Behm Law Group, Bankruptcy Attorneys

If you choose to file for bankruptcy, you will have a trustee appointed by the Executive Office of the United States Trustee to administer and supervise your case. In Chapter 7 bankruptcy, your case will be concluded quickly, usually within ninety to one hundred and twenty days, but in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, your 3-5 year repayment plan will require a longer period of involvement by the chapter 13 trustee. Because a Chapter 13 case is significantly longer than a Chapter 7 case, the help of a bankruptcy attorney can improve your circumstances. Behm Law Group, Ltd. provides the legal assistance you need when filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Mankato, MN.

The length of Chapter 13 cases often requires specialized skills with those administering the case and overseeing repayment plan. To meet this demand most trustees handling Chapter 13 plans are considered standing trustees.

What are Standing Trustees?  

 Standing trustees often work strictly on Chapter 13 cases. While it’s possible for a trustee to work with both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 cases, the courts prefer standing trustees to administer bankruptcy cases involving debt reorganization. This is because it requires a long-term commitment on the trustee’s part, and often requires legal knowledge specific to the Chapter 13 process.

What do they do?

 Like any other bankruptcy trustee, a standing trustee will examine the information you provide in the bankruptcy forms and schedules and approve the legitimacy and accuracy of that information. The Chapter 13 trustee will also verify your attendance at the meeting of creditors. Any abuse the trustee detects will be reported to the bankruptcy court and to the United States Trustee. In some situations, a standing trustee can recover any assets that you may have transferred before filing for bankruptcy and the trustee can object to certain exemptions you attempt to claim.

When it comes to your repayment plan, a standing trustee will review your income and expenses to determine an appropriate payment for your repayment plan. When a repayment plan is established, the standing trustee confirms that you will dedicate all of your disposable income to continue making payments until the plan is complete. The trustee will also ensure that the plan will repay the creditors at least as much as they would receive in a hypothetical Chapter 7 case.

Once your Chapter 13 repayment plan is confirmed or approved by the bankruptcy court, the standing trustee will continue to collect your payments and distribute the correct amounts to your various creditors. A standing trustee will monitor your ability to make payments and will request an increase in the plan payment amounts corresponding to any increase in your disposable income. The trustee will also keep an eye out for fraudulent conduct.

A standing trustee works to make sure everything is done by the book and that a Chapter 13 case remains fair for creditors and debtors alike. Behm Law Group, Ltd.

can provide you with expert legal counsel and work with your standing trustee if you choose to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Mankato, MN. For more information, call us at (507) 387-7200 today.

When you enter the process of filing for bankruptcy, you agree to follow the many stipulations of U.S. Bankruptcy Courts and U.S. Bankruptcy Code. These regulations play important roles in protecting you as a filer, protecting your creditors, and protecting others involved in your bankruptcy case. One such requirement involved in Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases is the appointment of a trustee to oversee the administration of the petition. Behm Law Group, Ltd. offers guidance throughout your own process of filing for bankruptcy in Owatonna, MN, and will work with your trustee to ensure optimal results.

Entering into a bankruptcy case means that you are automatically given a trustee to handle your petition. What a bankruptcy trustee actually does and who they actually are, however, may not be clear to filers.

Who are they?

In a nutshell, your bankruptcy trustee is a qualified individual the court will appoint to your bankruptcy case. Essentially, the trustee is a chaperone for your case. Your trustee is there to work through your case as a liaison between you and your attorney, your creditors, and the bankruptcy court. Bankruptcy trustees handle forms involved in virtually all kinds of cases, so they are well equipped to oversee your petition to the end.

What do they do?

The responsibility of a bankruptcy trustee is to administer your case. This includes the following:

1. Examining your paperwork and all other information involved in your case
2. Overseeing your confirmation hearing in a Chapter 13 case
3. Overseeing your reaffirmation hearing in a Chapter 7 case
4. Overseeing the meeting of the creditors
5. Overseeing any other hearing involved (e.g. a hearing for a creditor’s motion for relief on an automatic stay)
6. Identifying and selling all your nonexempt assets involved in a Chapter 7 case
7. Evaluating your repayment plan in a Chapter 13 case to verify its fair treatment of you and your creditors
8. Overseeing adversary proceedings if a lawsuit occurs during your bankruptcy process
9. Overseeing the motion to dismiss your Chapter 13 case if you do not make repayment plan payments
10. Ensuring legal accuracy throughout the process

Without bankruptcy trustees, the process of filing a petition and completing a case would be filled with confusion, unfair treatment of players involved, and probably a bit of foul play.

