Plan Payments

Plan payments must be in the form of cashier's check, bank check or money order or employer's check. Personal checks are forbidden for Chapter 13 payments. Name and bankruptcy case number should be clearly written on the payment. Your first plan payment is due thirty (30) days after your bankruptcy plan is filed and a payment will be due every month on that date thereafter. If timely payments are not made, we will ask the Bankruptcy Court to dismiss your case. We are required to deduct plan payments from your paycheck when that is available. The debtors that have Chapter 13 payments deducted from their paychecks have a much better chance of successful completion of their Chapter 13 plan. Payments should be addressed and mailed to:

P.O. Box 1102
Memphis, TN 38101-1102

Please save all receipts from all payments you send or your paycheck stubs if the payments are being deducted. Therefore, if there is any discrepancy you will have a record of your payments and there will be a method to trace them. If there are any hearings related to discrepancies in payments with either the trustee or mortgage company, be sure you bring the receipts that you have to Court on the day of your Court hearing.
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Your Case Number

When your Chapter 13 Bankruptcy was filed, the Clerk assigned it a particular case number. This number is like an account number with our office. It must be on all payments and correspondence with our office. If you call our office, please have this number available.
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Your Attorney

The scope of your attorney's representation will be governed by whatever agreement the two of you have made. Make sure that you discuss whether additional legal services, which may be required during your plan, will be an additional cost to you. Your attorney is there to answer any questions or concerns you have regarding your case. Your attorney is your legal advisor. The Trustee's office will not give you any legal advice regarding your case.
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Creditors

All creditors must file a Proof of Claim with the Bankruptcy Clerk in order to receive distributions from a Chapter 13 plan. Unsecured creditors have ninety (90) days from the 341 meeting to file a claim. Governmental agencies have up to 180 days from the filing of the case to file a claim. Due to a recent Decision of the 7th Circuit in Adair vs. Sherman & Sherman , a secured creditor may decide that the creditor has enhanced rights by filing before confirmation of the plan. As a result of Adair, a creditor with secured claim may decide it would be detrimental to file the Proof of Claim after confirmation. The Trustee will generally pay the creditor the amount that is listed on the claim. If you disagree with the amount claimed, you must notify your attorney. If you find a creditor you forgot to include in your bankruptcy, contact your attorney immediately. The Trustee's office will send you a periodic report of disbursements to creditors. If you disagree with disbursements, immediately contact your attorney. You should be aware that creditors have the right to transfer their claims to other creditors. Many times there will be a transfer of the claim to another creditor. The creditors have the right to assign the claim if they desire.
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Addresses

You must notify the Trustee, your attorney and Bankruptcy Clerk of any change of address. The notification must be in writing. Our address is:

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 3170
Oshkosh, WI 54901

You must also notify the Bankruptcy Clerk of any change of address on their form. You may get their form by writing to them at:

Office of the Bankruptcy Clerk
U S Bankruptcy Court
517 E. Wisconsin Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53202
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Encountering Problems

Unexpected situations such as illness, loss of wages or unexpected expenses can affect your ability to comply with your plan. If you experience a problem making your plan payments, you must contact your attorney immediately. It may be possible for your attorney to make adjustments to your plan. It also may be possible for you to convert your case into a Chapter 7, modify the plan or move for a hardship discharge. It is important to remember that the Trustee's office has no authority to allow you to miss a payment or to let you pay less than what your plan provides. An Order approving your plan binds you to make all required payments. If you simply stop making payments, the Trustee will seek dismissal of your case. You also have the right to ask the Court, through your attorney, to dismiss your case if you no longer want to remain in bankruptcy.
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Sale of Property

If you wish to sell your home or other property, contact your attorney. You will not be able to dispose of any property without Court approval or approval by the Trustee.
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Obtaining New Credit

If you wish to obtain new credit, please contact your attorney. New credit cannot be obtained without first obtaining permission of the Court or the Trustee. For the Trustee to approve the new credit, the Trustee will require permission from your attorney, a current budget, performance under the plan which is currently in compliance in all respects, and a statement from the debtor detailing the reason for the need for the new credit.
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Direct Payments to Creditors

