Laurie K. Weatherford, Chapter 13 Trustee
Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division

We recently provided an 84-month plan spreadsheet for debtors with confirmed plans experiencing “material financial hardship” due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But if you have a plan spreadsheeting you feel is just too complext to start over from scratch with, here’s a quick how-to on modifying an existing plan spreadsheet.

1. Unhide row 65.
2. Insert 24 rows above the now unhidden row 65. If you’re starting with a 36-month plan, the easiest thing to do is make it a 60-month plan first by putting a “60” in cell B4 before inserting these additional rows.
3. AutoFill formulas by dragging from the bottom right corner of the cell with the formula you want to AutoFill to the last cell you need to fill.
4. Update the sum formula calculations that currently only goes to the 64th row of each column being totaled to the 88th row for that column. Make sure to get the unsecured, debtor payment, and trustee fee columns. Once you get to the priority and secured claim columns, you can do the first one and then copy and paste from it to the remaining priority and secured claims.
5. Finally, re-hide row 89 (née row 65) we unhid in Step 1.

That’s it, you did it. Stay safe out there.

Under the recently passed CARES Act, Chapter 13 debtors experiencing “material financial hardship” due to the Covid-19 pandemic may modify their confirmed plan to 84 months. Please note: only plans confirmed “prior to the enactment of this subsection” qualify.

We have created a new plan spreadsheet for 84 month plans.

Download the 84 Month Plan Spreadsheet

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida has announced a revised Model Chapter 13 Plan effective September 1, 2019.

The Middle District of Florida’s Model Chapter 13 Plan has been revised, effective September 1, 2019. The revised Model Plan more clearly informs debtors that if they elect certain plan treatments of secured claims, they will not receive a discharge of those claims. See Sections C.(5)(a), (b), (c), (h), (i), and (k), and Sections 6.(a) and (b). In addition, Sections 5.(a) and (b) clarify that debtors may cure arrearages on homeowner’s and condominium assessments and may, but need not, include the payment of post-petition assessments in their plan payments. The revised Model Plan also includes several non-substantive revisions.

Download the revised model plan.

Please monitor this website for updates on office and court openings and/or closures. Take care and be safe.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida has announced a Student Loan Modification Program effective August 1, 2019:

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida has established procedures for individual debtors to seek options for the repayment of student loans under the administrative oversight of the Bankruptcy Court. The new procedures utilize an online portal for secure communications between debtors and student loan lenders and will facilitate the parties in reaching mutually beneficial agreements for the payment of student loans. The Court’s Administrative Order Prescribing Procedures for Student Loan Modification Program, FLMB-2019-1, becomes effective on August 1, 2019.

See the Court’s Administrative Order Prescribing Procedures for Student Loan Modification Program for more details.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida has announced a revised Model Chapter 13 Plan” effective March 1, 2019:

The revised Model Plan informs the debtor that the automatic stay does not apply to secured creditors if the debtor elects to surrender collateral to the secured creditor, to make payments directly to the secured creditor, or to not make payments to the secured creditor. The revised Model Plan informs the debtor that, under certain plan treatments, there is no discharge of personal liability for claims.

Download the revised Model Plan

This website will be down for maintenance on Presidents’ Day, February, 18th, 2019 from approximately 7:00am to 9:00am ET. As a result, both this website and the BRAT Document Portal will be unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

This website will be down for maintenance on Monday, January 15th, 2018 from 6am to noon ET. As a result, both this website and the BRAT Document Portal will be unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The BRAT Document Portal is available again. We appreciate your patience during our moving process. Please let us know if you run into any issues with BRAT.

Due to our upcoming move, the BRAT Document Portal will be unavailable as the servers that run it will be moving with us. We appreciate your patience through this process and will do our best to have everything back and running as soon as possible.