I haven't dealt with that yet but as a Chapter 11 attorney, I agree with your point. The UST would have to relax its requirements significantly to make the individual chapter 11 process cheaper before a debtor can easily afford an 11 so that the ust can say it's bad faith not to file an 11 instead of a 7. BTW, I would handle a chapter 11 case without a substantial retainer only for my mother. That's it. As for spreading my fee over 60 months, I've never done that and since you have to reserve a good number of hours of your time for 11s (instead of taking 7s or13s or even other 11s), I require payment of the balance of my fees and costs by the effective date or soon thereafter.
BTW, you also have the prohibition of slavery argument in light of the 1115 inclusion of post-petition earnings.
Sent from my iPad
On Oct 26, 2010, at 10:51 AM, "Mark J. Markus" wrote:
> Do any of you have experience with doing a Chapter 7 case for an individual where they show a surplus on the means test but you argued the Chapter 11 costs (i.e. attorneys fees) would eat up the surplus and make it impossible to do a Chapter 11?
>
> I have a potential case where the client is showing about $2,500 a month in surplus income on the means test, and has over $600,000 of unsecured debt. Ch. 11 attorneys fees (let's just say conservatively) would be $25,000. Would that figure be spread out over 60 months, or since it would be normally a required up front retainer would the inability of the debtor to generate that factor into anything?
>
>
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> Law Office of Mark J. Markus
> 11684 Ventura Blvd. PMB #403
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> (818)509-1173 (818)509-1460 (fax)
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http://bklaw.com/bankruptcy-blog/2008/0 ... efinition/)
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I haven't dealt with that yet but as a Chapter 11 attorney, I agree with your point. The UST would have to relax its requirements significantly to make the individual chapter 11 process cheaper before a debtor can easily afford an 11 so that the ust can say it's bad faith not to file an 11 instead of a 7. BTW, I would handle a chapter 11 case without a substantial retainer only for my mother. That's it. As for spreading my fee over 60 months, I've never done that and since you have to reserve a good number of hours of your time for 11s (instead of taking 7s or13s or even other 11s), I require payment of the balance of my fees and costs by the effective date or soon thereafter. BTW, you also have the prohibition of slavery argument in light of the 1115 inclusion of post-petition earnings.Sent from my iPadOn Oct 26, 2010, at 10:51 AM, "Mark J. Markus" <
bklawr@yahoo.com> wrote:
Do any of you have experience with doing a Chapter 7 case for an
individual where they show a surplus on the means test but you
argued the Chapter 11 costs (i.e. attorneys fees) would eat up the
surplus and make it impossible to do a Chapter 11?
I have a potential case where the client is showing about $2,500 a
month in surplus income on the means test, and has over $600,000
of unsecured debt. Ch. 11 attorneys fees (let's just say
conservatively) would be $25,000. Would that figure be spread out
over 60 months, or since it would be normally a required up front
retainer would the inability of the debtor to generate that factor
into anything?
*************************
Mark J. Markus
Law Office of Mark J. Markus
11684 Ventura Blvd. PMB #403
Studio City, CA 91604-2652
(818)509-1173 (818)509-1460 (fax)
web:
http://www.bklaw.com/
This Firm is a Qualified Federal Debt Relief Agency (see what this
means at
The post was migrated from Yahoo.