Our attorneys can also help you throughout the process of filing for bankruptcy in Owatonna, MN, with legal advice and assistance. For more information, contact us at (507) 387-7200.

If an individual or business seeks debt relief in the form of bankruptcy, creditors, employees, tenants, and others around them are affected. If a landlord files for bankruptcy, for example, their tenants will be involved in the filing process to a certain extent. If you are a landlord struggling with debt, Behm Law Group, Ltd. offers counsel in filing for bankruptcy. On the other side of that coin, Behm Law Group, Ltd. also offers advice for tenants with a bankrupt landlord, providing important information regarding their role according to the bankruptcy code in Worthington, MN.

Landlords filing for bankruptcy will either file Chapter 7, Chapter 11, or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. For those that qualify for the asset liquidation process in return for debt discharge, Chapter 7 is the most common option. Both Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 offer a debt reorganization bankruptcy structure. Chapter 11 is designed to reorganize the debts of landlords that are not sole-proprietorships or partnerships (e.g. apartment complexes with multiple locations owned by a corporation). Chapter 13 bankruptcy, on the other hand, provides debt reorganization to many landlords who have a sole proprietorship or a partnership operation.

What to Expect as a Tenant

If your landlord files for bankruptcy, they have to inform all their tenants. When any bankruptcy case is opened, the court puts an automatic stay on collections from creditors, but it doesn’t mean you can stop paying rent. However, it does mean that if the property your landlord rents out is in foreclosure, that process is halted and your landlord retains ownership of the property. Because of this, you should continue to pay your landlord until you are notified by the bankruptcy trustee or the mortgage creditor itself that ownership of the property has changed. This change can occur in several ways:

1. Your landlord’s mortgage lender can file a motion with the bankruptcy court to lift the automatic stay for that debt. If the motion is successful, the trustee or the mortgage lender itself will let you know who to pay rent to.
2. If the case ends and your landlord’s property is liquidated, the ownership may change to the party that has purchased the property. If this occurs, the trustee will provide the information you need about your new landlord.
3. If no one purchases the property, you will make payments to the trustee in the meantime.

If your landlord retains the property in their case, you will continue to make payments to them. If they do not retain it and another buyer plans to use the property for other purposes, you may be forced to move. You will be given fair warning and 90 days, or some other mutually agreeable time period, to find a new living situation.

The bankruptcy code can be difficult to navigate for all involved. In most cases, a bankrupt landlord will not affect tenants drastically, but it’s important to be aware of their financial status and the bankruptcy code in Worthington, MN. To learn more about filing for bankruptcy as a landlord, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today.

In every type of bankruptcy case, whether a Chapter 7 case or Chapter 13 case, a separate, distinct legal entity called the “bankruptcy estate” is created by operation of 11 U.S.C. §541 of the bankruptcy code.  This “bankruptcy estate” is in fact a separate, legal being from the person filing for bankruptcy relief.  When a bankruptcy case is filed, all a filer’s property is thrown into the bankruptcy estate.  In other words, when a person files for bankruptcy relief, all of that person’s property actually belongs to the bankruptcy estate.  However, the drafters of the bankruptcy code did not want a person to emerge out of the bankruptcy process completely destitute and without any property to reorganize. Therefore, the bankruptcy code provides for various value allotments or value limitations called bankruptcy exemptions that allow a filer to reclaim property back out of the bankruptcy estate and retain it.  In most cases, a person’s bankruptcy exemptions will be sufficient to allow one to retain all of one’s property.  If you are thinking about filing for bankruptcy in Worthington, MN, Behm Law Group, Ltd. provides legal advice and assistance throughout the process.

Chapter 7 Estate: If you qualify for Chapter 7, the bankruptcy trustee appointed by the bankruptcy court to administer your bankruptcy case will review all of your property in the bankruptcy estate and analyze whether some of the property will not be able to be protected with your bankruptcy exemptions.  To the extent that some of the property can’t be protected with your bankruptcy exemptions, that property will be labeled “nonexempt”, and the trustee will be able to sell it and distribute the value to your creditors.

