In re Little
- Summarized by Bodie Colwell , Preti Flaherty, LLP
- 12 years 4 days ago
- Citation:
- In re Little, No. MW 12-029 (B.A.P. 1st Cir. Jan. 4, 2013).
- Tag(s):
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- Ruling:
- Affirming the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts (the "bankruptcy court"), the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit (the "BAP") held that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in reducing the total award for chapter 13 debtors' attorney's fees under 11 U.S.C. 330 from $9,102.10 to $3,982.10 where the attorney indulged in time-consuming and pointless negotiations regarding the debtors' chapter 13 plan expenses.
- Procedural context:
- Attorney Philip M. Stone appealed the bankruptcy court's order limiting allowed compensation for representation of chapter 13 debtors, Kevin W. Little and Melissa A. Little, to $3,500.00 for fees and $482.10 in expenses.
- Facts:
- Attorney Stone and the debtors agreed to charge a fee of $2,500.00 for preparing and filing the debtors' petition, schedules, statements and chapter 13 plan and agreed that additional services to be billed at Stone's hourly rate. Even though the debtors earned more than $111,000.00 per year, the initial chapter 13 plan proposed payments of $35.00 per month for 60 months with unpaid legal fees of $900.00 to be paid fully through the plan. The trustee objected, the court sustained the objection and ordered the debtors to amend the plan. The debtors subsequently filed two amended plans. After the second amended plan was confirmed, Stone filed his fee application seeking fees and costs in the total amount of $9,201.10, with the amount due, $5,628.10, to be paid through the plan as an administrative expense. This represented the pre-filing retainer of $2,500.00, over $4,000.00 for additional services, and more than $1,700.00 for time spent preparing the fee application. The bankruptcy court convened three hearings on the fee application. The bankruptcy court noted that Stone's fees were significantly higher than a typical fee for an uncomplicated chapter 13 case and that much of the work was "meritless." As such, the bankruptcy court allowed compensation in the amount of $3,500.00 for fees and $482.10 for expenses.
- Judge(s):
- Haines, Deasy and Tester.
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