The following changes apply to cases assigned to Judge Waites and are effective starting March 30, 2017, unless otherwise advised.

Wage Orders

Wage orders have been shown to be beneficial for debtors and have contributed to successful chapter 13 reorganizations. Therefore, pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 1325(c), unless otherwise exempted, debtors shall submit to a wage order in all new chapter 13 cases that are assigned to Judge Waites. For cases assigned to Trustee Wyman, debtors may alternatively use a Trustee-approved electronic account deduction program in lieu of submitting to a wage order. 

The complete guidelines requiring the payment of plan payments and wage orders are available here, which include a list of the available exemptions and a copy of the standard consent form indicating the payment method for post-confirmation trustee payments.

Ex parte Relief Due to Default on Settlement Order

The guidelines for submitting affidavits of default pursuant to a § 362 settlement order have been changed. Future affidavits shall include an attachment which demonstrates the direct payments made after the entry of the settlement order and their application, rather than the previous requirement, which required that the attachment demonstrate “all direct post petition payments and their application.” The revised version of the guideline is available here.

Consent Allowing Payment of Funds to Creditor/Debtor Attorney

Non-Conduit Cases

In connection with conversion or dismissal of a non-conduit chapter 13 case, a debtor may consent to the payment of outstanding attorney’s fees and costs that are owed to debtor’s counsel as part of the Chapter 13 Trustee’s final distribution. The following forms may be used to request such payment: Consent Form and Proposed Order.

To file these consents on the docket, a new CM/ECF event has been created entitled “Consent Allowing Payment of Funds to Creditor/Debtor Attorney- Non Conduit.” When using this event, a proposed Order should not be filed until such time as there is a pending motion for dismissal/conversion.

Conduit Cases

Judge Waites has revised the forms for consenting to the payment to the Mortgage Creditor or Debtor’s Counsel upon the conversion or dismissal of a conduit chapter 13 case. These updated forms are attached here: Consent Form and Proposed Order. Counsel should continue to utilize the CM/ECF entitled “Consent Allowing Payment of Funds to Creditor/Debtor Attorney- Conduit.” When using this event, a proposed order should not be filed until such time as there is a pending motion for dismissal/conversion.