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Here’s the Alexandria VA Bankruptcy Hearing Room and Alexandria Bankruptcy Courthouse. Most people who file bankruptcy never go to the courthouse.  Most people never see the actual bankruptcy judge.  Bankruptcy initial hearings (called “the meeting of creditors”)are at 115 S Union Street. Complicated cases end up here, at the Alexandria Bankruptcy Courthouse, in front  of […]The post Alexandria Bankruptcy Courthouse at 200 S Washington Street by Robert Weed appeared first on Robert Weed.

The U.S. Department of Education has published their list of of schools facing extra scrutiny as of June 1, 2015, and it’s a good idea to check if yours is on the list.
A total of 483 colleges are being closely monitoring due to concerns over their ability to handle federal funds, down from 543 schools in March 2015. The new list includes three public institutions — Northern New Mexico College, Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari, N.M., and Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi — all of which were added for their failure to submit audit documents to the Education Department either late or not at all.
The oversight, called Heightened Cash Monitoring, is taken with institutions to provide additional oversight for a number of financial or federal compliance issues, some of which may be serious and others that may be less troublesome.
Under the lower level of HCM, a school makes disbursements to eligible students from institutional funds, submits disbursement records to government, and then draws down Federal Student Aid funds to cover those disbursements. When a school is on the higher level of HCM, it no longer receives funds from the Federal Student Aid system. Instead, the school must submit a Reimbursement Payment Request for funds to the Department.
The higher level of HCM can cause cash flow problems as the school doesn’t have the ready access to federal student loan money. This higher level of HCM is one of the reasons why Corinthian fell apart in 2014 after having its federal funds spigot turned off.
Under the U.S. Department of Education guidelines:

Schools may be placed on HCM1 or HCM2 as a result of compliance issues including but not limited to accreditation issues, late or missing annual financial statements and/or audits, outstanding liabilities, denial of re-certifications, concern around the school’s administrative capabilities, concern around a schools’ financial responsibility, and possibly severe findings uncovered during a program review. Some schools are on this list due to preliminary findings made during a program review that is still open. Those findings could change when the program review is completed.

You can see the list of institutions on HCM as of June 1, 2015 here (in Excel spreadsheet XLS format).
According to Inside Higher Ed:
Seven for-profit colleges and one private nonprofit college that faced the more stringent aid restrictions in March won removal from that designation by June: the Real Barbers College in Anaheim, Calif.; Stone Academy in West Haven, Conn.; Manhattan Beauty School in Tampa, Fla.; American College of Hairstyling in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; International Beauty School in Cumberland, Md.; American Institute of Medical Sonography in Las Vegas; Institute of Therapeutic Massage in Lima, Ohio; and Ohio Mid-Western College in Cincinnati.
Asian-American International Beauty College, a for-profit college in Westminster, Calif., was removed from cash monitoring level 2 but remained on [the lower level of monitoring].

The post Department of Education Updates List of Troublesome Colleges appeared first on Bankruptcy and Student Loan Lawyers - 866.787.8078.

Normally your bankruptcy estate consists only of the property you own on the date of the filing of your bankruptcy case. Certain property though that you acquire after filing for bankruptcy are part of your bankruptcy estate. Supplemental schedules need to be prepared and filed with the Bankruptcy Court.

Certain Property Needs to be Disclosed

In chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy, you are generally under the obligation to notify the Bankruptcy Court and your bankruptcy trustee if you acquire any of the following items within 180 days of the filing of your bankruptcy petition: 
          a. inheritances          b. divorce property settlements
          c. proceeds of life insurance

In such event, you should advise your bankruptcy attorney at once so that he may properly advise you and prepare the proper schedules that need to be prepared and filed with the Bankruptcy Court. If you are in a Chapter 7 case, you may consider converting the case to Chapter 13.

Causes of Action - Including Personal Injury and Employment Cases
In a Chapter 13case, you should also file supplementary schedules in your bankruptcy case if you acquire cetain types of property, including actual or potential causes of action (ie. including personal injury and employment cases) that you acquire at any time after the bankruptcy case is filed. This is very important, as if it is not disclosed in a supplemental schedules, you may be barred from pursuing the cause of action ("judicial estoppel").
Jordan E. Bublick - Miami Bankruptcy Lawyer - North Miami & Kendall Offices - (305) 891-4055 - www.bublicklaw.com

Is it a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for a creditor to file a Proof of Claim in a bankruptcy case on an old debt that is no longer collectible by virtue of a Statute of Limitation?  Ever since the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Crawford vs. LVNV Funding  that such claims do constitute FDCPA violations many local bankruptcy attorneys have been eager to find out how the 8th Circuit would rule.
Why so such anticipation?  Because large debt buyers such as Midland Funding, Portfolio Recover and Asset Acceptance Corp file hundreds of thousand of claims on such time-barred debts annually and if the 8th Circuit would have joined with the 11th Circuit in declaring such claims illegal, bankruptcy attorneys would have rushed in with thousands of FDCPA complaints against these companies.  In almost every Chapter 13 bankruptcy case there are a handful of claims filed on expired debts and it would be easy to sift through files to line up FDCPA cases ripe for litigation.  Like Boomer Sooner ready to launch his wagon in the Oklahoma land rush, bankruptcy attorneys have waited for a signal to launch litigation against debt collectors filing claims on expired debts.
In Gatewood vs. CP Medical LLC, the 8th Circuit BAP has ruled that no FDCPA violation occurs by merely filing a claim on a time-barred debt.

Filing in a bankruptcy case an accurate proof of claim containing all the  required information, including the timing of the debt, standing alone, is not a prohibited debt collection practice.”

The court reasoned that bankruptcy debtors are able to object to the time-barred claims in the bankruptcy process and observed that debtors are generally represented by attorneys who are duty-bound to object to invalid claims, so filing a claim on an expired debt does not overly burden a debtor.  And, of course, the unspoken deciding factor is that the court did not want to encourage a tidal wave of FDCPA bankruptcy litigation had it ruled otherwise.
What are the consequences and implications of this decision?

1. Debt buyers will continue to flood the court with expired debt claims as far as their databases can go.  I’m seeing claims for debts where no payments have been made in over 10 to 15 years.
2. The payout of legitimate claims will decrease since the deluge of claims from time-expired debts will dilute the payment that would have been made to enforceable debts.
3. Debtors get stuck with footing higher legal fees necessary to object to these expired debts.
4. Student Loan debtors may get stung when time-barred private student loan claims start receiving payments because their attorney failed to object to the claim.  Does a payment received through a chapter 13 plan on an expired student loan debt reset the statute of limitations?
5. Resetting the Statute of Limitations.  Does a payment on an expired debt through a Chapter 13 payment plan reset the statute of limitations?  Normally a voluntary payment will reset the statute of limitation.  Does a payment in a Chapter 13 constitute a voluntary payment for purposes of counting the last payment date on an expired debt?  I really don’t know.  Debtor’s counsel cannot just assume that allowing a claim on an expired debt is harmless since such payments may reset the statute of limitations clock.

Although I can understand the 8th Circuit’s reluctance to encourage an avalanche of FDCPA litigation, in the long run this may be an questionable policy.  Sending debt  buyers a clear signal that dead debts should remain dead would reduce time spent by court personnel in managing expired claims and thereby increase the payout to legally enforceable debts.  Debtors and their attorneys now must spend additional time and money reviewing and objecting to claims that never should have been filed in the first place.  In the end, the court may have just created more of that litigation it was seeking to avoid.