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FREDERICKSON, ONE LAST TIME
Friday, November 07, 2008
Last week the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the 8th Circuit BAP's decision in Frederickson. The court's decision was based on the interpretation of the statutory phrase "projected disposable income." While the phrase "disposable income" is defined by the statute, there is no definition of "projected disposable income." Instead of using the existing definition of "disposable income" and deciphering what the addition of the word "projected" means, the 8th Circuit instead decided that the phrase "projected disposable income" had nothing whatsoever to do with the statutorily-defined "disposable income." Their main rational for this interpretation was that the Congressional intent behind the 2005 amendments was to make it harder on debtors, so that was how they should interpret the law - regardless of what it actually says.