71
Chapter 3
Working With Forms and Schedules 75
Punctuation in the Matrix: If your local rules specify that the creditor address matrix
should not contain punctuation, or shouldn’t include certain characters such as the %, don’t
use these when entering address data. An option in the Setup/Jurisdiction/Matrix screen allows
you to exclude certain characters from the matrix. See page 301.
2. Account Number: Enter the account number, if applicable. If you want to mask all but the last four digits
of the account number on the printed form, click the Mask on Form box. (For more privacy options, see
Privacy Tab on page 190.) Press
T
.
3. Date Incurred: Type a date or a range of dates then press
T
. You can use any date format in this field.
4. Nature of Lien: You can either type in a description or browse a list of common answers. To browse the
list, press
0
or click the button to the right of the field then type the first letter of your choice.
If you don’t
see the choice you want in the list, you can add it for future use by clicking Add. Like the Common
Creditor List, this list will be accessible as you enter information for other bankruptcy clients.
5. Description of Property: You can either link a piece of property from Schedule A or B to Schedule D, or
you can type in a new description. Linking is the preferred method because it will save you time and will
help Best Case to properly calculate the debtor’s equity in property for Schedule C and the liquidation
analysis.
To link property from Schedule A or B: Press
0
or click on the house button to the right of the field
for a list of all property. With the list displayed, move the highlighter bar to the desired property and
press
R
, or click on the piece of property that you want then click Select. The full description and
market value of the property will be copied to this entry screen for you. If you update the property
description or market value on Schedule A or B, changes will be reflected here as well. The override
check box which appears after you have selected property allows you to keep the link between the
two entries but have a different property description for the item on D. You might use this feature if
you have a particularly long description on Schedule A but want a shorter description to appear on
Schedule D.
To create an entry without linking:
If you don’t want to “link” this claim to a particular piece of
property, you can just type the description of property instead of using the list button. This may be
useful when, for example, a taxing authority has a lien against all of the debtor’s property and you
want a claim on Schedule D to read “all of debtor’s personal property.”
To add a new item of property to Schedule A or B: Press
0
or click on the button to the right of the
field for a list of all property. With the list displayed, click the New A button to add a piece of real
estate, or the New B button to add a piece of real property. You will be prompted to enter all of the
information that will appear on the property schedule, such as the description and location of
property, the nature of the debtor’s interest (if real property), the type of property (if personal
property), and the market value. When you have entered this information, click OK. The new item
will be highlighted. Press
R
or click Select to link the item to the current entry on Schedule D. The
property description and market value will appear in Schedule D, and the item has been added to the
property schedule.
Overriding the Property Description from Schedule A/B: The Override checkbox beneath the
property description allows you to keep the link from Schedule A or B to Schedule D, but type
in a different property description on D. You might use this feature if you have a lengthy
property description on Schedule A, but just want to create a short reference to it on Schedule
D.
6. Market Value: If you linked a piece of property from A or B, the market value has been copied for you
from the property schedule. Otherwise, enter that amount.
7. Senior Liens: This refers to other liens against this item of property that take priority over this lien. Best
Case Bankruptcy ranks all liens against a piece of property in order to calculate the unsecured portion of
each claim. By default, Best Case ranks liens in the order that they are input, but you can change the
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76 Best Case Bankruptcy for Windows
User’s Guide
ranking through the property schedule, A or B, as described in the section Changing Rank Order for Liens
on page 56. Note that this information does not print on Schedule D and is listed here for your reference.
8. Person liable for debt (H, W, J, C): If this is a joint debtor, indicate whether the wife, husband, both, or
the marital community is liable for the debt by typing
h
,
w
,
j
or
C
or by clicking on the
m
button to the right of
the field labeled “H, W, J, C” and selecting your choice from the drop
-down list. (If this is not a joint case,
“NA” will appear in this
field.)
Community Property States
If you are filing in a Community Property State, an option in the Setup Menu allows you to
specify that by default, “community” should be selected as the responsible party for all debts.
See Jurisdictions: Basic Information on page 298.
9. Contingent, Unliquidated, Disputed: If the debt is contingent, unliquidated, or disputed, use the mouse to
mark the appropriate check boxes on the screen, or tab to the check boxes and press
s
to mark them.
10. Support § 523(a)(15): If you check this box , the creditor's claim amount is included in total of the
"Domestic Support, Separation Agreement and Divorce Decree Obligations Not Recorded on Schedule E"
which prints in the Statistical Summary of Certain Liabilities section of the Summary of Schedules, as
described on page 50.
11. Amount of Claim: Type the amount of claim, or, if the value is unknown, click on the unknown box or
press
A
-
k. Don’t enter a dollar sign.
