Information - Office of the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee

Office of the Chapter 13 Standing Trustee - Detroit

District Court IRS Opinion
[January 28, 2010]

The recent District Court opinion regarding the requirement for the IRS to send refunds directly to the Trustees is available on the Library page of this website.

Updated Order Confirming
[January 22, 2010]

A new version of the Order Confirming Plan is available in the Forms section of the Library page of this website. The new OCP has been updated to reflect the ruling regarding tax refunds. Please begin using this new version of the Order immediately.

Updated Trustee Fee
[January 4, 2010]

Effective January 1, 2010, the Trustee Fee for cases administered by David Ruskin has been set at 6.8%. We strongly recommend calculating cases with a higher fee to account for fluctuations in the fee over the life of a case.

Disbursement and Document Deadline Changes for 2010
[December 3, 2009]

Effective January 2010, we will begin disbursing on the SECOND business day of the month (with the exception of April, 2010). The best effort date for entering Orders related to confirmation will be changed to SEVEN CALENDAR DAYS before the disbursement date instead of seven business days.

Please visit the Calendar section on the Information page of this website for a list of disbursement dates and best effort date for orders for 2010. A complete office calendar for 2010 is also available for download on that page. The office calendar lists dates the office will be closed, dates the court will be closed and disbursement dates for the year.

ACH Document Deadlines
[December 3, 2009]

The ACH withdraw dates and due dates for ACH documents is now available on the ACH Information page of this website. Please be aware of these dates as you process cases that will use ACH.

Debtor Orientation
[December 3, 2009]

Effecitve with the 341 Meetings on December 7, 2009, the Debtor Orientation Program will be conducted at the start of each hour of scheduled Meetings. Meetings scheduled to begin at 9:00 A.M. will actually begin at 9:30 A.M. with the Orientation beginning at 9:00 A.M.

The purpose of the Orientation is to help debtors better understand the Chapter 13 process (not to provide legal advice). It consists of a PowerPoint presentation followed by Q & A. We also make the slide presentation available as a handout to the debtors. The whole program should be concluded in about a half hour.

Please encourage debtors to attend. Feedback forms will be available so we can "fine tune" the presentation, and input from both debtor and creditor attorneys are solicited.

New Adequate Protection Form
[October 22, 2009]

A form order for Post-Petition Adequate Protection Payments is now available in the Forms section of the Library of this web site.

New WD Address for State of Michigan
[October 22, 2009]

The State of Michigan has a new address for wage orders. Please click HERE for a copy of the letter from the State with information about the change.

Common Addresses
[September 21, 2009]

We have compiled a list of commonly used addresses for creditors and creditor attorneys. The information was based upon requests from creditors, proofs of claim filed with the court and notices of appearance. While we understand that BAPCPA imposes certain requirements on the addresses to be used, we thought that this information would be helpful.

The list can be found on the Information Page of this website.

Mortgages and Best Practices
[July 28, 2009]

To assist the debtor and creditor bar in complying with the legal requirements for filing POCs, the National Association of Ch 13 Trustees and mortgage servicers and their counsel have worked together to produce a set of best practices for both creditors and trustees.

The document can be found HERE in PDF format.

National Data Center Debtor Registration Guide
[October 23, 2008]

The National Data Center has provided a registration guide sheet for debtors. A copy of the form can be found HERE and in the Library section of this website.

Feel free to print the guide and provide it to your clients. Note that the National Data Center is NOT the same as the 13Network, though the source information is the same.

Update on Office 2007 and Orders
[March 14, 2008]

The Court has stated that they are still unable to accept documents saved in the new Word 2007 format. Please do not submit orders to us in that format as we will reject them.