Chapter 13 Estate: Chapter 13 bankruptcy is designed to restructure your debts into a manageable payment plan that lasts three to five years. The bankruptcy trustee, you, and your lawyer will work together to draft a repayment plan that the court will approve. A feasible plan is determined by your types of debts, your exemptions, and the value of the property in your bankruptcy estate.

What Makes Up the Bankruptcy Estate?

The property included in a bankruptcy estate is determined by Section 541 of the bankruptcy code. Although each bankruptcy case and each bankruptcy estate is different, the bankruptcy estate can be comprised of the following:

• Real estate properties
• Motor vehicles and vehicles of trade
• Personal property items (clothing, jewelry, appliances, etc.)
• Financial accounts
• Security deposits
• Properties loaned to another party
• Wages, commissions, tax refunds, and other sources of income to which you are entitled
• Income from rented properties
• Asset value appreciation
• Applicable community property
• Applicable payments made to creditors before filing for bankruptcy
• Property acquired within 180 days of filing for bankruptcy

Because these exact properties can vary from case to case, it may be difficult to determine which assets are exempt from your bankruptcy estate and which will not be exempt.

If you are considering filing for bankruptcy in Worthington, MN, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today to learn more about the different chapters of bankruptcy and how your bankruptcy estate may be determined.

If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, you must prepare to work with a bankruptcy trustee for the entirety of your case. Your trustee will oversee your case at each stage, acting as an administrator for legal procedures and a communicator between all parties involved. If you qualify for Chapter 7, your case will likely only last a few months. However, if Chapter 13 is your best option for filing for bankruptcy, your plan will last three to five years, and you will work with your bankruptcy trustee throughout that period. Behm Law Group, Ltd. can help you throughout the process of filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Owatonna, MN, as well as provide information about the role of your trustee.

Your trustee is a government-appointed administrator for your bankruptcy case, and the trustee is compensated for his or her work in your case in a number of ways. In a Chapter 7 case, a trustee is compensated with a combination of fees and asset sales. With reorganization bankruptcy, the trustee cannot rely on asset sales, and because a Chapter 13 case lasts several years, the trustee must find compensation from other sources.

Plan Payment

The primary source of compensation for a standing trustee in a Chapter 13 case is through the repayment plan. A certain percentage of the monthly payments you make for your repayment plan go to compensate the trustee handling your case. This percentage is limited to a maximum of 10% of any plan payment amount. In certain cases, 10% of a monthly plan payment is a hefty sum; however, the trustee’s salary is currently limited to $145,000 a year, and the percentage of monthly compensation is adjusted to remain within this limitation.

The costs of operating a trustee’s office, the costs of any parties the trustee hires within your case, and any other costs incurred in your case are covered by the compensation paid to the trustee from your monthly plan payments and the plan payments from other chapter13 cases that the trustee is administering.  A trustee may have thousands of cases to administer.

Operating Budgets

At the start of your case and throughout the period of your Chapter 13 repayment plan, your trustee must file operating budget proposals to the Office of the United States Trustee. These proposals give budget information that includes all costs incurred during not only your repayment plan period but also the repayment plan periods of other cases the trustee may be administering. When the trustee’s operating budget is approved, the trustee is given permission to take a percentage of your monthly payments that will serve as total trustee compensation. This percentage may change if the budget changes throughout your 3 to 5 year-long plan.

If you are considering filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Owatonna, MN, and would like to learn more about the process and the roles of your trustee and attorney, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today.

If you’re considering filing for bankruptcy, you should understand that you must not only fully disclose all property that you own either entirely or in which you have any partial ownership interest but also provide your attorney sufficient documentation substantiating any such ownership interests/claims.  You must provide your attorney with copies of all titles, deeds, real estate mortgages, life insurance policies, retirement account documentation, homeowner’s insurance policy information, vehicle loan promissory notes, financial statements, tax assessment statements, tax returns, copies of judgments and all other like documentation.  Generally an attorney will require you to provide your financial information for the past 3 years. This means you’ll have to provide all personal records along with your public records. Because gathering your financial information correctly can be difficult without experience and legal knowledge, the help of a bankruptcy attorney is essential. Behm Law Group, Ltd. offers professional legal support and counsel that can help you throughout the process of filing for bankruptcy in St. Peter, MN.

