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Voice: 609-587-6888  •  Fax: 609-587-9676
 
Office Address:
1 AAA Drive • Suite 101
Robbinsville, NJ 08691
Payment Address:
PO Box 933
Memphis, TN 38101-0933
Mailing Address:
CN 4853
Trenton, NJ 08650
 
Administering cases in the Trenton Vicinage of the United States Bankruptcy Court  
 

[Honor Roll Policy]

[Adjournment Policy]

[Privacy Notice]

[Notice Regarding Attorney Fees
in Dismissed Cases]

[Claims Policy]

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INCLEMENT WEATHER NOTICE

In the event of inclement weather on a scheduled 341 hearing day, please call the Trustee's office at 609-587-6888 to determine whether the office will be open for 341 hearings or whether it will be closed and 341 hearings will be rescheduled. 341 hearings are not automatically rescheduled if the office is closed. Attorneys or pro-se debtors must contact Bud Rockhill at extension 118 to reschedule their 341 hearing.

<<< PLEASE NOTE: A case cannot be confirmed if there has been no 341 hearing.>>>

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HONOR ROLL POLICY

Our Honor Roll system is designed to allow cases to be confirmed in court without the presence of the attorney of record or his or her representative. Cases that meet the Honor Roll criteria will be posted on this website 24 hours prior to the date of the confirmation hearing with details as to how they are being confirmed (payment amount, length of plan, attorney fees to be paid through the plan and any other pertinent information). These cases, and details, will be read into the record as confirmed at the beginning of the hearing day.

If the terms of confirmation appearing on the Honor Roll are contested, simply appear at the hearing, at 9:00 am, and advise the Trustee of same.

In order to be eligible for the Honor Roll a case must meet the following criteria:

  • The debtor must be missing no more than 1 payment as of the date the case is prepared for confirmation.
  • There are no objections to plans, claims, etc. made by either the debtor or any creditors.
  • The Trustee is in receipt of all documents requested (Proof of Income, Appraisal of Property, etc.) 30 days prior to the hearing.
  • The proposed Plan payment is within 25% of the actual payment needed to confirm the case.
  • There are no claims as filed which render the plan infeasible (claim amounts are much higher than estimated in plan, claim filed as secured rather than priority or unsecured, etc.)

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ADJOURNMENT POLICY

With respect to confirmation hearings, motions and 341(a) meetings, adjournment requests must be made in writing at least three (3) business days prior to the scheduled hearing.

For 341(a) adjournments, contact Bud Rockhill by fax at (609) 587-9676 or by email at brockhill@russotrustee.com. Please do not call for a 341(a) adjournment request ... NO adjournments will be given verbally.

For adjourments of all other hearings before JUDGE FERGUSON OR JUDGE KAPLAN, contact Carrie Masters by fax at (609) 587-9676 or by email at cmasters@russotrustee.com.

For adjourments of all other hearings before JUDGE LYONS, contact Sharon Ford by fax at (609) 587-9676 or by email at sford@russotrustee.com.

Responses to adjournment requests will be made within 24 hours. Adjournment requests made on the day prior to the hearing, absent emergent circumstances, will not be addressed and counsel is advised to request the adjournment at the hearing.

Please further note that adjournments of matters schedule for a 2:00 pm hearing should be requested directly from Chambers; in addition, Chambers and the Trustee should be notified of all settlements with respect to these matters as soon as possible in advance of the hearings.

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PRIVACY NOTICE

Notice Is Hereby Given That Information Relating
to Your Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Case
Will Be Made Available On The Internet
To Your Creditors And Other Parties In Interest.

Pursuant to 11 U.S.C. §1302(b)(1) and 704(7), your Chapter 13 Trustee has a duty, unless otherwise ordered by the bankruptcy court, to furnish information concerning the administration of your bankruptcy case as it is requested by parties in interest.

In furtherance of this duty, the Chapter 13 Trustee will make the following information available to parties in interest who request such information:

  1. Your name, address, bankruptcy case number, state and district in which your case is pending, and the Trustee assigned to your case. Your social security number will not be visible to parties in interest but they will be able to search for your bankruptcy case using your social security number. Also, your employer's name will not be displayed.

  2. Information regarding claims filed against your bankruptcy case including the identity of the claimant, the type of claim (i.e., priority taxes, secured, unsecured, etc.), and the amount of the claim.

  3. A history of all payments you make to the Chapter 13 Trustee in your bankruptcy case including the date and amount of each payment.

  4. A history of all disbursements made by the Chapter 13 Trustee in your bankruptcy case including the date of the disbursement, the payee, and the amount.

  5. This information may not be viewed by the general public but only by parties in interest (i.e., creditors listed in your case), who have acquired a specific password for security purposes.

You may review, without charge, the information about your Chapter 13 bankruptcy case that is posted on the Internet. If you believe the information about your bankruptcy case is inaccurate, you can contact the Office of the Chapter 13 Trustee to report the error and you should receive a written response within thirty (30) days following receipt of such report.

The URL address where your information is posted is http://www.ramapo.com, which is operated by Ramapo Information Systems, Inc., 2055 Hamburg Turnpike, Wayne, N.J. 07470. It is anticipated that within the next several months, substantially similar case information will also be available, with the same security protections, on a website operated by the National Data Center Inc., (NDC). The URL address for this site is http://www.NDC13.com. You can contact the NDC at NDC Executive Director, P.O. Box 2004, Sonoma, CA 95476, Phone: (707) 938-3639.

