy filing rate? Check the bankruptcy filing rates for your state. Does your state have more Chapter 7s or Chapter 13s? Interview one or more bankruptcy practitioners and ask about the prevailing “practices and norms” in your area.TLM 6-5: As a consequence of the Great Recession, more retirees began filing bankruptcy. Read the article at . Should Congress consider amending the Bankruptcy Code to provide special treatment of bankruptcy debtors who no longer have the capacity to reenter the work force post-bankrutpcy?TLM 6-6: In the professional liability context (e.g., medical or legal malpractice), an apology by the professional can sometimes result in a type of forgiveness by the client/patient so that no legal action is taken. Can a sincere apology coming from a debtor who has been irresponsible or even dishonest have a similar effect in a bankruptcy case on the decision of a trustee or creditor to take action against the debtor or on the decision of a bankruptcy judge deciding a close case? Read this interesting article where such a thesis was tried out and see what you think: 6-7: Using the web-based resources in the chapter to complete the following assignments.1. Use the web sites for the Administrative Office of the Federal Courts and for the American Bankruptcy Institute to locate current and historical statistics for bankruptcy filings in your federal district.2. Visit the web site of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees and determine approximately how many different people serve as bankruptcy trustees across the country, what kinds of other professionals bankruptcy trustees regularly work with, how much money they distribute annually to creditors, and the kinds of services NABT provides to its members.3. Visit the web sites of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and the Commercial Law League of America and locate one informative article on each site.4. Visit the Bankruptcy 360 web site and locate an article concerning a recent court decision involving a bankruptcy issue.5. Visit the Bankruptcy Lawyer’s Blog and read some of the recent entries on a current topic of discussion.6. Visit the web site of Bankruptcy Attorneys on the Web and see if you can locate there one or more attorneys in your area who specializes in bankruptcy work.TLM 6-8: Clerks of the bankruptcy courts around the country provide training sessions for EM/ECF and PACER. Make arrangements with the clerk of the bankruptcy court (or district court) in your federal district to attend such a training session or see if the clerk or an assistant clerk might be able to come to your classroom and make a presentation on electronic filing.TLM 6-9: TIMELINE OF DEBT PUNISHMENT/FORGIVENESS ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES2400-1600 b.c.e.—Clean Slate proclamations by various kings of ancient Sumeria, Assyria, and Babylon mandate the periodic forgiveness of debt and the restoration of land given as security or persons sold for debt. E.g., Code of Hammurabi §117 (circa 1754 b.c.e.): “If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son, and daughter for money or give them away to forced labor, they shall work for three years in the house of the man who bought them and in the fourth year they shall be set free.”1400 b.c.e.—Moses' law mandates a Sabbatical Year every seven years, when all debts are to be forgiven. At the end of every seventh Sabbatical Year (thought to be every 50th year) a Year of Jubilee is declared when debts are forgiven, slaves freed, and land taken for nonpayment of debt is returned to former owners or their heirs (other than the houses of laypersons within walled cities).1000 b.c.e.—By this time, credit arrangements are firmly established as basis of commerce by and among Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt.500 b.c.e.—Ancient Greece has no bankruptcy relief laws. Debtors, their families, or servants can be reduced to serfdom or even slavery for unpaid debt (debt slavery). Crises develop when such portion of the farming class is in jail or enslaved that there aren't enough workers to tend the crops. Crisis temporarily relieved in Athens by the Seisachtheia (burden-shaking) laws of Solon in 594 b.c.e. that cancel existing debt, mandate the return of debtor's forfeited property, and end debt slavery. Other Greek city-states limit the term of debt slavery to five years and protect debtors from severe abuse (protection of life and limb).250 b.c.e.—In the days of the Roman Republic, debtors, or their families or servants, can be sold into slavery, imprisoned, and even killed by creditors. (It is said that in Roman times, creditors not only divided the debtor's property, but they also took him to the public plaza and bodily divided him.)100 c.e.—Under the Caesars, the Roman Empire adopts some debt collection laws, including the appointment of a trustee to sell off a merchant debtor's assets after the merchant ceases business still owing money. The trustee is called the curator bonorum (caretaker) of the debtor's property for the benefit of creditors. Practice of cession bonorum (cesstion of goods) allows debtor to surrender property to creditor to avoid imprisonment.1285—England's Statute of Merchants allows imprisonment of merchant debtors.1400—In Italian city states, the defaulting merchant's trade bench or selling counter is destroyed to publicly announce his failure, literally banca rotta (broken bench), which may be the source of our modern word, bankruptcy.1542—The state of being bankrupt is made an official crime in England, mandating a hearing before the chancellor, and is punishable by confiscation of property and imprisonment.1570—Under Queen Elizabeth I of England, the first official bankruptcy law is passed by Parliament. It is exclusively a creditor's device, involuntary for the debtor. The creditor can formally declare a merchant bankrupt and seek official relief, including confiscation of property, imprisonment, and corporal punishment, the last of which could include having the debtor pilloried (a form of public humiliation that involved having hands and head locked in place by wooden stock) or having an ear cut off. In Padua, Italy, the bankrupt is required to appear nearly naked in the Palace of Justice and to slap his buttocks three times against “The Rock of Shame” while loudly proclaiming, “I declare bankruptcy!”1705—England's Statute of Queen Anne marks the first attempt at a humane reform of bankruptcy law. At the request of the debtor and with creditors' consent, debt can be discharged following liquidation of assets. The death penalty for the debtor is allowed for committing fraud in bankruptcy but is only known to have been enforced five times.1788—The U.S. Constitution is ratified, including Article I, §8, which authorizes Congress “[t]o establish…uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.” In