12. Unsecured Amount: The unsecured amount of the claim will be filled in automatically as follows:
If there are no senior liens, the unsecured portion is calculated as the total amount of claim minus
the value of the property securing the claim.
If there are senior liens, the unsecured amount is calculated as the total claim amount minus the
debtor’s
equity in the property
, where the debtor’
s equity is the property value minus other secured
claims against it.
To type in your own answer for the unsecured portion, click on the Auto box
(for “auto
-
calculation”)
so that the check mark goes away, then type in your answer.
13. Adding Related Information: If you want to enter other information about this claim, as described in the
section headings below, (Form 8 Intention, 13 Plan Treatment, Codebtors, Additional Notice Parties), click
Next Tab or press
C
-
T
.
14. Saving Changes: To save changes to this record and enter another secured claim, press
A
-
R
. Or, click OK to
save your changes and return to the Schedule D List Screen.
Locator Function to Find a Creditor: Summary List Windows for Schedules D, E and F
contain a special locator function: To jump to a creditor in the list, begin to type the name.
Press R when the creditor you want to edit is highlighted.
Means Test Treatment (only appears for Chapter 7 & 13 cases)
Form 22 allows the debtor to deduct the average of payments due to secured creditors over the next 60 months. In
addition, if a secured claim is in default, and the property securing the claim is necessary for the support of the
debtor or the debtor's dependents, the debtor may deduct 1/60th of the cure amount.
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Chapter 3
Working With Forms and Schedules 77
The Form 22 Means Test Tab
You can use the Form 22 Means Test tab for Schedule D creditors to compute the 60-month average payment
on a secured claim as well as to include or exclude any arrearages. You can also use the Means Test tab to
designate a claim as secured by the debtor's house or vehicles, which Best Case uses to calculate the debtor's
housing and utilities and transportation allowances. (For more information see, Specifying Means Test
Treatment for Secured Claims on page 149.)
NOTE: The extra information collected in the Form 22 Means Test tab is only required if the debtor's
income is above the state median. If the debtor's income falls below the state median, you can skip this
tab.
Form 8 Intention (only appears for Chapter 7 cases)
As you enter creditor information in Schedule D, the Form 8 Intention tab provides a shortcut for you to specify
information that will appear on Form 8. Chapter 7 Individual Debtor’s Statement of Intention. This tab appears for
each secured creditor in Chapter 7 cases only.
The Form 8 Intentions Tab appears in Chapter 7 cases
Click on the appropriate choice then click OK to save your changes, or click the Codebtor or Additional Notice
party tab to add more information about this creditor.
Note that this tab only appears for Schedule D creditors. If you want to specify intentions for unsecured creditors,
you need to go the Forms and Schedules Menu, open Form 8, click the “Show priority and Unsecured Claim” check
box, then specify an intention for any Schedule E or F creditor that you want to appear on Form 8. See Form 8
Intention (only appears for Chapter 7 cases) on page 76 for more information.
13 Plan treatment (only appears for Chapter 13 cases)
From the creditor information screen, access the 13 Plan Treatment tab by clicking on it or by pressing
A
-
1
.
The 13 Plan Treatment tab
This tab indicates the treatment of this claim under the Chapter 13 Plan. You may not need to change anything on
this screen, since the usual treatment (Secured, Pro rata) is listed, which means that the creditor will be paid in full
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78 Best Case Bankruptcy for Windows
User’s Guide
up to the secured value of the claim on a pro rata basis. For complete information about assigning treatment classes
to Schedule D claims, see page 159.
Codebtors
From the creditor information screen, click the Codebtors tab or press
A
-
B. In this screen, you’ll get a list of a
ll
codebtors related to this claim . Codebtors for all claims will be listed on Schedule H. Codebtors.
The Codebtor tab
1. To add a codebtor for this claim, click Insert. The entry screen will appear as pictured below. The left half of
the screen contains qu
estions about the codebtor, and the right half contains questions about the creditor. You’ll
notice that the creditor information has been filled in for you.
Codebtor Entry Screen
2. If this is the first codebtor that you have entered for this case, type the name and address of the codebtor;
that name and address will automatically be entered in the Codebtor List for this case, where you can
access it when you enter other claims, as described in the sidebar. Notice that you also have access to your
Common Creditor List here, through the
button or the
0
key.
Codebtor List
Best Case Bankruptcy automatically keeps a list of the names and addresses of all codebtors in
the case so that if a person is a codebtor for more than one claim, you can copy the codebtor
information without having to retype it. In addition, parties entered in Schedules D-H, Form 7
and Additional Notice can also be retrieved from this list. To access the codebtor list, click on
the list button to the right of the name field, move to the codebtor you want to select, and click
Select. Or, if you prefer to use the keyboard, press
9
while the cursor rests in the codebtor
name field. You can then use the
b
to move the highlighter bar to the desired name, or begin to
type the name, then press
R
when it is highlighted.
