exemptions

How the Amici Came Together for the Fifth Circuit's Disappearing Exemptions Cases

03/11/18
When a case is heard at the Supreme Court, the docket is filled with briefs of amicus curiae trying to say something that will catch the court's attention.   With so many briefs filed, they sometimes cancel each other out in a flutter of pdf files sounding variations on the same themes.   However, amicus briefs are much less common at the Court of Appeals level.  Recently I was part of an effort where a panel of the Fifth Circuit reversed itself in one instance and reversed a district court in another.   The cases are Hawk
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Fifth Circuit Goes Further Down the Disappearing Exemption Rabbit Hole

07/21/17
In yet another blow to the finality of exemptions, the Fifth Circuit has ruled that a chapter 7 debtor who claimed an IRA as exempt but later withdrew the proceeds must pay the funds to the trustee.   Engelhart v. Hawk (Matter of Hawk), No. 16-20641 (5th Cir.
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Fifth Circuit Report: Oct.-Dec. 2015

02/24/16
The Fifth Circuit decided cases dealing with appellate procedure, exemptions, judicial estoppel, jurisdiction, sanctions, standing and surcharging collateral during the fourth quarter of 2015.  A common theme among the cases is parties being disappointed in a variety of contexts, including having an appeal dismissed on procedural grounds, having a lawsuit dismissed based on incomplete filings in a bankruptcy case, losing exem
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Debtors Cannot Claim Homestead Exemption In Carve-out Funds Recovered By Trustee.

07/16/15

underwaterhouse In a July 2015 case the Chapter 7 Trustee sold a house that was underwater with three liens, and received a carve-out from the lender that held the second and third liens.  The Debtors did not object to the sale, but to the Trustee’s Final Report because it did not allow for payment of their homestead exemptions from

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Forida Statutory $4,000 Personal Property Exemption

06/14/15

Since the enactment of section 222.25(4), Florida Statutes (effective July 1, 2007) there has arisen the issue of whether this section's new $4,000.00 personal property exemption (which is available to those that do not "claim or receive the benefits of a homestead exemption" under Art. X, Sec. 4 of the Florida Constitution) is in addition to the $1,000.00 personal property exemption of Art. X, Sec. 4(a)(2) or whether it includes it. The case of In re Bezares, Case No. 07-12820 (Bankr.M.D.Fla.

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