Order Formatting
[July 27, 2007]

It has come to our attention that some orders have been rejected by the Court for failure to comply with ECF Administrative Procedure (7)(i):

(7)(i) Format of Orders. Proposed orders should be in a basic text format. The following shall not be a part of a Proposed Order: party or attorney signatures; textboxes; saved as “read-only”; linked fields; attached templates; add-ons; lines at the end of the final paragraph; and signature block for judge. Six single spaced lines must be left at the end for the Court to insert the judge’s signature block and date stamp. If necessary, the last page should be broken up so that the signature block and date stamp does not become appended to an additional page. (NOTE: The best method to determine where the signature block and date stamp will be inserted is to hold down the ctrl key and press the end key. This will place the cursor at the insertion point.) [emphasis added]

Please review your order drafting process and make sure that you are leaving enough space on single page orders for the insertion of the judge's stamp. If you cannot fit enough space on a single page document then split the order into two pages to create space. It appears that the Court's concern is related to the signature being "orphaned" on a second page by itself.

Refer to ECF Rules for the full Administrative Procedures for ECF.

Revised OCP Submission Process
[February 15, 2007]

Click HERE for a information on how to comply with the Court's "Notice Regarding Procedures for Chapter 13 Confirmation Hearings Held On Or After December 11, 2006" for cases assigned to David Ruskin.

Note that this procedure applies only to cases assigned to this office. Please visit the web sites of the other Trustees for information on their practices.

OCP Formatting
[February 1, 2007]

The Court has asked that all offices refrain from submitting Orders Confirming Plan with text boxes and other complex formatting in the signature portion of the document. These objects cause processing problems for the Court. The Court has begun rejecting orders that cannot be processed by their system.

A revised version of the OCP is available on the Forms page, found in the Libary link, on our web site. This form has not been certified by the Court as functional but it does not have any objects in the signature portion of the document.

Slightly different versions are available in Word & Word Perfect format on the Court's web site HERE.

We ask that everyone please review your OCP documents and make any revisions required.
Orders that are returned to us by the Court will be returned to the originating office for correction.

New OCP Submission Process
[December 5, 2006]

Click HERE for a information on how to comply with the Court's new "Notice Regarding Procedures for Chapter 13 Confirmation Hearings Held On Or After December 11, 2006" for cases assigned to David Ruskin.

Note that this procedure applies only to cases assigned to this office. Please visit the web sites of the other Trustees for information on their practices.

Income Verification Documents
[December 4, 2006]

Please do not send tax returns, pay stubs and other income verification documents to anyone but the paralegal assigned to the case. Failure to send the documents to a paralegal can result in delays in processing the information and could result in the 341 being adjourned.

Please see our Who Does What for a directory of paralegal staff.

Service of pleadings in Converted Cases
[November 29, 2006]

Please be sure to review the Court's listing of parties served when filing a Chapter 13 related document in a case that has converted to another chapter. The Court removes the Chapter 13 Trustee as an active party in the case upon conversion. Trustees do not receive emails from ECF or the BNC, nor does the information appear on a case activity report.

If you do not see the Chapter 13 Trustee listed as a party served on the Notice of Electronic Filing or on the Court's matrix listing then you need to make sure you serve the Trustee via paper.

Joint ECF Announcement
[August 4, 2006]

The Standing Chapter 13 Trustees for the Eastern District of Michigan have issued a joint memo regarding service of documents per LBR 9013-3 and ECF Procedure 4(e). The memo can be found HERE in PDF format.

Reminder of Documents Required for 341
[December 15, 2005]

As announced in October of 2003, effective with cases filed on or after January 1, 2004, the offices of David Ruskin, Krispen Carroll and Tammy Terry will be requiring tax returns and pay stubs to be provided to the Trustees before the Meeting of Creditors.

The full policy can be found HERE in PDF format.

Policy Regarding Fee Applications
[October 7, 2003]

The offices of Tammy Terry, Krispen Carroll and David Ruskin have agreed to a standardized policy for dealing with fee applications in dispositive orders.

This policy can be found HERE in PDF format.

Documents Required for 341
[October 7, 2003]

Effective with cases filed on or after January 1, 2004, the offices of David Ruskin, Krispen Carroll and Tammy Terry will be requiring tax returns and pay stubs to be provided to the Trustees before the Meeting of Creditors.

This policy can be found HERE in PDF format.