Monday, June 12, 2023

In re Evans (9th Cir. - June 12, 2023)

This is a really well written opinion by Judge Milan Smith.

It's not a sexy or high-profile case. It's instead about bankruptcy. Simple question: Does a Chapter 13 trustee get paid their "percentage" compensation when the petitioner dismisses the bankruptcy petition?

The Ninth Circuit says: No.

It's not that the opinion says anything radical. The Ninth Circuit ends up going the same way as the Tenth Circuit, and as suggested by the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center (as amicus).

It's just that the opinion is really . . . well-written. As I said. It's clean, coherent, structured and persuasive. Nothing radical, nothing sloppy. Just quality jurisprudence.

There are lots of ways the opinion could have tried to push a particular agenda; i.e., being exclusively textualist, being one-sided or obviously results-oriented. This was none of that.

Great to see.