Dream of:
14 April 1996 "Bankruptcy Plan"I was in the office of Kennon (an attorney who worked in the Chapter 13 Trustee's office). I was surprised to find that one of my bankruptcy clients was talking with Kennon. Kennon was seated at his desk and my client was seated at in a chair in front of the desk. I was seated in a chair over to the side.
It wasn't entirely clear who had called the meeting, but it was clear that Kennon was reviewing the file and the bankruptcy plan of my client, who apparently was having trouble making his chapter 13 bankruptcy plan payment. I knew I had had some vague idea that this meeting was going to take place, and I had somewhat reviewed the file, which I had with me. However my understanding of the case wasn't very clear.
My client was a Hispanic man (probably in his late 40s). It appeared that he owned and operated his own business.
Kennon, as he went through the file and began talking about it, was quite friendly. From the way he talked, he was inclined to help my client in any way he could. I quickly saw how this help could be achieved.
When I had originally formulated the plan, I had provided that my client would repay all his creditors, even the unsecured creditors, in what was called a "100 % plan." I knew it was my general practice to not pay unsecured creditors and to formulate "zero % plans." But sometimes, if the income or the assets of my clients were too great, I was unable to devise zero % plans.
I was unsure why I had initially prepared a 100 % plan in this case, but I thought it had probably been due to the high income of my client. Apparently, however, the income of my client had declined over time, and now the client was unable to make the payments to pay a 100 % plan.
Kennon quickly grasped the situation and began talking about reducing the plan to a zero %. Kennon's attitude surprised me. I knew that normally the only way for me to modify a plan was to bring the case to Kennon and then to a judge to seek permission to modify. Usually that would require a hearing and presentation of evidence, a lot of work and trouble. But this time Kennon was doing the bulk of the work for me. Kennon even pointed out that most of the unsecured debt was to one creditor, and that debt would be wiped out if the plan were set for a modification hearing and the creditor didn't appear at the hearing. Kennon asked me if I were aware of the debt. I responded that I was, which was true, but I quickly looked through my file to ascertain the exact nature of the debt, which wasn't clear to me.
I was also concerned that if we were to modify the plan we would have to go to a hearing and prepare evidence, but Kennon quickly informed me that he could simply prepare the papers and submit them to one of the four bankruptcy judges for entry without a hearing. I was quite surprised that he would do this. I asked him which judge he would use and he said he would use Massie Tillman (Fort Worth bankruptcy judge), since Tillman was the easiest judge to obtain orders from in cases like this.
I was amazed that the whole matter was being taken care of so easily, but I had no complaints and I would be glad to simply see it resolved.
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