its first session, Congress considers adopting a bankruptcy law but demurs. Without federal rules, states follow their colonial practices based on English precedent, including imprisonment and pillorying.1800—The Panic of 1797 in America leads to the imprisonment of thousands of debtors by the states, including the “Financier of the Revolution,” Robert Morris. As a result, Congress passes the first federal bankruptcy law. It allows only creditors to declare a person bankrupt. Debts can be discharged after liquidation of the debtor's assets if he has been cooperative and two-thirds of his creditors consent. Repealed in 1803.1833—Federal imprisonment for debt is abolished in the United States by act of Congress (now 28 U.S.C. §2007). Individual states begin to follow suit.1841—The economic depression of 1837 results in Congress passing its second bankruptcy law, which for the first time permits debtors, including nonmerchants, to voluntarily file for bankruptcy relief. Due to high administrative costs, questions of constitutionality, and the discontent of creditors, the law is repealed in 1843.1867—Following the turmoil of the Civil War, northern creditors want a system to collect from southern debtors. Congress passes a third bankruptcy law to enable them to do so, but it is repealed in 1878, again due to high administrative costs, an unwieldy bureaucracy, and little return to creditors.1898—The economic panic of 1893 results in passage of the landmark Nelson Act, initiating the modern effort to balance debtor/creditor interests. The law, formally called the Bankruptcy Act, acknowledges the new credit economy, provides for a debtor-initiated discharge of debts, allows debtors to keep significant exempt property, and establishes the bankruptcy referee (predecessor of the modern bankruptcy judge) as the designated officer of the U.S. district court to administer the law.Bankruptcy Act?The predecessor of the current Bankruptcy Code. Enacted in 1898 and superseded in 1978.Bankruptcy referee?Office created under Bankruptcy Act of 1898. Predecessor to the modern bankruptcy judge.1938—The Chandler Act amends the existing Bankruptcy Act to allow reorganizations in bankruptcy for both individual and business debtors (today known as Chapter 13 and Chapter 11 bankruptcies, respectively), enabling debtors with the means to repay all or a part of their debts under court supervision as an alternative to liquidation. For the first time, bankruptcy becomes a viable option to achieve economic survival rather than the failure of liquidation.1978—The Bankruptcy Reform Act substantially rewrites the nation's bankruptcy law. Now formally known as the Bankruptcy Code, the law contains the current chapter numbering (Chapter 7, Chapter 13, Chapter 11, etc.), bankruptcy judges are given expanded judicial powers to administer bankruptcy cases, Chapter 11 business reorganizations are made more feasible, and states are given the option to “opt out” of the Code's property exemptions and apply their own exemption laws instead.Bankruptcy Reform Act?The 1978 statute that introduced the current Code. Also the name of the 1994 statute that amended the Code.1982—The U.S. Supreme Court decides Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipeline Co., 458 U.S. 50 (1982), declaring the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 unconstitutional. The Court rules that Congress had overstepped its bounds in granting bankruptcy judges, created under Article I of the Constitution, powers of Article III judges in administering the Code. The Court grants Congress a grace period to amend the Bankruptcy Reform Act to cure the defect.1984—The Bankruptcy Amendments and Federal Judgeship Act finally address the Northern Pipeline decision, reconstituting bankruptcy courts and judges as units of the U.S. district courts, with bankruptcy proceedings officially “referred” to bankruptcy courts under the standing orders of the district courts.1986—The Code is amended to create the Chapter 12 proceeding for family farmers with regular income on a test basis and to make permanent the U.S. Trustee system to help administer bankruptcy cases, a system that had been tested on a pilot basis since 1978.1994—The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994 further amends the Code to clarify when bankruptcy courts can conduct jury trials, to expedite bankruptcy proceedings, to encourage individual debtors to use Chapter 13 to reschedule their debts rather than Chapter 7 to liquidate, and to aid creditors in recovering claims against bankrupt estates.1996—For the first time ever, one million Americans file for bankruptcy in a single year.2005—After over a decade of study and debate, Congress passes the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), a significant amendment to the Code, intended to reduce the number of individual consumer bankruptcies and encourage repayment by making it more difficult for individual debtors to file for Chapter 7 liquidation relief and to force more of them to file for Chapter 13 reorganization. The Chapter 12 family farmer proceeding is made permanent and expanded to include family fishermen. The Chapter 15 proceeding is added to provide a mechanism for dealing with bankruptcy proceedings across international borders.2011—The U.S. Supreme Court decides Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. 2594 (2011), reviving Northern Pipeline concerns over the constitutional power of Article I bankruptcy courts to decide core proceedings.TLM 6-10: ?Web-Based Resources for Learning About Bankruptcy??????There are a number of excellent web sites providing free access to current news and information of interest to bankruptcy professionals, as well as bankruptcy-specific legal research. The Bankruptcy Code, Rules, Forms, and General Information:????Title 11 of the U.S. Code ( or law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11)????Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (rules-policies/current-rules-practice-procedure)????Official Bankruptcy Forms (forms/bankruptcy-forms)????Administrative Office of the Federal Courts' Federal Judiciary Home Page ()????United States Trustees Program (administered by the U.S. Department of Justice) (ust)????Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Bankruptcy Basics (services-forms/bankruptcy/bankruptcy-basics)????Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing Center ()????Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute's Bankruptcy Information Page (law.cornell.edu/search/site/bankruptcy)????FindLaw's Internet Guide to Bankruptcy Law ()????Bernstein's Dictionary of Bankruptcy Terminology ()????NOLO Bankruptcy in Your State (ics/bankruptcy-your-state)Organizations Concerned with Bankruptcy Practice:????American Bankruptcy Institute ()????National Bankruptcy Conference ()????The American College of Bankruptcy ()????National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees (faq.cfm)????National Association of Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustees ()????National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys ()????National Consumer Law Center ()????The Commercial Law League of America ()Bankruptcy Blogs and Other News and Information Sites:????ABA Journal Blawg Directory (blawgs/topic/bankruptcy+law)????ABI Blog Exchange ()????Bankruptcy Attorneys on the Web (bkattys.htm)????Bankruptcy Law Network ()????Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog ()????Bankruptcy Litigation Blog ()????LAW 360: Bankruptcy (bankruptcy)????Becker & Posner Blog ()????The Atlanta Bankruptcy Blog (thebkblog/)????Credit Slips Blog on Credit, Finance and Bankruptcy (creditslips)????The Daily Bankruptcy News ()????SheppardMullin Finance and Bankruptcy Blog ()????In the (Red)? Business Bankruptcy Blog ()????New Generation Research (NGR) ()????Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat Blog ()????Weil Bankruptcy Blog ()For Chapter Seven:TLM 7-1: Assume Marta Carlson lives in your county and state. Complete her OBF 122A form for her based on that assumption using both the lower and higher income numbers for her given in the chapter.TLM 7-2: Use the U.S. Trustees web site at ust/eo/bapcpa/ccde/cc_approved.htm or the list maintained by the bankruptcy court clerk to locate approved credit-counseling agencies in your federal district. Set up an interview with one or two agencies and visit their business location for the interview. Be sure to inquire concerning the approval process through the U.S. Trustee’s office, the degree their work is monitored by the U.S. Trustee’s office following approval, the content of their credit counseling courses for debtors, whether courses are offered in traditional classroom settings or by Web or otherwise, the materials utilized in the counseling courses, the charges imposed on customers, the volume of business, and any statistics or other information kept regarding the leading causes of financial trouble for their customers.TLM 7-3: Regarding the deductibility of charitable contributions on Form 122A-2 (and Form 122C-2 in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy) isn’t it interesting that America’s most generous donors are its lower income citizens? Generally speaking, people who live from paycheck to paycheck tend to be more generous with the little that they have than those with more. Read the article at . What difference might it make that lower income Americans are more likely to have friends, family or acquaintances in need? What difference does it make that those living closer to poverty may not be so afraid of it? Do you agree with that premise by the way? What difference does it make that more lower income Americans tend to be religious and are more likely to belong to religious groups that practice tithing?TLM 7-4: Early indications suggested that no more than 1 percent of Chapter 7 debtors failed the means test and triggered the BAPCPA presumption of abuse. See Clifford J. White III, Making Bankruptcy Reform Work: A Progress Report in Year 2, 26 Am. Bankr. Inst. J. 16 (June 2007), reporting that only 7.9 percent of Chapter 7 debtors have above-median incomes and of those only 9.5 percent trigger the presumption of abuse. This study is consistent with reports of many practitioners who say that not only do the vast majority of above-median debtors using Step 2 of the test not trigger the presumption, the few that do are clients they would have steered toward a Chapter 13 filing even without the BAPCPA changes. If this is the case, it raises real questions of whether the alleged abuse at which BAPCPA is targeted was real or, as opponents of that legislation insisted at the time, only contrived by the financial services industry that lobbied heavily for its passage and even assisted members of Congress in drafting it. See if you can locate more current studies than the cited White article. See if you can determine from the U.S. Trustee’s office or from one of the bankruptcy judges in your district the estimated percentage of Chapter 7 filings that trigger the presumption of abuse. What percentage triggers the presumption but rebuts it by satisfying the special circumstances test?TLM 7-4: What happens if a debtor files a petition in Chapter 13 (which requires a calculation of disposable income for purposes of a Chapter 13 plan but does not involve a means test) and then converts the case to one in Chapter 7? Will that debtor have to satisfy the means test in order to proceed in Chapter 7? There is actually a split on this question with a majority of courts following what is called the “common sense” view that the means test must still be satisfied because Congress intended all Chapter 7 debtors to do so (see, e.g., In re Kellett, 379 B.R. 332 (Bankr. D. Or. 2007), but a strong minority follow the “plain language” view, saying that the debtor converting a Chapter 13 case over need not satisfy the means test because, literally read, §707(b) only requires the test in consumer cases “filed” under Chapter 7 and a converted Chapter 13 case was not filed under Chapter 7 (see, e.g., In re Layton, 480 B.R. 392 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 2012)). How have the bankruptcy or district courts of your federal district or circuit decided this issue?TLM 7-5: THOUGHTS ON THE BAPCPA MEANS TEST??????A primary purpose of BAPCPA was to push more debtors away from Chapter 7 liquidation and toward Chapter 13 repayment plans. Its primary tool to accomplish that goal was the presumption of abuse. Has it worked? Studies to date suggest no. One study suggested that no more than 1 percent of Chapter 7 debtors failed the means test and triggered the BAPCPA presumption of abuse. See Clifford J. White III, Making Bankruptcy Reform Work: A Progress Report in Year 2, 26 Am. Bankr. Inst. J. 16 (June 2007), reporting that only 7.9 percent of Chapter 7 debtors who have above median incomes triggered Step 2 of the test, and of those, only 9.5 percent triggered the presumption of abuse. An empirical study reported in Robert M. Lawless, Angela K. Littwin, Katherine M. Porter, John A.E. Pottow, Deborah K. Thorne & Elizabeth Warren, Did Bankruptcy Reform Fail? An Empirical Study of Consumer Debtors, 82 Am. Bankr. L.J. 349, 361 (2008), demonstrates that between 2001 (pre-BAPCPA) and 2007 (post-BAPCPA) the inflation-adjusted median income of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filers did not change. These studies are consistent with reports of many practitioners who say that not only do the vast majority of above median debtors not trigger the presumption, the few that do are clients they would have steered toward a