Virginia - What is "Disposable Income"
disposable income(other than child support payments, foster care payments, or disability payments for a dependent child made in accordance with applicable nonbankruptcy law
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I am NOT an attorney. All info written above is from the web and/or from my personal bankruptcy experience.
Lessons we learned: (1) Do your homework! (2) See more than one attorney! (3) Find out ALL your options! -
I have no definitive legal argument to offer you, but I certainly think you need to pursue this ....at a hearing before the judge if the Trustee won't budge.
I'm a bit dismayed that it seems from what you've written that your attonrey caved in to the demands of the trustee.
In my personal experience, I found that my trustee seemed to be trying to get me to pay MORE than required by my DMI. She said it was to get the trustee to confirm (if the trustee got more $$$ she'd be interested in confirming.) I really don't like the thought that my attorney and the trustee have more of a financial incentive to do business than I have with my attorney IYKWIM.
Again in my case...the trustee was basing her idea of what my DMI should be on my means test as opposed to my actual schedules...there was a $7500 month difference in income in the two...so of course, the trustee was in the 'look back' mode instead of the Lanning/Supreme court decision 'projected' mode. WhenI said this to my attonrey, she did NOT seem inclined to argue with the trustee!!!!!!! Said something about 'the jury is still out on Lanning' when in fact, my particular judge has used Lanning as a basis of court decisions for a long time before the Supreme Court so ruled.
I hate being paranoid and mistrustful, but I'm not convinced that certain attorneys really work in the best interest of their clients.
So, all I can offer is : you've done your homework and found the legal statutes to support your argument. Strongly tell your attorney that you aren't going to back down on this and that he needs to work his charm with the Trustee (letting him be your knight in shining armour) OR you thing it will have to go to hearing before the judge. (Oh you can access your state and your judge's case law opinions online.)
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