COMMENTS OF THE NACBA
Regarding the Proposed Amendments
to FRBP 3015 and New Rule 3015.1
October 3, 2016
N
ACBA
appreciates
the
opportunity to comment on the
new “compromise” proposal
regarding form chapter 13 plans that
was first advanced by a group of creditor
attorneys and bankruptcy judges
and that has now been proposed,
with modifications, by the Advisory
Committee. These comments follow up
and expand on the testimony offered to
the Committee on September 27, 2016,
by Jenny Doling, Norma Hammes, and
James “Ike” Shulman.
From our perspective, the proposal is
not a compromise, but rather embodies
a concept that is radically different from
the original proposal. To the extent
some NACBA members supported the
original proposal for a national form
plan, it was because they believed that
many unofficial local form chapter 13
plans had provisions that infringed on
the rights of debtors and that a national
plan would eliminate that problem.
The “compromise” goes in exactly
the opposite direction, and would
have the effect of giving an official
imprimatur to those local plans, which
they have never had before. Indeed,
because almost all bankruptcy courts
have adopted local chapter 13 plans,
that is almost the only thing that the
proposal will do with respect to plans.
It does not even require the uniformity
of format that was one of the principal
objectives of the proposal for a national
plan. There is simply no reason why
the rules should legitimize plans that in
some cases do not even comply with
the law.
As is evident from our earlier comments
and the testimony of our witnesses, we
a