Chapter 13 filing even without the BAPCPA changes.??????If the means test of BAPCPA has not accomplished its purpose of curing abuse by directing more debtors into Chapter 13, it has certainly increased the complications and expense of filing Chapter 7 cases for debtors and of administration of those cases by the courts. See the 2008 Report of the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Dollar Costs Associated with BAPCPA at new.items/d08697.pdf, reporting an increase in the average cost to a debtor for filing Chapter 7 from $921 to $1,477 attributable to BAPCPA.??????The 2011 Consumer Bankruptcy Fee Study Final Report funded by the American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (available online at ) concluded that BAPCPA has made the bankruptcy system more time-consuming and costlier for debtors. That study found a significant increase in post-BAPCPA total direct access costs (TDAC) for consumers in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 cases.??????While the 2011 report found the difference in actual returns to unsecured creditors in consumer cases before and after BAPCPA to be “statistically insignificant,” the 2013 Consumer Bankruptcy Creditor Distribution Study sponsored by those same organizations (available online at ) determined that under BAPCPA unsecured creditors are actually receiving less than they did under the pre-BAPCPA regime (“BAPCPA does not appear to have achieved the primary objective of its proponents as unsecured distributions as a percentage of unsecured claims declined nationally by a statistically significant 3.2 percentage points in the post-BAPCPA time period. Moreover, unsecured distributions as a percentage of total distributions declined by 2.5 percentage points, a result that was also statistically significant”).??????We noted earlier that the requirement to satisfy the means test to avoid the presumption of abuse is only imposed on the individual debtor with primarily consumer debts. It is not imposed on an individual debtor who has primarily business debts. This disparity in the treatment of the consumer debtor is one of the major criticisms of BAPCPA: Why should the presumption of abuse be applied only to consumer debtors able to fund a Chapter 13 plan and not to individual debtors with primarily business debt? However, as we will see in Chapter Twelve, Section C, §707 contains other abuse provisions that may be used to dismiss the case of any Chapter 7 debtor, whether an individual or an entity, and whether involving primarily consumer or business debts.For Chapter Eight:TLM 8-1 (Historical): The history of exemptions in bankruptcy law is interesting. The Bankruptcy Act of 1898, our first “modern” bankruptcy statute, did not set out any federal exemptions and applied state law exclusively. Trace the history of federal exemptions after the 1898 Act to see how they arrived at their present state. And read Hanover Nat’l Bank v. Moyses, 186 U.S. 181 (1902) to see how the court ruled on a constitutional attack on the 1898 Act’s failure to adopt uniform exemptions for a statute intended to produce a uniform procedure nationwide. And read In re Sullivan, 680 F.2d 1131 (7th Cir. 1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 992 (1983) to see how the Moyses doctrine was applied to the “opt out” provision when it was first introduced to the Code. Prepare a memorandum summarizing your historical research and stating your own recommendations regarding how exemptions ought to be handled in bankruptcy cases.TLM 8-2: Follow-up from Rousey Read the Pew Research report on baby boomers at daily-number/baby-boomers-retire/. How many baby boomers are turning 65 each day? How many will retire over the next 20 years or so?For Chapter Nine:TLM 9-1: Arrange to interview a member of the trustee’s panel in your federal district or ask a member of the panel to come and speak to your class concerning the administration of a typical Chapter 7 case. Be prepared to ask in your interview or in a question/answer session about the various aspects of case administration that you have studied in this chapter: how quickly does he review the petition and schedules of a new case, what are the most important things to look for, how quickly is a no-asset case closed, what is a typical trustee’s fee from a Chapter 7 case, is a formal proof of claim required of a fully secured creditor, etc. Summarize your interview in a memorandum.TLM 9-2: Arrange through the U.S. Trustee’s office or with a member of the trustee panel to attend one or more first meetings of creditors in your federal district. Take notes carefully during the meetings and, if possible, ask the trustee questions afterwards about what you saw and heard.TLM 9-3: Since §362(k)(1) references “an individual injured…” most courts limit the recovery of damages for willful violation to individual debtors and disallow them to entity debtors (corporations, partnerships, etc.) (see, e.g. In re Spookyworld, Inc., 346 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir. 2003)). However, a minority construe “individual” to include entity debtor (see, e.g., Budget Service Co. v. Better Homes of Virginia, Inc., 804 F.2d 289, 292 (4th Cir. 1986)), finding it difficult to accept that Congress meant to give remedy for intentional violation to individual debtors only and emphasizing the important role of §362k in repairing and deterring willful violations. How do the courts of your federal district come down on this issue?For Chapter Ten:TLM 10-1: The right to setoff can get complicated. In order for setoff to work the debts must be mutual. In part that means that both claims must be valid. Sometimes setoff is sought where one debt is admitted but the other is contested. There can be no setoff until the validity of the contested claim is determined. Mutuality also means the parties must be indebted to each other in the same or similar capacity. If X owes Y a debt personally and Y owes X a debt personally, there is mutuality and setoff will work. But what if X owes Y a debt personally but Y owes X a debt in X’s capacity as trustee of a trust rather than personally? There may be no mutuality there and no setoff allowed. Where a governmental entity is involved there may be a problem of sovereign immunity. Assume a debtor owes the government a debt but also has a claim against the government which he wants to use to setoff his debt to the government. The government, however, claims sovereign immunity as to the claim of the debtor. Section 106 of the Code thankfully deals with this situation providing that sovereign immunity alone does not prevent setoff of the claims. See In re Microage Corp., 288 B.R. 842 (Bankr. D. Ariz. 2003) for a good discussion of how §106 works. Research setoff issues decided in the bankruptcy, district and circuit courts of your federal circuit