While you gather your personal records for your attorney to consider in relation to your case, you should also consult with the local court administrator’s office, court recorder’s office and county tax assessor’s office to examine any public records you may have against you. Records such as deeds, county tax assessor valuations for any real estate you own, judgment liens and title certificates for vehicles are public records.

Another example of a public record of your financial history is a property lien or mortgage lien.

What is a Property Lien?

Property liens are a matter of public record and they legitimize and provide notice of the claim your creditor has on your property to secure the money you owe to that creditor.  It is used by a creditor to provide public notice to other creditors that it has first secured standing on certain property you own.  In other words, it is announcing to all other creditors that it is first in line to collect its debt against the property.  For example, if there is a mortgage on your home regarding money you owe to a bank, the mortgage will be publicly listed in the county recorder’s office.  Any other bank who may want to lend you money will search the county recorder’s office and see the property lien to the first bank.  Any such bank will understand that it will not be able to utilize your house as collateral for any financing it extends to you to the detriment of the first bank.  If it does elect to extend financing to you and if it does want to use your house as collateral, the property lien to the first bank will provide the second bank notice that it will be second in line to the first bank if you default on your payments and it proceeds to initiate foreclosure proceedings against your house.  Liens work to protect a creditor’s claim on the property if you file for bankruptcy relief. A properly filed property lien is enforceable against any and all parties in a bankruptcy proceeding.

A bankruptcy filing does not extinguish the creditor’s property lien.  If you want to retain your house through a bankruptcy proceeding, you must continue to pay on any outstanding property liens against it.  Any equity or value above the amount of any property liens can be protected from your creditors, however.  For instance, if your house is worth $100,000 and you owe $20,000, you have $80,000 worth of value or equity.  You can protect the $80,000 equity/value against all of your creditors and against the bankruptcy trustee but you must still pay the underlying $20,000 to the bank that holds the property lien.  If you don’t pay the underlying $20,000 property lien, the bank that holds the property lien can still initiate foreclosure proceedings against your house.

With the help of a bankruptcy attorney you can easily access public records concerning your finances to determine if you have any property on which your creditors have claimed property liens. It’s important to be aware of any liens on your property, especially if you’re filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

For more information about property liens and to learn how Behm Law Group, Ltd. can help you file for bankruptcy in St. Peter, MN, contact us at (507) 387-7200 today.

Understanding government and legal positions is a complicated business. The role of an employee and how they are compensated varies widely from position to position and department to department. Bankruptcy trustees are not employed by the United States Department of Justice.  However, they are private attorney’s appointed by the United States Department of Justice and assigned to bankruptcy cases through the United States Trustee Program.  Working with the bankruptcy trustee assigned to a particular bankruptcy case can often be nuanced. Behm Law Group, Ltd. works with both our clients and the bankruptcy trustees to successfully handle bankruptcy cases in Luverne, MN.

The help of a bankruptcy firm and attorneys such as those here at Behm Law Group, Ltd. is often key to meeting the optimal outcome in a bankruptcy case. Your bankruptcy trustee is responsible for administering your bankruptcy estate.  The bankruptcy estate is a legal entity separate and distinct from the person filing for bankruptcy relief.  It consists of any property that you are not able to keep or exempt in your bankruptcy case.  In chapter 7 cases, trustees sell or liquidate any non-exempt assets and use the proceeds to pay something to your various creditors.  Not only do they work to distribute any liquidated assets in a Chapter 7 case to your creditors, they also work with you and your creditors in a Chapter 13 case.  In a Chapter 13 case, you make one monthly payment (a payment that you can afford that is determined with the supervision of the trustee) to the chapter 13 trustee, pursuant to a restructured debt payment plan, every month for 36 to 60 months.   The chapter 13 trustee then splits that payment up among your various creditors each month for 36 to 60 months.

Additional responsibilities of a trustee are numerous, but in short, they work to oversee your case, detect fraudulent behavior with all parties involved, and ensure accuracy.

A trustee’s compensation can depend on several situations within a bankruptcy case.

Chapter 7: In a Chapter 7 case, your bankruptcy trustee takes a $60.00 fee from the $335.00 filing fee you pay to the court. If you have no assets, that’s all your trustee will receive from your case. If you do have assets, your trustee receives percentage from the collected amount after non-exempt assets are liquidated and before anything is paid to your creditors. The amount taken is determined by a sliding scale, under 11 U.S.C. §326. For the first $5,000.00 collected by a trustee, the trustee will take 25%. For the next $45,000 the trustee will take 10%, and for the following $950,000 the trustee will take 5%. For anything collected by the trustee that exceeds $1 million dollars, the trustee would take 3%. Trustees can also recover costs from the bankruptcy estate with court approval.