3. After you have entered the name and address of the codebtor, enter any comments in the comment fields,
then click OK to save your changes or press
A
-
R
to enter another codebtor for this claim.
4. When you click OK, you will be returned to the Codebtor List Screen. If there is another codebtor for this
claim, you can enter that information now by clicking Insert again.
44
Chapter 3
Working With Forms and Schedules 79
5. If there are additional notice parties associated with this claim, such as collection agencies, click Next Tab.
If you have finished entering information about this claim, click OK; you will be returned to the Schedule
D List Screen.
Additional Notice
The Additional Notice tab on the Schedule D Entry screen allows you to enter the names and addresses of any
parties who should be informed of the proceedings in the case, such as collection agencies, attorneys representing
creditors, etc. These parties will be listed on the creditor address list (matrix).
When you go to the Additional Notice tab, you will see the Additional Notice List Screen, which lists all parties
entered for this claim. To add a party, click Insert.
Additional Notice Entry Screen
An Additional Notice Entry Window appears, with the AddressFill list of your Common Creditors and scheduled
creditors in it as pictured above. You can select a creditor from the AddressFill list, or type in a new name and
address. If you don’t use the Common Creditor List, the AddressHelper will help you by filling in the city and state
when you enter the zip code.
If this party is not in your Common Creditor List already, you can add it by checking the CCL box below the rotary
card file button.
To save this entry and add another Additional Notice Party for this creditor, press
A
-
R
. Or, if there are no more, just
click OK. You will be returned to the Additional Notice List Screen, where you can click OK to return to the
Schedule D List Screen.
Associating this Party with this Creditor for Future Cases: For common creditors that
frequently use the same collection agencies or attorneys to represent them, you can associate
an additional notice party with a creditor in your Common Creditor List. Whenever you pick
that creditor, you’ll be asked if you want to add the additional notice party. See
Common
Creditor List on page 69.
Listing Additional Notice Parties on Schedules: Usually, additional notice parties are
listed on the matrix but not on creditor schedules. If you want them on the creditor schedules,
see Jurisdictions: Miscellaneous Options on page 305. They will print with the phrase
“Representing (Creditor name)” to indicate that they are not actual creditors.
For more
information about additional notice parties, see Adding names other than creditors to the
matrix on page 109.
Notes/POC
The Notes/POC tab allows you to keep track of information related to particular creditors and includes a checkbox
that lets you track the receipt of a Proof of Claim, the date the Proof of Claim was filed, and the Proof of Claim
amount.
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80 Best Case Bankruptcy for Windows
User’s Guide
When there are Multiple Liens against One Piece of Property
If there are multiple liens against one piece of property, follow the steps above in Creditor Information, which
begins on page 74.
Best Case Bankruptcy ranks liens against a piece of property based on entry order, so enter the most senior lien first.
This ranking is used to calculate the unsecured portion of each claim on Schedule D and to calculate t
he debtor’s
equity in each property item for Schedule C and, in a Chapter 13 case, the liquidation analysis. Lien ranking does
not print on any of the Official Forms, however.
The rank order of liens can easily be changed through Schedule A or B: Return to the Schedule D Summary List
Window which lists all secured claims, then highlight the claim. Click the Property button with the house icon to
edit the property. Click the Liens tab, then highlight the claim and click the Change Rank button. See Changing
Rank Order for Liens on page 56 for more information.
When Multiple Pieces of Property Secure a Lien
When multiple pieces of property secure one claim, the best way to enter the lien is through Schedule D, and to type
a description of the property without linking it to Schedule A or B.
To do this:
1.
While entering the property securing this lien on Schedules A and/or B, don’t click the Liens tab
to enter creditor information. If the property appears on Schedule A, remove the check mark from
the Linked to Liens check box. You will then be able to type the amount of the secured claim.
2. From the Forms and Schedule Menu, double-click on Schedule D.
3. Click the Insert button.
4. Enter the claim normally, except you should manually type the description of property. (In other
words, don’t use the list button
to pick a single piece of property.) Type a short description of the
multiple pieces of property that secure this lien.
5. For market value, type the cumulative value of all property securing the lien.
6. The unsecured portion will be filled in for you. If you need to edit this amount, click the Auto box
to remove the check mark, then type the unsecured amount.
7. When you have finished with this screen, click OK or enter related information about the claim,
such as Chapter 13 Plan treatment, codebtors or additional notice parties by clicking the tabs at the
top.
Secured and Unsecured Totals on Schedule D
From the Forms and Schedules Menu, open the Summary of Schedules to view a total of the
secured and unsecured portions of claims entered on Schedule D.
Editing Schedule D
For added flexibility, this form can be edited in the Best Case Editor described on page 202.
Documents you may be interested
Documents you may be interested