and prepare a memorandum summarizing how these and other setoff issues have been resolved by those courts.TLM 10-2: An excellent case in which to see how the courts analyze the reasonably equivalent value concern in a §548 fraudulent transfer case as well as how the transferee concepts of §550 work is In re Tousa, Inc., 680 F.3d 1298 (11th Cir. 2012). What was the property of the debtor transferred in that case? What made the transfer fraudulent under §548? What was the reasonably equivalent value argument made by the defendants? Did it matter that defendants received value indirectly rather than directly? What was the argument of defendants that they were not entities for whose benefit the transfer was made?Chapter ElevenTLM 11-1: Make arrangements to attend a hearing on a reaffirmation agreement. What debt is the debtor seeking to reaffirm? How extensive is the hearing? Does the judge question the debtor regarding his understanding of the legal consequences of the reaffirmation? Does the judge approve or disapprove the reaffirmation? Do you agree with the judge’s decision? TLM 11-2: Some federal districts allow debtor’s attorneys to charge their clients separately for handling redemptions. I.e., the attorney can charge the debtor something in addition to the agreed fee for handling the bankruptcy case. It becomes a way for a debtor’s attorney to make more off of a case. Determine whether your federal district allows such fee plus arrangements, the frequency with which such charges are made, and, if it is allowed, the typical amount that debtor’s attorneys charge their clients for handling a redemption and whether a clear written disclosure of the possibility of an additional fee being charged for a redemption is required or customary on the front end of the attorney-client relationship. The local rules of the bankruptcy court in your district may address this. Or you can inquire with the U.S. Attorney for your district, a member of the bankruptcy panel, or an experienced debtor’s attorney. Do you think allowing this fee plus arrangement is fair to the client? Is it ethical? TLM 11-3: There are private companies that specialize in financing debtor redemptions of property in Chapter 7 cases. See, for example, and . Review these sites. See if you can locate a company in your area that finances debtor redemptions. If possible, arrange an interview with a representative of such a company and the U.S. Trustee in your federal district or an experienced member of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee panel in your district. Be sure to inquire concerning a) the percentage of Chapter 7 debtors that seek to redeem property; b) the percentage that succeed; c) whether the U.S. Trustee or bankruptcy trustee believes it to be in the best interest of most Chapter 7 debtors to redeem property; d) the typical cost to the debtor of financing a redemption of property; e) the rate of debtor default in repaying the loan obtained to finance the property redemption; and f) whether your state has any statutory or other regulation of debtor redemption financing.Chapter TwelveTLM 12-1: A good discussion of the various tests used can be found in Robert F. Salvin, Student Loans, Bankruptcy, and the Fresh Start Policy: Must Debtors be Impoverished to Discharge Educational Loans? 71 TUL. LAW REV. 139 (1996). Is the Brunner test too strict? What test would you endorse? TLM 12-2: Can a bankruptcy court declare only part of a student loan dischargeable based on undue hardship or is it an all or nothing proposition? Take a look at In re Saxman, 325 F.3d 1168 (9th Cir. 2003) and In re Hornsby, 144 F.3d 433 (6th. Cir. 1998). If you are not in the Ninth or Sixth circuits, compare these to decisions in your jurisdiction. A good scholastic article dealing with the policy behind the undue hardship test for discharging student loans is The Real Student-Loan Scandal: Undue Hardship Discharge Litigation, by Rafael I. Pardo and Michelle R. Lacy in Am Bankr. L.J. Volume 83 Issue 1 2009 beginning at page 179. Read that article. Do you agree or disagree with its conclusion? Remember that what constitutes undue hardship is not defined in the Code. Should courts sympathetic to the need for change in this area simply redefine what undue hardship means or should we await congressional action?TLM 12-3: As noted in the text, the change by BAPCPA making private as well as public student loans non-dischargeable is controversial. Why should student loans not involving public funds and not guaranteed by them receive harsher treatment than other private loans? Are students borrowing private funds not to be trusted to repay when other borrowers of private funds are? If we are going to target such loans for non-dischargeable treatment shouldn’t we mandate lower interest rates on them? Since BAPCPA was passed in 2005, bills have been introduced in Congress to eliminate the prohibition on discharge of private student loans but none have passed (see e.g., ).TLM 12-4: An area of current controversy that involves student loans is that of the for-profit college. Historically, the colleges charge higher tuition than public colleges and often require more hours for a degree than either public or private not-for-profit colleges. Consequently, many students who have attended or graduated from for-profits are carrying heavy student loan debt. Currently 98% of students at for-profit colleges obtain federal school loans and more than 50% of them default on repayment (see the article at ). Issues have arisen regarding whether the for-profits are adequately screening applicants to determine if they can do college level work before registering them and assisting them to obtain federal school loans, whether deceptive practices are being used to lure students into these colleges, and whether the for-profits are adequately preparing those students for jobs that will even earn enough to repay the amounts borrowed. This matters to more than the students and their families, of course, because these students overwhelmingly take out federal loans that if unpaid become the obligation of all taxpayers. When that happens, the for-profits are making their profits at taxpayer expense. Compare this article criticizing for-profit colleges () with this article defending them (). Which side has the better part of the argument? TLM 12-5: The Government Accounting Office (GAO) has issued a report on for-profit colleges containing a scathing indictment of practices at many of them. The GAO report is summarized at . The U.S. Department of Education has proposed new regulations for for-profit colleges aimed at addressing the abuses (see ). Determine if the proposed regulations have been finalized by the time you read this and, if so, locate the final regulations and read them. Summarize how the regulations address the perceived abuses