Chapter 13: In a Chapter 13 case, your repayment plan decides the amount of your trustee’s compensation. In all cases, your trustee cannot take more than 10% of all total payments in your plan. For instance, if your chapter 13 plan payment is $500.00, the trustee would receive $50.00 of every payment you make.  Most trustees handling Chapter 13 cases are also paid a yearly salary through the federal government.

It’s important to understand the function and duties of a trustee.  Having an attorney on your side can help you understand this. If you’re considering filing for bankruptcy in Luverne, MN, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today.

Bankruptcy is a process that affects a higher percentage of families, individuals, and businesses each year as many aspects of our economy change. There is absolutely no reason to feel shame in filing bankruptcy. In fact, bankruptcy is a government sanctioned process designed to help U.S. citizens find relief from debts, unexpected or otherwise. While some take on bankruptcy without a professional at their side, this is not recommended as filing for bankruptcy is one of the most complex and condition-based procedures an individual or business can undergo. Behm Law Group Ltd. can help you work through a case with the advice and support you need from a professional bankruptcy lawyer in Pipestone, MN.

Any bankruptcy trustee or legal professional will advise individuals and businesses to take advantage of the invaluable help a bankruptcy lawyer provides, and for good reason. No matter how much research you do to understand the process and your own circumstances, a bankruptcy lawyer provides legal protection in addition to the expert guidance and support you need in any type of case.

When you partner with a Behm attorney, you can expect knowledge, experience, outside-of-the-box thinking, and true caring for you, the client.

A Bankruptcy Lawyer’s Guidance

The key role of a bankruptcy lawyer is to provide guidance throughout a case. This includes:

1. understanding aspects of your circumstances and determination of the best course of action when it comes to the type of bankruptcy you should file
2. comprehensive assistance in gathering documentation for your case, including all financial information about income, debt, accounts, expenses, and more
3. advice throughout credit counseling and other preliminary requirements outlined by the court
4. support at the 341 hearing (meeting of creditors) or in court in the event your case advances beyond standard procedure
5. advice and assistance in creating a Chapter 13 repayment plan proposal that fits the requirements of the court and your own financial situation
6. support throughout the Chapter 7 liquidation process and assistance in claiming exemptions
7. help in establishing a long-term plan for post-bankruptcy life

A Bankruptcy Lawyer’s Protection

Not only do bankruptcy lawyers provide guidance and insight from start to finish in your case, they also give vital protection from any parties involved. This includes:

1. protection from creditors’ harassment that might occur
2. support and protection in the event you may face a judgment claim from court or creditor
3. defense against many reasons your trustee may attempt to dispute your case
4. assistance during the meeting of creditors, the first critical time your case is introduced to the bankruptcy court

If you are considering filing a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 case, Behm Law Group Ltd. can offer you the support and protection of a professional bankruptcy lawyer in Pipestone, MN. To learn more or to get started with us today, contact us at (507) 387-7200.

Across Minnesota, K-12 school budgets are dropping, and funding for private colleges is also suffering in several departments. This trend has had a marked effect on students, teachers, and administrators alike. For teachers and professors, the effect can be immediate or gradual. Specifically, those employed as educators at all levels have experienced an overall reduction in salaries, meaning their finances have changed for the worse. This shift has been a large part of why we’ve seen increased cases of educators filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Fairmont, MN, and across the state. If you are an educator struggling to meet debt payments, Behm Law Group Ltd. can provide the guidance and assistance you need to file a successful case and find long-term debt relief.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy for Educators

If you have made the decision to file for bankruptcy as an employed educator, you are most likely restricted to filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. While lowered salaries may be what brought you to the point of filing for bankruptcy, the fact remains that you still have an income. This means you won’t qualify for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy unless your debts significantly outweigh your income.

On the bright side, Chapter 13 bankruptcy is often more desirable for those who want to keep their home and other possessions. Instead of liquidating your non-exempt assets in exchange for debt discharge like Chapter 7, Chapter 13 works to reorganize your debts into a reasonable monthly payment that you make to a chapter 13 trustee.

