COMMENTS OF THE NACBA
Court, all in a period of approximately seven months (assuming the Supreme Court can
promulgate the rules by May 1, 2017).
NACBA suggests that districts that have decided to opt out and indicate that additional time is
needed should be given an additional six months, until June 1, 2018, in which they would have
the option to continue using any existing local model chapter 13 plan.
Review of Content of Existing Local Model Plans
In September 2016, NACBA undertook a review of the model plans currently in effect across the
country, and surveyed its members regarding their experiences with their own courts’ model
plans which they use every day, and the content of the provisions required by them. NACBA
received data from128 survey respondents in 39 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto
Rico, which included 62 court districts. The court districts within which these respondents
practice comprise 83% of all chapter 13 cases filed in 2015.
In its review of local plans, NACBA found that (excluding Guam and the Virgin Islands) of the
99 model plans posted on bankruptcy court websites or the authorized trustees’ sites, 90 of them
are mandatory in all chapter 13 cases filed. Five jurisdictions have no model plans, and four have
recommended – but not actually mandated – model plans. The model plans make up 643 pages,
which are attached hereto as pdfs in three parts. Several bankruptcy courts are now in the process
of updating their existing model plans or adopting model plans for the first time, so these
numbers are in transition.
1.
Length of model plans
The model plans ranged in length from a single page to more than 16 pages (much
of which is single-spaced text). Plans with font size approximating 10 points were the easiest to
read: larger fonts diminished the data density too much, and some of the plans used fonts that
were so small they were very difficult to read. It is important to note that the longer the text in
the plan, the less likely it is that the debtor or the creditor will have the patience or attention to
read more than the first page or two. Therefore, all the good intentions to intensively explain the
consequences of the plan are likely in vain.
NACBA urges that if the proposed rules are adopted, the comments include a reminder that a
local model plan should be a brief as possible, display operative data visibly, and utilize a
reasonable sized font (not too big and not too small).
2.
Excessive notices
The longer model plans usually contain extensive descriptions of the meaning of
bankruptcy code sections and numerous notices to creditors about the deadlines applicable to
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
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Winter 2016
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
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