Summary: The Debtors paid their attorney $10,000 prior to filing Chapter 11 for pre-petition services, with nothing owed to the attorneys at the time of filing. In order to secure fees for services rendered during the pendency of the case, the Debtors granted their attorneys two future advance deeds of trust on tracts of land owned by the Debtors. The Bankruptcy Administrator objected to the application to employ the attorneys, asserting that the attorneys were not disinterested persons as defined in § 101(14) and as required by § 327(a).

Summary: Plaintiff brought a complaint against Defendant for monies allegedly owed on a credit card.  Defendant answered and raised counterclaims, to which Plaintiff failed to reply.  Consequently,  default was entered on the counterclaims with $4,500.00 in actual damages, plus $17,912.11 in costs, including attorneys’ fees.  Defendant appealed, questioning, among other things, the reasonableness of the attorney’s fees. The Court of Appeal  held that the standard for reviewing an award of attorneys’ fees was that "the record must contain findings of

Summary: Following shortly after the opinion by Judge Leonard in In re White (See:  http://ncbankruptcyexpert.com/?p=686), Judge Doub similarly held here that the attorney for the mortgage servicer had made no showing that the filing of Notice of Mortgage Payment Change required the assistance of an attorney. For a copy of the opinion, please see:

Summary: Creditor filed a Notice of Mortgage Payment Change and contemporaneously filed a Notice of Post-Petition Mortgage Fees, asserting a $50.00 fee for filing the Notice of Mortgage Payment Change. On the objection of the Chapter 13 Trustee, the Court disallowed this fee, finding that the Notice of Mortgage Payment Change was "nothing more than a clerical duty" and did not require the assistance of legal counsel. Commentary: This opinion apparently independently comes to the same conclusion as did Judge Mayer of the Eastern District of Virginia, in&nbs

 Summary:

Finch leased a room from Campus Habitat and asserted that Campus Habitat breached their lease, causing her to move out.  Campus Habitat responded and counterclaimed, receiving judgment for damages and, pursuant to the lease, attorneys’ fees.

Summary and Commentary: Starting by painting a vivid tableau of a §341 Meeting of Creditors, its atmosphere is aptly compared with the anxiety of an emergency room.  The metaphor  gets pushed too far,  with the Trustee being likened to a doctor diagnosing people "with a financial emergency- bankruptcy."  This would be a fully congruent comparison only if, and I hesitate to extend this metaphor, because most Trustees are truly good and caring people, who keep a debtor’s interest in mind, if not at heart, a medical doctor was charged by his Hippocratic Oath

Summary: In foreclosing on a Deed of Trust, the Trustee was paid  costs and expenses consisting of a commission, pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.15(a),  of 5% of the highest bid and Trustee's attorneys fees of 15% of the outstanding promissory note on which behalf he was acting.  This resulted in third lien-holder receiving only partial payment and the fourth lien-holder receiving nothing.  The third lien-holder filed a motion with the Clerk of Superior Court arguing that under N.C.G.S.

Summary: Creditors filed an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy for SilverDeer.  On the motion of SilverDeer, the bankruptcy court dismissed the involuntary bankruptcy finding that the pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 303(b)(1), the claims of the creditors were subject to a bona fide dispute.  Subsequently, the bankruptcy court awarded Howard Jacobson, the manager/member of SilverDeer, his attorney fees and costs incurred defending SilverDeer, pursuant to 11 U.S.C.