of for-profit schools. Are these regulations fair in your opinion? Should the regulations be more stringent?TLM 12-6: An interesting case construing the “solely because” language of §525(a) in the context of a corporate debtor is FCC v. NextWave Personal Communications, Inc., 537 U.S. 293 (2003). Section 525 protections have been found to attach prior to the actual bankruptcy filing (see In re Mayo, 322 B.R. 712 (Bkrtcy. D. Vt. 2005 but compare In re Kanouse, 168 B.R. 441 (S.D. Fla. 1994), aff’d 53 F.3d 1286, certiorari denied, 516 U.S. 930). The applicability of the antidiscrimination provisions in employment raises the question of whether they create a new private right of action for employment discrimination supplementing other common law and statutory protections for workers (see In re Lesniewski, 246 B.R. 202 (E.D. Pa. 2000). Begin with these cases then research the decisions of the courts of your federal district to see how they have interpreted §525. Prepare a memorandum summarizing your research.TLM 12-7: What about a bar study loan? Is that dischargeable in bankruptcy or is it a type of student loan that is nondischargeable? Interestingly, there is a split on this question. A 2016 New York case found such a loan not to be an educational loan and thus to be dischargeable without a showing of undue hardship. See - /article/1202753454990.And see the opinion at . For a contrary view see the cases cited in the opinion: For Chapter Thirteen:TLM 13-1: The subject of attorney’s fees is one near and dear to the heart of all debtors’ lawyers. The fee must be approved by the bankruptcy court so the fees charged for handling Chapter 13’s are likely to reflect what the bankruptcy courts are allowing. Check with the U.S. Trustee’s office or a standing trustee or a practitioner and see what the going rates are for debtors’ lawyers handling Chapter 13 cases in your federal district. Is the matter addressed in the local rules of your bankruptcy court or district court? Do local practitioners feel the rate allowed is fair? Is there any ongoing effort to have the bankruptcy judges in your federal district raise the approved rate? Prepare a memorandum summarizing your findings.TLM 13-2: Determine who is the standing Chapter 13 Trustee(s) in your federal district. Arrange an interview with that person or arrange to have them come and speak to your class. Prepare questions to ask including how many cases they handle each year; how much money their office distributes to creditors each year; what percentage of Chapter 13 cases are 100% plans; their typical duties in handling a case; the most common issues that arise in the administration of a Chapter 13 case; how the standards, including good faith, are applied to confirm or modify a plan or to decide a motion to dismiss or transfer.TLM 13-3: Make arrangements to attend one or more first meetings of creditors in Chapter 13 cases. What kinds of issues arise at those meetings? Are they resolved there or postponed for later resolution? How much attention does the standing trustee seem to pay to each case? Do the debtors’ lawyers seem prepared to offer solutions to problems that arise at the meeting? If you can, speak with any debtor’s attorney after the meeting whose cases raised issues you did not understand or found particularly interesting.For Chapter Fourteen:TLM 14-1: Assume Roger and Susan Matthews resided in your county and state. Complete OBF 122C-1 and 122C-2 (if necessary) and for them based on that assumption using both the lower and higher income numbers utilized for the Matthews in the chapter.TLM 14-2: Regarding charitable contributions as legitimate living expenses in calculating a Chapter 13 debtor’s disposable income (or a Chapter 7 debtor’s current monthly income for purposes of the means test), it is worth noting the interesting fact that low-income Americans tend to give a higher percentage of their income to charity than do high-income Americans. In 2014, the wealthiest 20 percent gave an average of 1.3 percent to charity (favoring colleges, universities, arts organizations, and museums), whereas the poorest 20 percent gave an average of 3.2 percent (favoring religious organizations and social services entities). Why do you think that is the case? Does having less equate to greater sensitivity to need? Is the drive to increase wealth inconsistent with favoring communal support? Do the wealthy put their self-interests above that of others? Moreover, do the wealthy have a higher propensity to engage in unethical behavior owing to a more casual attitude toward greed? See the paper Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior, by Paul Piff, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, February 2012, and discussed in a New York magazine article at ; the article Why the Rich Don’t Give, by Ken Stern, in The Atlantic magazine, April 2013; and How America Gives, a study done by the Chronicle of Philanthropy () in August 2012.For Chapter Fifteen:TLM 15-1: As a matter of public policy, should bankruptcy judges be authorized to modify (cram down) the home mortgage of a Chapter 13 debtor to assist the debtor in holding on to his or her home? Bankruptcy judges can already do so in a Chapter 12. And, in Chapter 11, 12 and 13’s judges can currently cram down a mortgage on a second home or commercial property owned by the debtor. Why have bankruptcy judges previously been given the power to modify mortgages on property of the debtor but not on the principal residence? Is this special treatment for creditors holding mortgages on the principal residence of the debtor? Does the Code’s treatment of mortgage modification powers by the bankruptcy court reflect a fair balancing of the interests between debtors and creditors? TLM 15-2: Mortgage company mistakes may block foreclosures but may also cause consumer homeowners in Chapter 13 added problems. Read the article of Kathryn Porter, a noted expert in the area of consumer mortgages, at , then answer the following questions: 1) What kinds of mistakes do the holders of mortgages often make? 2) How might these mistakes give the homeowner facing foreclosure a defense to stop foreclosure? 3) How common are such mistakes by mortgage holders? 4) Why are those mistakes so seldomly raised as a defense in a foreclosure action? 5) What mistakes by mortgage companies can cost homeowners extra money and other complications? 