The reorganization process structures your debts into a repayment plan that lasts three to five years, depending on your income. If your income is lower than the median Minnesota income for a household of your size, your plan will last only three years. If your income is higher than the state median income for a household of your size, your plan is must last five years. In our experience, educator incomes do not typically exceed the median, even when filing jointly with their spouses. This means you can typically expect to have a three year repayment plan and pay a lower percentage of many types of debt.

How Chapter 13 Handles Debt

A Chapter 13 reorganization plan handles debt in several ways. First, you generally will continue to make your monthly payments to most of your secured debts, such as mortgage loans and vehicle loans, directly to those creditors.  Sometimes, however, if you have become delinquent with your mortgage payments or vehicle payments, any pre-petition or pre-bankruptcy filing delinquencies can be paid or “cured” through your chapter 13 plan.  For instance, if you have become $5,000.00 delinquent with your mortgage payments, this amount can be paid to the creditor by the chapter 13 trustee through your chapter 13 plan over the duration (36 to 60 months) of your plan.  You must, however, be able to make the ongoing, regular post-petition mortgage payments that come due after your case has been filed.  Second, priority debts such as certain tax debts, alimony and child support arrearages or even criminal fines, must be paid in full. Third, general unsecured creditors, such as credit card debts, medical debts, etc., do not receive interest, late charges or service fees.  Any amounts that are paid to those creditors go against the principal that you owed those creditors when your bankruptcy case was filed.  Typically, unsecured creditors are only paid a percentage of the total you owed them when your case was filed.

When the debt amounts are calculated and structured into your plan, you’ll be able to see the amount required to be paid monthly to your bankruptcy trustee. You can rest assured this amount will fit your income, though keep in mind your discretionary income will depend on a budget relating to your reasonable and necessary living expenses and your disposable income (income over and above what is necessary to cover your monthly reasonable and necessary living expenses) must be paid to unsecured creditors through your plan. This monthly payment may change if your monthly income and monthly reasonable and necessary living expenses change.

To learn more about filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Fairmont, MN, as an educator, contact Behm Law Group Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today.

Since the establishment of the United States as an independent country, the laws of debt, lending, and bankruptcy have evolved into what they are today. With factors like social and cultural gravity, economic structures, population size and demographics, political leanings, and even religious ideologies, all of our country’s laws, including the bankruptcy code, have fluctuated and developed accordingly. When it comes to bankruptcy law, there have been several acts in the 20th century alone that led our courts to create what is the current bankruptcy code. If you’re considering filing for business or individual bankruptcy, Behm Law Group, Ltd. can provide legal assistance and guidance with today’s laws and bankruptcy code in Redwood Falls, MN.

Of the many significant changes to bankruptcy law made throughout the 20th century is the Chandler Act, also referred to as the Bankruptcy Act of 1938. In 1938, the U.S. was still struggling with many of the severe economic damages of the Great Depression. It was during this time that business failings and destitute homes were more prevalent than they had ever been before, and to this day are unmatched. Because of this economic strife, our country was seeing more and more cases of financial downfall that could have been prevented and/or remedied with government-sanctioned bankruptcy. Thus, in 1938 the Chandler Act was initiated.

Modern U.S. Bankruptcy Code and The Chandler Act

The basis of the Chandler Act reaches back to the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, which established the primary format of allowing debtors to file bankruptcy and receive protection from creditors. This 1898 law was the first of many groundbreaking bankruptcy-related acts of Congress. As an amendment to the 1898 act, the Chandler Act established a system that allowed voluntary bankruptcy filings for businesses and individuals alike.

Additionally, it was a foundational act for the role of bankruptcy trustees. By eliminating the participation of banks in the filing process, and instead assigning an objective trustee to oversee the case, the Chandler Act was one of the first to create a more accessible, fair bankruptcy option. With a trustee taking on the liquidation and reorganization tasks rather than an investment bank, many antiquated and potentially corruptible processes were dissolved.

Although the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 and the BAPCA of 2005 largely overhauled the bankruptcy laws of the past, the Chandler Act of 1938 will always be a milestone for our court system that marks a moment in history when we strove to move forward and continue to make our system of government one that is balanced and effective for U.S. citizens and businesses alike.

To learn more about how the current bankruptcy code in Redwood Falls, MN will structure the outcome of your case and how you can successfully navigate the waters of the bankruptcy court, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today.