Who Are Your New York Chapter 13 Trustees?

A lot of New York readers may not know who their own Congressional representatives are in Washington, D.C.  And perhaps as few know the state legislator from their district.  But I’m willing to bet that almost no readers know who the Chapter 13 trustees are for their district in New York.  So I’ve listed them below for your benefit.

First, a few things about the Chapter 13 Trustee.  As you’ll see below, there are one or two individuals appointed to serve as Chapter 13 Trustees for each court district.  This is unlike Chapter 7 trustees or Chapter 11 trustees who are members of a panel and selected at random for each case.

Chapter 13 Trustees are in fact private practice attorneys.  They are not government employees.  And the one or two Chapter 13 trustees for each district handle all of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases that are filed in their district.

And now, here are your New York state Chapter 13 Trustees.  (FYI, a complete state-by-state list of Chapter 13 trustees can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/private_trustee/locator/13.htm.)

EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Marianne DeRosa
100 Jericho Quadrangle, Suite 208
Jericho, NY 11753
Phone: (516)622-1340
http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/r02/central_islip/ch13-trustees.htm

Michael J. Macco
135 Pinelawn Road
Melville, NY 11747
Phone: (631)549-7900
http://macco.lawoffice.com

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Jeffrey L. Sapir
399 Knollwood Road, Suite 102
White Plains, NY 10603
Phone: (914)328-7272
http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/r02/manhattan/ch13-trustees.htm

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Andrea E. Celli
350 Northern Boulevard
Albany, NY 12204
Phone: (518)449-2043
http://www.13network.com/trustees/alb/albhome.asp

Mark W. Swimelar
250 South Clinton Street, 5th Floor
Syracuse, NY 13202
Phone: (315)471-1499
http://www.cnytrustee.com/DEBTORATTY.HTM

WESTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Albert J. Mogavero
110 Pearl Street, 6th Floor
Buffalo, NY 14202
Phone: (716)854-5636

George M. Reiber
3136 S.Winton Road, Suite 206
Rochester, NY 14623
Phone: (585)427-7225
http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/r02/rochester/ch13-trustees.htm

If you are seeking Chapter 13 bankruptcy help in New York–anywhere in New York, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx or Suffolk County, Long Island–please get in touch for a free initial consultation and I’ll be happy to explain all of your options to you as well as how the Chapter 13 process works.

What will happen at my 341 meeting of creditors in New York?

It’s very common for clients filing for personal bankruptcy to worry about the 341 Meeting of Creditors.  It’s the first “event” in a bankruptcy case and the first time for most clients to actually go to court.  (Though it’s usually the only time the client needs to go to court in a bankruptcy case.)

A 341 meeting of creditors also sounds very formal and serious, and it conjures up images of being trapped in a room with angry, impatient creditors.  But the reality is that for individual debtors filing Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy in New York, it’s just you, your lawyer and the trustee.  Creditors generally do not attend these meetings.  In other words, most likely you go in with a 2-on-1 advantage.  (Note: In Chapter 11 cases, both personal and corporate, the 341 Meeting of Creditors tends to be a more substantive event.)

The meeting should only take a few minutes if your bankruptcy lawyer has done his or her job well in advance of the meeting.  The trustee will ask you a few questions to get some basic information on the record so that the case can move forward.  This is not to downplay the significance of the 341 meeting of creditors, on which the fate of your case can turn.  The distinction is that the pressure is not on you but rather on your attorney to do a good job of preparing.  As long as you’ve selected an experienced and diligent bankruptcy attorney in New York, everything should proceed smoothly.

There are many, many people filing bankruptcy in New York (especially these days), and the trustee’s main objective is to work through the cases as efficiently and effectively as possible.  That’s not to say they don’t look at everything closely or notice red flags.  But as mentioned above, it all turns on proper preparation.

If you are contemplating filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in New York or filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in New York, please feel free to contact me for  a free initial bankruptcy consultation.  I’ll be happy to sit down and answer all of your questions about the timetable for the case, the 341 meeting of creditors and any other questions you have to make sure you are aware of all of your options.

Lastly, below the jump is a list of common questions asked by a bankruptcy trustee.  These are not the only questions a trustee may ask, but it’s a good starting point, and it comes straight from 341 of the Bankruptcy Code.

New York personal bankruptcy rate likely to continue to increase

New York’s unemployment rate has increased to 8.7% from 8.2%, the worst it’s been since October 1992.  (FYI, the national rate just moved from 9.4% up to 9.5%, so New York is doing relatively well, but still…)

On healthcare, our government is facing an uphill battle in creating some sort of national healthcare option that would help control medical costs and make sure that all Americans, even the unemployed, can get health insurance.

What do these two things have to do with each other?

Unemployment and medical bills are the two most common causes of bankruptcy for New Yorkers and all Americans.  And yet, unemployment is on the rise, and it’s very unclear whether there will be any help or solution for dealing with medical bills.  (And even if it does pass, how effective or watered-down will it be?)

You don’t have to be an economist, then, to connect the dots and predict that personal bankruptcy in New York and across the country will most likely continue to rise.

FYI, in case you’re curious, the more complete list of reasons for bankruptcy often cited are:

• Unemployment
• Medical expenses
• Taking on too much credit card debt and other kinds of debt
• Divorce and other marital problems
• Large, unanticipated expenses

If you are facing unemployment or medical bills you can’t pay, you’re not alone.  In fact, many people often face a combination of these situations.  Because, of course, if you’re unemployed and you have an injury or illness, it’s going to be a lot harder to pay your medical bills.

So until the economy turns around or enacts a national healthcare insurance option, it’s helpful to know there’s still one form of protection you do have, the safety net in our legal system that is mentioned specifically in the Constitution:  Bankruptcy.

