{"id":830,"date":"2013-01-22T03:12:09","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T03:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/?p=830"},"modified":"2013-01-22T03:12:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T03:12:34","slug":"can-i-change-or-modify-my-chapter-13-plan-once-it-is-confirmed-or-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/can-i-change-or-modify-my-chapter-13-plan-once-it-is-confirmed-or-approved\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Change or Modify My Chapter 13 Plan Once It Is Confirmed or Approved?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ryan C. Wood<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, you can change your chapter 13 plan once it is confirmed or approved by the Bankruptcy Court. The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel discussed this issue in Mattson v. Howe (In re Mattson), 468 B.R. 361 (9th Cir. BAP April, 2012). The BAP discussed whether the debtor must show a substantial unanticipated change in their circumstances to modify the approved or confirmed chapter 13 plan of reorganization.<\/p>\n

Section 1329 of the Bankruptcy Code provides that at any time after confirmation of the plan but before the completion of payments under such plan, the plan may be modified, upon request of the debtor, the trustee, or the holder of an allowed unsecured claim . . . .<\/p>\n

A number of circuits have adopted the \u201csubstantial and unanticipated change\u201d test for whether a plan modification should be allowed or not. The Ninth Circuit has adopted no such test. The greatest hurtle a plan modification might face is a good faith test under Section 1325(a)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code. A modification of a confirmed plan must still be presented in good faith based upon the totality of the circumstances. In the Mattson case the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel provides that, \u201cIn the end, in evaluating plan modifications, it may make little practical difference whether the bankruptcy court applies the substantial and unanticipated change test as a threshold requirement or uses it as a discretionary tool.\u201d Mattson v. Howe (In re Mattson), 468 B.R. 361, 369 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. 2012). \u201c[T]he bankruptcy court believed that the good faith test lacked predictability and therefore added the requirements of the substantial and unanticipated change test and that the change in the plan correlate to the change in circumstances.\u201d Mattson at 371 (discussing the standard used by the trial court). \u201cWe conclude that the bankruptcy court\u2019s second requirement\u2014that the proposed modification correlate to Debtors\u2019 change in circumstances\u2014necessarily implicates a good faith analysis.\u201d Mattson at 371. \u201c[W]e view the bankruptcy court\u2019s correlation requirement as simply another factor that may be considered under the totality of circumstances approach to a good faith analysis in this Circuit. We emphasize, however, that no single factor is determinative of the lack of good faith.\u201d Mattson at 371.<\/p>\n

So what can bankruptcy attorneys<\/a> take away from this case? Basically if you are going to request a modification of a confirmed plan make sure something bad has happened to your client that makes the change in the plan reasonable and in good faith based upon the totality of the circumstances. Do not have something good happen to your clients then try and change the plan that potentially harms the creditors in the case. In the Mattson case increasing the plan payment to $1,000 a month for 36 months rather than the $150 a month payment for 60 months would benefit creditors so . . . . I do not know what happened after the appeal, but I wonder if the Mattson\u2019s bankruptcy lawyers<\/a> got them stuck in a 60 month plan paying $1,000 a month? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, you can change your chapter 13 plan once it is confirmed or approved by the Bankruptcy Court. The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel discussed this issue in Mattson v. Howe (In re Mattson), 468 B.R. 361 (9th Cir. BAP April, 2012). The BAP discussed whether the debtor must show a substantial unanticipated change in their circumstances to modify the approved or confirmed chapter 13 plan of reorganization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[84],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}