Thanks to the Reed decision, issued by a Portland, Oregon Bankruptcy Court late last week, debtors who fail the means test but who have the right mixture of projected and real expenses may now qualify for significantly shorter Chapter 13 Plans than they did previously. The end result of this decision is that a certain set of Chapter 13 debtors, who may have previously had to pay out tens of thousands of dollars to their unsecured creditors over the course of a five year period, may now file a Chapter 13 for just long enough to pay off their secured creditors and pay nothing at all to their unsecured creditors.
Now is the time to meet with a qualified Washington or Oregon Bankruptcy attorney to determine whether this new ruling will positively impact you.