6) What should all homeowners do to make sure their mortgage is being properly administered?For Chapter Sixteen:TLM 16-1: A good article on modification of Chapter 13 plans is Modified Plans of Reorganization and the Basic Chapter 13 Bargain, by David Gray Carlson in Am. Bankr. L.J. Volume 83, Issue 4 for 2009 beginning at page 585. Read the article. What does Carlson mean by the “basic Chapter 13 bargain”? Why are many bankruptcy courts resistant to proposed modifications of Chapter 13 plans? What does Carlson argue that such courts are missing?TLM 16-2: Student loan obligations are nondischargeable in a Chapter 13 case to the same extent as in a Chapter 7 case: only upon a showing of undue hardship. But in United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinoza, 559 U.S. 260 (2010) a Chapter 13 debtor proposed a plan to pay only the principal balance of his student loans and to discharge the accrued prepetition interest but never made a claim of undue hardship. The creditor failed to file a timely adversary proceeding objecting to the dischargeability of the debt (within 60 days following the first meeting of creditors per FRBP 4007) and the plan was confirmed and a discharge granted. Three years later the creditor asked that the discharge be set aside so it could collect the discharged portion of the debt. The Supreme Court found that the creditor's rights had not been violated since it had received adequate notice of the plan and its contents and the discharge was upheld despite no undue hardship determination. After Espinoza, are other Chapter 13 debtors with student loan debts likely to succeed in discharging all or part of that debt without an undue hardship determination as that debtor did? What will the standing trustee probably do now when she spots a plan proposing to discharge such a debt? Can such a plan meet the good faith requirement required for confirmation?For Chapter Seventeen:TLM 17-1: In some communities the small business case and/or the single asset real estate case may be commonly filed. If that is true in your community you may want to learn more about them. Research those two specialized kinds of reorganization cases and prepare a memorandum summarizing how they works and differences between Chapter 11’s treatment of those cases and others. Be sure to cover changes made by BAPCPA in those types of proceeding. A good place to start to learn more about the small business case is Small Business and the 2005 Bankruptcy Law: Should Mom and Apple Pie Be Worried? by Robert M. Lawless, 31 S. Ill. U.L.J. 585 (Spring 2007). For the single asset real estate case, start with Understanding the Basics of Bankruptcy & Reorganization 2007 Single Asset Real Estate Cases, by Steven H. Felderstein, et al, Practicing Law Institute (PLI) Order No. 11410 November, 2007.TLM 17-2: Arrange to interview the U.S. Trustee or an experienced Chapter 11 debtor’s or creditor’s attorney in your area concerning Chapter 11 practice. Include questions regarding how many Chapter 11 cases are filed in your federal district? How many of those are small business cases or single asset real estate cases? How many Chapter 11 cases fail to clear the hurdle of obtaining first day orders? How many cases fail to get a plan confirmed? What issues arise in a Chapter 11 that never or rarely do in other cases under the Code? What special skills do attorneys and paralegals need for working in the Chapter 11 area? Summarize your interview in a memorandum.TLM 17-3 (Historical): The history and development of the necessity doctrine is interesting and illustrates the extent to which common law rules and practices still influence modern statutory practice as under the Code. The doctrine arose out of the common law ‘necessity of payment’ doctrine established in railroad reorganization cases in the late 1800's. In re K-Mart, 359 F.3d 866, 871 (7th Cir. 2004) criticized the common law origin of the doctrine saying, , “A "doctrine of necessity" is just a fancy name for a power to depart from the Code” and said authorization for motions must be found in the Code itself but not all courts agree. The doctrine also calls attention to §105(a) of the Code that bankruptcy judge’s have historically relied on to fashion equitable remedies and procedures not expressly addressed in the Code. Is that section essentially an invitation to utilize common law principles in Code cases where the Code is silent? Start with In re K-Mart and work backwards to explore the history of the necessity doctrine and/or §105(a) and prepare a memorandum summarizing your findings.TLM 17-4: The topic of individuals filing in Chapter 11 is an interesting and controversial one. That chapter of the Code seems designed for businesses rather than individuals. Research some of the criticisms historically raised to individuals being allowed to file in Chapter 11 at all. A good place to start is by reading The Sub Rosa Subchapter: Individuals in Chapter 11 after BAPCPA, by Judge Bruce A. Markell (University of Illinois Law Review, Vol. 2007 page 67, December 2006). What’s your opinion re whether individuals should be able to file under Chapter 11?TLM 17-5: General Motors followed Chrysler into Chapter 11 in June 2009. Read the article at , then answer the following questions: 1) What was the dispute between GM management and GM unsecured bondholders prior to the Chapter 11 filing? 2) What is the fundamental difference in how secured creditors of Chrysler and GM were treated in the respective bankruptcy cases? 3) Before GM filed, how long was it expected to be in Chapter 11 and when did it in fact emerge from Chapter 11? 4) How large a stake in the reorganized GM did the U.S. government receive? Unsecured bondholders? The UAW retiree health care trust? The governments of Canada and Ontario? 5) How many executive positions were cut in the GM reorganization? How many plants? How many dealers? How many employees?TLM 17-6: Bankruptcy Examiners: Too Little (Possibly) of Good Thing. Historically, appointment of an examiner is rare. A recent study found that an examiner is requested in only 9 percent of all cases, and appointed in just 4 percent of cases. Jonathon C. Lipson & Christopher Fiore Marotta, Examining Success, Temple University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2015-17 (2015). On the other hand, when examiners do get involved, their impact can be significant. For example, in 2009, prominent Chicago attorney Anton Valukus was appointed by the court in the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy case to report on the causes of Lehman’s demise. A year later Valukus and his team produced a 2,200-page report detailing a culture of excessive risk taking, duplicity, and outright fraud at the investment firm, including a dubious accounting trick that fraudulently removed encumbered assets from the firm’s balance sheet and allowed it to grossly overstate liquidity. In this light, Professor Daniel J. Bussel feels that examiners should be used more often in the bankruptcy process. In his article, A Third Way: Examiners as Inquisitors, 90 Am. Bankr. Inst. L. Rev. ___ (2016), Professor Bussel observes that the American bankruptcy system has its roots in the English chancery courts, which did not employ adversarial methods. Examiners can play