the7thirteen

It’s a quiet day in June, so I’ve had some time to reflect on the brilliance of the “rock, paper, scissors” game.   Kids all over the world have played it for generations.   It’s an easy way to break a tie or decide who goes first.   A federal judge once ordered attorneys to resolve a prolonged dispute over where to conduct a deposition by “rock, paper, scissors,” with the winner choosing the deposition location.   “Rock, paper, scissors” is also a competitive game involving deep strategy.   Professional and amateur associations host championship tournaments.   The game is endlessly challenging because it is so balanced.   There are three choices.   Each choice has a strength and a weakness and will defeat or lose to one of the other two.    If you aren’t convinced how rare and finely balanced this game is, try to come up with alternatives.   They’re out there.   For instance, there’s “bear, hunter, ninja” (ninja ...

If you watch bad TV late at night you’ve seen these ads.  They usually follow a pattern: The scene opens with a stressed-out ordinary taxpayer, a regular honest citizen like you or me.  You can tell they’re stressed: hair is a mess, sitting at a kitchen table with a big stack of bills, busily not sleeping.  Cue the scary music at the mention of the IRS, the faceless monster stalking their dreams, threatening their family.  But wait… is that a soaring bald eagle?  A waving American flag?  It’s a tax relief company, here to fight for YOU!  Can they help reduce, or perhaps even eliminate your debt to the IRS?  Practically definitely!  Calling the toll-free number on your screen would be downright patriotic.  How could that decision possibly go wrong? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urges caution if you owe taxes and are approached by one of these companies.  Here are some tactics these services often employ: Claiming...

A Chapter 13 Debtor has many options available when dealing with “short-term” debt (a debt that matures before the last date of the bankruptcy plan payment).   The bankruptcy plan can often reduce the value and interest and pay the remaining amount over as long as five years.   Under Georgia law car owners can pawn motor vehicle titles for cash.   The…let’s call it a “loan” for the moment…carries a hefty finance charge and a staggering interest rate that can easily exceed 150% per year!   The usual pawn agreement requires the loan to be repaid, with interest, in a very short amount of time – usually 30 days – but the law allows a “grace period” of 30 more days, for a total of just 60 days to repay the loan, called the “redemption period.”   On its face, this is exactly the type of short-term debt that can be addressed in a Chapter 13 plan: Take up to five years to repay the loan and reduce the crushing interest.   For many years that’s exactly how...

Microf, LLC v. Cumbess (In re Cumbess) , No. 18-cv-00449-TES (M.D. Ga. May 2, 2019). Paul Cumbess leased HVAC equipment from Microf, which he used to heat and cool his residence.   When Paul filed bankruptcy, his Chapter 13 plan “assumed” the lease, meaning that he wanted to keep the equipment and would continue to pay for it directly ( i.e. , not included in the Chapter 13 bankruptcy payments).   After the bankruptcy plan was confirmed, Paul fell behind in lease payments.   Microf wanted the missed payments to be included in the Chapter 13 plan as an “administrative claim” and paid in full, but the Chapter 13 Trustee objected.   The Trustee argued the missed payments should not be allowed because, while Paul definitely needed the HVAC, the usage did not benefit the bankruptcy estate.   Therefore, the Trustee opposed using Chapter 13 plan payments to catch up the missed amounts.   As soon as a bankruptcy case is filed, an “estate” is created, ...