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NOTICE TO THE BAR REGARDING ATTORNEYS FEES IN CASES DISMISSED PRIOR TO CONFIRMATION

Please be advised that this Office will not hold refunds to the Debtor(s) for payment of attorneys fees unless there is a written request submitted, on notice to the Debtor(s), within three (3) business days following the hearing at which the case was dismissed. In cases where a Supplemental Fee Application is to be filed, the Application should reference the dismissal of the case and the proposed Order must specifically authorize the Standing Trustee to pay all or a portion of the fee award from the funds held by the Standing Trustee, prior to disbursing the balance of the funds to the Debtor(s).

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CLAIMS POLICY

Allowed Claims

UPDATED: 2/3/2006
All proofs of claim filed with the Bankruptcy Court Clerk will be programmed for payment through the plan and are deemed allowed pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 502 (a). Orders to disallow late-filed claims must be obtained by debtor(s) or debtor(s)' counsel.

The Trustee will not move to disallow late-filed claims,
unless warranted.

Debtor-Filed Claims

The Bankruptcy Code allows that a debtor may file a claim on behalf of any creditor. In the event that a debtor provides specifically in the Chapter 13 Plan for payment to a particular creditor, but said creditor does not file a Proof of Claim, the provision in the Plan shall be construed as a debtor-filed claim on behalf of that creditor, and shall be administered by the Trustee as an allowed claim.

Amounts claimed on a Proof of Claim form filed by a creditor within the time limits above shall supercede figures listed in the Chapter 13 Plan.

Amended Claims

A creditor may file amended claims at any point during the course of the debtor's plan, provided that the creditor's initial claim was filed within the time frames outlined above.

Claims not explicitly marked "amended" shall be deemed such when an account number or other unique identifier matches that on a previously allowed claim.

A creditor may not file an amended claim beyond the bar date based on a debtor-filed claim. That is, if a creditor fails to file a Proof of Claim within the time limits above, but is receiving distributions through the plan based on figures in the debtor's Chapter 13 Plan, the creditor may not then file a claim to amend the amount being paid.

Post-Petition Claims

The treatment of post-petition debts, typically involving taxes that come due after the filing of a petition, should be expressly addressed in a debtor's Chapter 13 Plan. Claims representing post-petition debts will only be paid through the plan if provided for in the Plan.


Interest

Claims on which interest is allowed should be filed with any interest pre-calculated in the amount claimed. The Trustee's office will not calculate interest on any claim. Where a claim is filed for a particular amount "+ x% interest," the claim will be administered based only on the principal amount listed.


Classification and Prioritization

Every claim is subject to a scheme of classification, with each classification corresponding to a particular priority for payment through the Trustee's office.

A claim may be subject to reclassification if the debtor objects to the claim as filed, and the Court enters an order reclassifying the claim.

Administrative claims

Claims which are administrative typically do not involve a Proof of Claim form, and include any fees of the debtor's attorney to be paid through the plan as well as any claim or fee that is designated administrative by court order. These claims receive the highest priority and will be paid first.

Creditor attorney fees: Attorney fees that are awarded to creditors by the Court in association with the filing of various motions and consent orders are also deemed administrative, but receive a lower prioritization than debtor attorney fees.

Secured claims

Claims that are secured by collateral or tax liens on real property are prioritized after administrative claims. These claims typically involve mortgages, loans on motor vehicles, and real estate taxes, and are most frequently set up to receive through the plan the amount of arrearages due at the time that the debtor's petition was filed. In this case, the debtor continues to make post-petition payments outside of the plan as they become due.

Strip/Cramdown: In some instances, when a creditor is owed more than its security interest, a secured claim may be stripped or crammed down. A second or third mortgages, or auto loans whose balance exceeds the value of the vehicle, for instance, may be crammed down to the actual secured interest or value of the collateral. In some cases this may be $0. When a secured claim is crammed down, the balance of the amount claimed becomes general unsecured debt and is administered accordingly (see below). Claims pertaining to consumer goods: Claims pertaining to certain consumer goods, such as appliances, electronics, jewelry, household fixtures, and clothing, are typically not classified as secured, as the actual value of these goods is uncertain, and at best severely depreciated. However, if secured claims of this nature are filed, the Trustee shall treat these claims secured, requiring full payment, unless treatment of these claims is dealt with specifically in the debtor's Chapter 13 Plan prior to its confirmation.

Unsecured priority claims

Claims that fall into certain categories outlined in 11 U.S.C. ?507(a), most frequently tax claims, are classified as "Priority," even though they are not secured by any collateral. These claims are paid after all administrative and secured claims have been paid.

General unsecured claims

Claims that are not secured and that do not fall into those categories that receive Priority status are classified as general unsecured claims. These often involve consumer debt, including credit and charge cards.

The treatment of general unsecured debt under the plan is dictated by the debtor's Chapter 13 Plan as confirmed. Claims in this category receive the lowest priority, and may receive only a portion of the amount claimed. It is not uncommon that these claims receive no distribution through the plan.

Special classes of general unsecured claims: A debtor's Chapter 13 Plan may subdivide general unsecured claims into special classes with unique treatment only insofar as this treatment occurs after the plan has run for 36 months. A Plan that is confirmed to pay 50% to general unsecured creditors can create special classes of unsecured debt to pay student loans or municipal fines at 100%, provided that these debts are paid the additional 50% after the 36th month of the plan.

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