a neutral but informed role to investigate facts and assess and apply the law to resolve difficult legal disputes within bankruptcy cases. This “inquisitorial model” was successfully used in the case of In re Tribune Company, Bankr. Case No. 08-13141 (Del .) to investigate highly complicated pre- and postpetition transfers that were to be incorporated in a plan of reorganization, confirmation of which was being held up because of disputes over the transfers. More than a mediator, the examiner was authorized to hire attorneys and financial advisors and to issue subpoenas for oral deposition and production of documents. After three months of intense work, the examiner issued a four-volume, 1,400-page narrative and legal analysis that demonstrated that the transactions at issue were fraudulent, and therefore the plan was not confirmable. Professor Bussel notes that examiners have been used in this way in several subsequent bankruptcy cases to investigate and mediate claims by creditors of improper financial dealing, uncovering facts and vindicating legal rights far more quickly and economically than in adversarial litigation. At present, the examiner model works best with larger cases, where there are ample resources for conducting investigations expeditiously. However, Professor Bussel concludes, more courts should be willing to willing to opt for examiners under §1104(c) as an alternative to confidential settlements and protracted litigation.For Chapter Eighteen:TLM 18-1: Clearly the driving force behind bankruptcy court’s allowing the §363(b)(1) sale over an objection that it is effectively a sub rosa plan of reorganization is the desire to maximize the return to the estate (see, e.g., In re Ames Dept. Stores, Inc., 136 B.R. 357, 359 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 1992). In contrast to the tolerant attitude toward this procedure in In re Lionel Corp. cited in the text, read In re Braniff Airways, Inc., 700 F.2d 935 (5th Cir. 1938). And see how various courts have adopted more specific requirements to clarify the “sound business purpose” test of In re Lionel Corp. See, e.g., In re Titusville Country Club, 128 B.R. 396 (Bankr. W.D. Pa. 1991); In re Plabell Rubber Products, Inc., 149 B.R. 475, 479 (Bankr. N.D. Ohio 1992); In re Weatherly Frozen Food Group, Inc., 149 B.R. 480, 483 (Bankr. N.D. Ohio 1992); and In re Delaware & Hudson Ry. Co., 124 B.R. 169 (Bankr. D. Del. 1991).TLM 18-2: A useful tool for identifying specific companies filing for Chapter 11 reorganization is available at . Chapter 11 allows you can search by debtor name, year, industry, jurisdiction, or asset size. Try searching for companies that have filed in your federal district since the first of the year. Filings in each case are listed but are not available for free from the site.For Chapter Nineteen:TLM 19-1: Arrange to interview an attorney experienced in handling Chapter 11 cases for the debtor. Include questions regarding the greatest challenge of handling a Chapter 11. What role do paralegals play in the case from beginning to end and how well versed do they need to be in bankruptcy law and procedure? How helpful is it for the debtor’s attorney and staff to understand business concepts and the particular business of the debtor? How much time is involved in preparing the petition and schedules; in handling the motions related to first day orders; in motions related to operating the business prior to plan confirmation; in fashioning the plan and disclosure statement; in the voting and approval process? TLM 19-2: If possible, attend a hearing on a disclosure statement in the bankruptcy court in your district. Arrange to review the disclosure statement and plan beforehand by going to the bankruptcy court clerk’s office or logging onto PACER. The clerk can identify such a case for you. Compare the contents of the disclosure statement with the illustration in the chapter. Does the disclosure statement contain everything listed in that illustration? More? Compare the disclosure statement with the plan it supports. Does the disclosure statement seem to contain all the detail a creditor would need to make an informed decision? Is the plan well written? Organized? Clear? Does the plan propose to impair one or more classes and, if so, identifying 1) each class of creditors that is impaired under the proposed plan; 2) the percentage of debt that the creditors in each impaired class are projected to receive. How are priority claims treated in the plan? How are secured claims treated? TLM 19-3: If possible, attend a plan confirmation hearing in the bankruptcy court in your district. Arrange to review the plan and disclosure statement and plan beforehand by going to the bankruptcy court clerk’s office or logging onto PACER. The clerk can identify such a case for you. What issues are raised at the confirmation hearing? Does the judge participate actively or passively? Was there more than one plan subject to confirmation? Did the DIP propose the plan under consideration or another party an interest? For Chapter Twenty:TLM 20-1: New Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, governing cross-border bankruptcies, is going to become increasingly important with the ongoing globalization of business. And the world-wide economic slowdown at the end of the first decade of the new century may well test the efficiency and effectiveness of the new procedures found there. There are, in fact, a number of other laws that will affect cross-border bankruptcies. Of particular importance to American businesses will be the Council of the European Union’s Regulation 1346/2000 and the United Nations Commission on International Trade (UNCITRAL). Research this topic and those two laws in particular then prepare a memorandum summarizing how they work and how they likely will work and how a Chapter 15 proceeding pending in the United States may be impacted by them. An excellent source for this task is the Part III of the article, The Fate of Intellectual Property Assets in Cross-Border Insolvency Proceedings, by Nadine Farid in the Gonzaga Law Review Vol. 44 No. 1, 2008-2009, at pages 58-70.TLM 20-2: Determine if any municipality in your state has filed under Chapter 9 in the past 25 years or so. If so, what were the primary causes for the filing? What impact was there on the benefits payable to retirees of the municipality? On municipal workers represented by unions? On holders of municipal bonds prospects of receiving a full return on their invested principal? On holders of municipal bonds prospects of receiving the interest promised when the bonds were issued? How did the Chapter 9 impact on the creditworthiness of the municipality afterwards and on its ability to raise money going forward to fund public improvements? ................
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