It is the policy of the Eastern District Bankruptcy Trustees that current payments are allowed for current mortgage payments and current lease payments. All other credit that is dealt with in the plan must be paid via the trustee. However, if you fall behind on current direct payments, the creditor may be able to bring a Motion to the Bankruptcy Court to allow them to repossess the property and/or commence collection activities after obtaining permission from the Bankruptcy Court.
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Property Insurance

The agreements that you have with your secured creditors (such as for a home or a car) require you to maintain full coverage insurance for that property. If you fail to maintain insurance, that creditor may be able to take that property away from you.
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Motions to Dismiss

If during your case, you fail to make timely payments under your plan or other substantial problems arise, the Trustee or any interested party, may seek dismissal of your case. If your case is dismissed, your creditors will be able to pursue you directly for payment of your debts. If you receive a Motion to Dismiss from our office, contact your attorney immediately to discuss the situation.
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Summary of Your Case

The Trustee will periodically send you a summary of your case. The summary will reflect the payments that you have sent in, the amounts that your creditors are claiming, and how much they have received. Please review the summary carefully to review for any discrepancies. You may also contact our office at any time if you need any of that information sooner or any other questions you may have about your case. The summary of your case is an estimate relative to the payoff. The percentage that you are paying to creditors may change because ½ of the tax refunds will go to the creditors changing the percentage that they receive if your plan is less than a 100% payment to all creditors with unsecured claims. The statement is also an estimate because the trustee fees are set from time to time by the office of the U.S. Trustee. The Trustee fee may rise or fall pursuant to Order of the U.S. Trustee changing the actual amount of your payoff.
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Electronic Information

We anticipate that at sometime during the course of your plan, the information that you have submitted to the Bankruptcy Court and/or the Trustee's office will be available to creditors and other parties in interest electronically. You are hereby notified of the likelihood of the disclosure of your financial information contained in the bankruptcy filings to creditors and other parties in interest.
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Discharge

Once you have completed payments under your plan, the Trustee's Office will begin to close your case. We will submit paperwork to the Court, usually within about thirty (30) days of the final payment so that the discharge may issue. The discharge is issued by the office of the Clerk. Cases filed after October 17, 2005 have additional requirements for discharge. You should contact your attorney to discuss these requirements. We will not issue a Final Report and Account until all checks have cleared the bank. Thus, the Final Report and Account will come substantially later than the discharge paper. Your discharge paper is extremely important. You should put it in a safe place. While the discharge paper will be available later from the Bankruptcy Court if you lose your copy, they will charge a substantial fee and may have a substantial delay in getting that paper to you.
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Standing Trustee Pledge of Excellence

Standing Trustees are committed to excellence and to providing a high level of trust and service to chapter 13 debtors and creditors. Creditors, debtors, attorneys, judges and others who come into contact with Standing Trustees are entitled to service which adheres to the highest standards of professional, moral and ethical conduct.

The trustee's office should be open and operating Monday through Friday during regular business hours.

The trustee should have a system in place to promptly respond in a meaningful manner to inquiries from debtors, creditors, attorneys, and other interested parties.

If the trustee is not personally available, the trustee should have competent staff available to assist or to respond to inquiries.

The trustee should work to ensure that debtors comply with their obligations under the Bankruptcy Code and Rules.

The trustee should work to ensure that debtors comply with the provisions of their plan and should take appropriate action if the debtor fails to commence plan payments when required or if there is a subsequent default in plan performance.

The trustee should maintain a system which efficiently tracks the progress and the receipts and disbursements in every chapter 13 case, from the time it is filed until the case is closed.

The trustee should have a system to timely and accurately record all receipts and disbursements on the appropriate debtor ledger.

The trustee should disburse plan payments to creditors on a monthly basis, and should have procedures in place to properly classify and pay creditors' claims and to detect and recover any erroneous payments.

The trustee should ensure that all trust account ledgers and accounts are balanced on a monthly basis and should have a procedure to regularly review all cases with significantly large balances on hand or other fund irregularities.

The trustee should maintain a reasonably comprehensive system of internal controls over accounting and office operations, both paper and electronic, to safeguard estate assets and trust funds.
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