[CLBS] Clarification from Ms. McCallister's Office

Thu Mar 19 16:23:53 MDT 2020

Listmates,

With regards to the below message from Ms. McCallister’s office previously relayed by Mr. Geile (Thank you, Patrick), Ms. McCallister would like to clarify that the message was specific to those requests made by debtors who have been fiscally impacted by the response to the Covid-19 outbreak and/or measures taken to flatten the curve.  And in that regard, for such requests, it will be very helpful for the trustee’s office to have documentation to support the particular request being made by a particular debtor.  Please advise debtors that the relief they may seek from the trustee’s office should be related and limited to the scope of the impact.

Ms. McCallister also wants to clarify that she will do what she can within the bounds of the debtor’s confirmed plan.  Hopefully you recognize that there are statutory and judicial limits within which she may exercise her discretion – for example, and if the particulars of the plan allows, granting up to two deferments per calendar year (per ¶ 2.5 of the Model Plan).  However, she simply cannot ignore a confirmation order and forgo paying a conduit mortgage payment even though the debtor might otherwise qualify for a respite in mortgage payments.  That might require a plan modification.  In some cases, a deferment may be all that is necessary to provide relief to a particular debtor.  In other cases, a plan may need to be modified and a new wage withhold order issued.

The final clarification is that, for the time being, if the debtors missed payments in March and/or April due to the outbreak, then the trustee will refrain from seeking dismissal of the case, regardless of whether it’s a confirmed or unconfirmed case.  Please note, that this is not carte blanche to simply skip payments.  And the trustee’s office will keep a keen out for attempts to abuse this temporary policy.

Lastly, it would be very helpful if you attorneys out there that represent banks and mortgage servicers could reach out to your clients and inquire if and how they intend to process relief for borrowers, both those inside and outside of bankruptcy.  While Ms. McCallister understands that things are very fluid right now and processes and procedures may not necessarily be in place, having such information and knowledge, once available, will be very helpful for all of us knee deep in bankruptcy.  Thus if you have any information as to the form by which that relief might come to borrowers, please share it if/when you are able.

Cordially,

Jeffrey P. Kaufman
Staff Attorney,
Kathleen A. McCallister, Chapter 13 Trustee
PO Box 1150
Meridian, ID  83680
P.208.922.5100
F.208.922.5599

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From: Jeffrey P. Kaufman <jeffrey at dbclarklaw.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2020 2:30 PM
To: Jeffrey Kaufman <jpk at kam13trustee.com>
Subject: FW: [CLBS] FW: JOB LOSSES AND/OR REDUCTION IN PAY

Sent from my mobile.  Please excuse typos, brevity, and terrible speech-to-text transcription errors.

-------- Original message --------
From: Patrick Geile <PGeile at foleyfreeman.com<mailto:PGeile at foleyfreeman.com>>
Date: 3/19/20 13:50 (GMT-07:00)
To: clbs at admws.idaho.gov<mailto:clbs at admws.idaho.gov>
Subject: [CLBS] FW: JOB LOSSES AND/OR REDUCTION IN PAY

From Kathleen McCallister's office:

In light of recent events, the Trustee and her staff would like to communicate what measures are being discussed to help assist those in need.
We will be working with individuals on a case by case basis to assess any requests made. However, in order to better assist our office and avoid prolonging the process, please be sure to provide us with as much documentation as you are able to help support the request being made. IE: paycheck stubs showing a reduction in pay or a correspondence from the employer advising of the job loss or reduction in hours, etc. We will need to know if unemployment will be covering any of reduction/loss in pay. The unemployment offices are getting inundated with requests, so we know that there will likely be a delay there as well.
We will do our best to review all requests in a timely fashion, but please be aware that our office may have reduced staffing as we also need to take time off and/or work reduced hours.

Please keep in mind that if the monthly mortgage payments are to be paid through the plan, those will still need to be paid.

We will do whatever we can to help in these strange times, pursuant to the terms of the confirmed plan.

For those cases that are unconfirmed, we will not pursue dismissal if the months of March and/or April are missed and will be amenable to solutions helping the debtor(s) with repaying any missed months over the remaining term of the plan.

We appreciate that this is a stressful and unprecedented time for all; it remains our hope that we are able to do whatever we can to make things easier both for yourselves and your clients effected by this pandemic.

Shawna Williams
Office Manager for
Kathleen McCallister, Chapter 13 Trustee
P.O. Box 1150
Meridian, ID 83680
208-922-5100
Fax 208-922-5599

PRIVILEGE AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
This e-mail is intended only for the use of the recipient named and may contain information that is confidential, privileged, and exempt from disclosure under applicable laws. Nothing in this message should be construed as legal advice. If you are not the named recipient, you may have received this transmission in error. We ask that you immediately notify the sender and remove this and all attached file(s) from your system. Receipt by anyone other than the intended recipient is not a waiver of the attorney-client or work-product privileges. You are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of any of the information contained in this transmission if you are not the intended recipient is prohibited and may expose you to liability.

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