Whether you’re considering filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in New York or Chapter 13 bankruptcy in New York, or whether you live in Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, Queens or anywhere else in the New York City area, please feel free to get in touch for a free initial consultation.  I’ll be happy to answer all of your questions and make sure you understand all of the options available to you, whether you are employed or unemployed, and whether you have health insurance or no insurance.

Preference lawsuits: How to defend yourself

In a previous post I explained to all the New Yorkers out there what a preference lawsuit is and why you should care.

While reading it may have helped make you feel smart at cocktail parties, in the back of your mind you were probably also wondering, “So what exactly should I do if I’m the subject of a preference lawsuit?”

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1.  Don’t hide your head in the sand: The preference action won’t go away if you ignore it, and you have 30 days to respond.  So your first step should be to contact an experienced bankruptcy attorney to help get your head around the situation and figure out if it’s a big problem or a little problem.  It’s important to make sure you’re in good shape to file an answer to the suit within the 30-day period, or at least contact opposing counsel to seek an extension if necessary.

2.  Readjust your expectations: Sure, you did everything by the book.  You stayed within the terms of your contract with the debtor (before the debtor was actually a debtor).  There was nothing remotely fraudulent in your actions.  You were just doing fair and honest business like you always do.  Maybe you even cut the debtor some slack out of the goodness of your heart.

But you know what?  It doesn’t necessarily matter.  Because preference actions don’t work like other lawsuits.  The trustee has an incentive to recover as much as possible for the debtor’s estate, there’s a fixed set of rules that govern these suits.  Whether it’s fair to you in the grand scheme of things, well, that’s not really the trustee’s problem.  As long as the trustee can demonstrate that its suit is supported by the five factors listed in the previous post, then the trustee has established a claim and it’s up to you to defend it.

Additionally, it’s fairly easy for a trustee (especially in a Chapter 11 case) to file preference lawsuits in large numbers, send them out and see which ones stick.  Because they know that a lot of creditors will likely just write a check rather than spend time fighting the suit, regardless of fairness.

3.  Get your story together: Your defense is all about your story.  What payments were made and when?  Was it a transaction in the ordinary course of business (which can be a valid defense to a preference payment lawsuit)?  How does this payment compare with previous payments you’ve made to the debtor?  What are the standard business practices in your industry?  You need to gather all of this information together–payments, invoices, e-mails and other communications, shipping documents, etc.– and explain it to your lawyer so that your lawyer can help figure out all of the defenses available to you and your best strategy going forward.

For example, knowing the number of days after the invoice date passed before the payment was made is necessary for figuring out if the ordinary course of business and/or new value defenses are available to you.  The more preparation you can do in advance, the more time and money you’ll save when you meet with your lawyer.

4.  Get a good, experienced New York bankruptcy lawyer: Not all New York bankruptcy lawyers have expertise defending preference lawsuits and dealing with preference payment issues.  And why should you help an inexperienced lawyer cut his or her teeth on your dime?  An experienced bankruptcy lawyer knows how to strategically analyze the entire situation and make the trustee prove its case.  A lawyer with expertise in preference payment matters also knows how to evaluate a case to give you a sense of when to hold’em and when to fold’em.

I’ve worked on both sides of New York preference lawsuits–the trustee side as well as the creditor site–and the main thing I can tell you is that knowing the lay of the land makes a big difference.

If you live in New York, and you’re the subject of a preference lawsuit, or you’re worried about preference payments becoming an issue for your, please feel free to contact me or any of the attorneys at Rosenberg Musso & Weiner for a free initial consultation.

What is a preference payment? And why should you care?

Let’s say someone owes you money.  You know they’re having financial difficulties, so you go to them and try to get them to pay it back to you before they file for bankruptcy.  You have a good relationship with them and they’re kind enough to make sure you get paid back.

Three weeks later, the debtor files for bankruptcy.  “Whew!” you think.  At least I got my money back before they filed.

Several months later, you get something in the mail saying that the trustee representing the debtor’s estate is suing you to recover the money the debtor used to re-pay you.

“What the…?!” you think.  That was money rightfully owed to you.  What kind of crazy logic says I have to give it back?

The answer is that the money you were repaid may have been a “preference payment.”  And preference lawsuits happen all the time.

In a nutshell, a “preference payment” is any payment or transfer of value that a debtor makes to you in the 90-day period before the debtor files for bankruptcy that is made in connection with a pre-existing debt.  The idea is to prevent debtors from circumventing the bankruptcy process and to also prevent creditors from pushing to the front of the line ahead of other equally situated creditors.  Otherwise, a debtor could transfer all of its assets to one creditor, then file for bankruptcy and leave all the other creditors with nothing.  So the bankruptcy code allows the trustee representing a debtor’s estate to reach back 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing and recover any preferential payments.

How do you know if you received a preference payment?

For a trustee to succeed with a preference lawsuit, it must prove the following:

1. There was transfer of an interest in the debtor’s property
2. It was made within 90 days of the date that the debtor filed for bankruptcy
3. It was made in connection with a prior existing debt
4. It was made while the debtor was insolvent (the debtor, however, is presumed to have been insolvent during the 90-day period), and
5. It results in the creditor receiving more than it would otherwise receive if the debtor’s assets were sold off in a liquidating proceeded and the proceeds were distributed equally among all creditors.

You don’t need to be an expert on preference payments.  That’s what bankruptcy lawyers are for.  However, you do need to take it seriously if you are the subject of a preference lawsuit and you need to be aware that these do occur and may affect you.  Also that they can happen many months after a bankruptcy case has commenced.

If you’re facing a preference lawuit in New York (or Brooklyn or Suffolk County, Long Island) in connection with a bankruptcy, and you have questions about what to do, get in touch with us for a free consultation and make sure you respond to it properly and protect your own interests.