Louisiana Exemptions -- "Household goods"

[mb10240]

Hello everybody!

I'm an attorney up in Missouri, and after a year of unemployment and $20,000 in credit card debt, I'm preparing to file for bankruptcy. Due to a lot of moving around, I'm going to have to use Louisiana's exemptions, and I've got a question concerning La. R.S. 13:3881(4)(a), which reads as follows:

The clothing, bedding, linen, chinaware, nonsterling silverware, glassware, living room, bedroom, and dining room furniture, cooking stove, heating and cooling equipment, one noncommercial sewing machine, equipment for required therapy, kitchen utensils, pressing irons, washers, dryers, refrigerators, deep freezers, electric or otherwise, used by him or a member of his family.

So, does anybody think a television would fall under this exemption? How about a home theater system?

Louisiana's got some great "no limit" exemptions, but there seem to be far fewer categories to choose from in comparison to Missouri.

[Pandora]

The clothing, bedding, linen, chinaware, nonsterling silverware, glassware, living room, bedroom, and dining room furniture, cooking stove, heating and cooling equipment, one noncommercial sewing machine, equipment for required therapy, kitchen utensils, pressing irons, washers, dryers, refrigerators, deep freezers, electric or otherwise, used by him or a member of his family.

think it would fall into the "or otherwise" category. Although when you fill out your paperwork / inventory of items - it may have a separate area to list a TV / home theater as well as their respective values, but yes, its considered a household item.

[mb10240]

See, I don't interpret that phrase that way. The way I see it, "electric or otherwise" refers to the appliances listed before the phrase (e.g. Pressing irons, deep freezers, etc.).

[Pandora]

Funny how things are interpreted huh? I know when we did our list of inventory and subsequent schedules - our TV's fell into "household goods".

From what I was able to find under the new BK code:

The definition of “household goods” was changed limiting “electronic equipment” to one radio, one television, one VCR, and one personal computer with related equipment. The definition now excludes works of art not created by the debtor or a relative of the debtor, jewelry worth more than $500 (except wedding rings), and motor vehicles (§521(f)(1)(B)). Prior to BAPCPA, the definition of household goods was broader so that more items could have been included, including more than one television, VCR, radio, etc…


We had to fill out something very similar to this (scroll to page 3) - even though it says NE, we're in VA and had something very similar:

http://www.kotikandmcclure.com/docs/Other%20Form.pdf

Also for your state, I found this:

The following property is just a portion of property protected under Louisiana's exemptions (with some exceptions):

".........Although most of your household possessions are protected, most electronics are not exempt — this includes TVs, stereos and DVD players; however, Chapter 7 Trustees rarely take such items. You can protect non-exempt items by paying their market value as part of your Chapter 13."


I hope this helps you.