The Trustee is NOT setting 341 meetings on Wednesday, December 24. Instead, 341 meetings will be set for Friday, December 19; they will be held on the 22nd floor.

In this, its first month, ConsiderChapter13.org will post contributions from Trustees Kevin Anderson and Robert Drummond and Bankruptcy Judges Karlin, Markell, Kennedy, McGarity, Emerson, Tchaikovsky, and Thurman. It will also feature interesting “case of the day” summaries by Judges Lundin and William H. Brown, thoughtful articles on ethic issues in consumer bankruptcy by Tom Waldron and podcast interviews with Hank Hildebrand, Andrea Celli, Judge Roger Efremsky, and Ricardo Kilpatrick. Professor David Epstein has authored this month’s lead article. In addition to outstanding substantive resources, ConsiderChapter13.org will offer links to many high volume consumer bankruptcy-related websites as well as selected articles examining the mortgage issues, statistical information and other current topics of interest to consumer bankruptcy practitioners. Finally, ConsiderChapter13.org will also provide a link to chapter13online.com, the all-new online version of the Lundin Chapter 13 treatise and case notes.

We hope you will “bookmark” ConsiderChapter13.org and make it your one-click site for all of your electronic bankruptcy needs and interests. The website will officially debut in San Francisco at the NACTT annual seminar and its contents will be available for preview by all for the months of July, August, and September. Beginning October 1st, however, certain sections will be designated as “member only” and will be accessible to members of the Academy only.

The fee for general membership is $275 but to encourage early enrollment by practitioners, those that join by July 12th will be eligible for a significant discount. We know that you have limited resources and many choices for educational materials but we can assure you that no other source will provide the unique insights into Chapter 13 practice that will be available through the Academy.

The benefits of NACTT Academy membership have been designed to complement, and not compete, with the benefits of NACTT membership and, hand in hand, we hope to increase awareness of the benefits of Chapter 13 and to improve consumer bankruptcy practice nationwide.

Take a look and see what you think! If you really want to be up to date and up to the minute, this is the place to be!

The Bankruptcy Judges and the Standing Chapter 13 Trustee for the Eastern District of Missouri have agreed that, absent a specific request, economic stimulus payments will not be considered tax refunds which must be turned over to the Chapter 13 Trustee and added to the plan base per the terms of the Chapter 13 plan.

The Trustee's web site now offers vouchers for disbursement checks up to one year old through the web site. After login, in the Main Page search box, you can now search for check numbers by prefixing a pound sign to the check number. In addition, in the claim detail, creditor detail, and payment listing for any case, the check numbers for which a voucher is available will appear as hyperlinks which display the associated voucher in a new window. The voucher display includes a link to a version of the voucher as comma-separated values suitable for import into Excel or other spreadsheet programs. Please contact the Trustee's office with any questions!

Beginning March 1, 2008, the Trustee will no longer mail hard copies of Motions to Dismiss for Plan Payments to debtor's attorneys. Debtor's attorneys will continue to receive these motions electronically through the CM/ECF system of the Bankruptcy Court.

The Bankruptcy Court has implemented a new method for numbering proofs of claim in CM/ECF. The new claim number is comprised of the original claim number (e.g, claim number "2") and a hyphen and a number indicating whether it's the original claim or an amended claim. For example, a creditor files an original claim in a case; the claim is assigned the number "2-1". The creditor then amends the claim; the amended claim is assigned the number "2-2". The number after the hyphen increases incrementally with each amendment.

Objections to claim must include the complete number.

The Trustee's web site now offers a plan calculation program to help attorneys assess feasibility, estimate a plan's payout potential, analyze the effects of changes to claims, delinquency, and confirmation delays on a plan over time, and more. In order to effectively use the program, it is essential that all interested users review the documentation available below. After reviewing the documentation, users interested in more detailed advanced training should contact our office for an appointment.

NOTE: The Trustee makes no representation or assurance concerning the accuracy or completeness of results obtained via Plan Calc. The operation of Plan Calc has no bearing on or relationship to the actual disbursement of trust funds by the Trustee. The Trustee does not warrant that the operation of Plan Calc will be free from error or defect.

Click Here to review the Plan Calc documentation.

"Please note that the Court's Pre-confirmation Dismissal Order for Chapter 13 cases has changed. It no longer allows $1,100 in fees to debtor's attorneys. If a debtor's attorney wishes to have fees allowed in a case dismissed prior to confirmation of a Chapter 13 Plan, the attorney must make a request to the Court at the time the case is dismissed. This change is a result of we, the judges, being concerned about the amount of fees that have been paid on cases dismissed pre-confirmation and we will not look with favor on additional fees for re-filed cases dismissed pre-confirmation without justifiable circumstances."

The trustee will provide a figure to pay the balance of a case as required by law only on request of debtor's counsel and only to the person as requested by debtor's counsel. However, with the proper authorization to a lending institution, the figure to pay the balance of a case as required by law will be provided to the designated institution if debtor's counsel has a motion to refinance or incur debt pending.

The Trustee's case information is now available to debtors and other parties in interest through the National Data Center. Please visit the National Data Center web site for more information.

The Trustee's office offers delinquency information on active cases through this web site. Users should be aware that this information is offered for your convenience, but the Trustee offers no guarantee of currency or accuracy. Generally, information on active cases should be accurate within two days of receipts and payment due dates. Nevertheless, in order to obtain the most current and accurate delinquent amount, users should calculate the debtor's delinquency themselves using the plan terms and the Trustee's record of receipts. Please note that delinquency information on dismissed or converted cases is NOT offered. Users seeking delinquency information for dismissed cases must calculate the delinquent amount manually, or call the Trustee's office for assistance.

Access to Chapter 13 case information is available online to parties in interest who have read and completed the access agreement available on this page. Interested parties should download and complete the access agreement and mail the original to the address below. Please contact the office for more information.