Intriguing Oregon & National Chapter 13 Trustee Statistics

by Andrew Toth-Fejel, Bankruptcy Litigation Support for Attorneys, Andy@BLSforAttorneys.com

The US Trustee's office generates a highly detailed spreadsheet entitled Chapter 13 Standing Trustee FY07 Audited Annual Reports, containing about 60 statistical facts on each of the nearly 200 standing Chapter 13 trustees. Here are some definitely interesting, and in some cases perhaps useful, bits of information gleaned from that spreadsheet. (Federal Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) is the period from Oct. 1, 2006 through Sept. 30, 2007).

First, some highlights:

• Total payments made by Chapter 13 debtors to the trustees: more than $5 billion.
• National average of ongoing mortgage payments paid through the trustee is about $3.8 million per trustee, but almost none for the Oregon trustees because these are virtually all paid outside the plan here; clearly not elsewhere.
• Ongoing domestic support payments are much less than average in Oregon, presumably because of procedures that tend to have these regular payment be made directly to the recipients or their governmental agents.
• Other priority debt disbursements--presumably mostly taxes and support arrearage, were substantially higher in Lynch and Long's offices than the average.
• Disbursements of debtors' attorney fees were more than double the average in Lynch's office, about average in Long's.
• Trustee fees collected by Lynch's office: about $1.8 million; by Long's office: about $1.4 million.

***CAVEAT: I could not locate an explanatory guide for using this Annual Reports spreadsheet, which would especially help with more precise meanings of some of the terminology. If any of my readers are aware of any such guide, or if any reader believes I misconstrued any entry on this spreadsheet, please contact me.***

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GROSS DEBTOR PAYMENTS

National Total:

$5,310,173,498

National Average per Trustee:

$27,657,154

Brian Lynch's Office:

$32,527,173

Fred Long's Office:

$22,272,497

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$826,605

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ONGOING MORTGAGE PAYMENTS

National Total:

$727,731,899

National Average per Trustee:

$3,790,270

Brian Lynch's Office:

$27,530

Fred Long's Office:

$0

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$0

______________________________________________

MORTGAGE ARREARAGES DISBURSEMENTS

National Total:

$416,694,300

National Average per Trustee:

$2,170,283

Brian Lynch's Office:

$1,982,058

Fred Long's Office:

$1,315,176

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$55,406

___________________________________________________

ALL OTHER SECURED DEBT

National Total:

$ ?

National Average per Trustee:

$9,373,711

Brian Lynch's Office:

$6,611,810

Fred Long's Office:

$5,279,839

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$112,875

____________________________________________________

ONGOING DOMESTIC SUPPORT PAYMENTS

National Total:

$7,102,629

National Average per Trustee:

$36,993

Brian Lynch's Office:

$10,059

Fred Long's Office:

$0

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$5,751

__________________________________________________________

ALL OTHER PRIORITY DEBT

National Total:

$284,781,007

Average per Trustee:

$1,483,205

Brian Lynch's Office:

$5,274,796

Fred Long's Office:

$3,022,529

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$101,055

____________________________________________________

UNSECURED PAYMENTS

National Total:

$1,345,850,898

National Average per Trustee:

$7,009,640

Brian Lynch's Office:

$11,658,467

Fred Long's Office:

$8,783,899

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$360,967

_______________________________________________

DEBTOR ATTORNEYS' PAYMENTS

National Total:

N/A

National Average per Trustee:

$2,035,753

Brian Lynch's Office:

$4,490,177

Fred Long's Office:

$2,306,708

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$88,425

_______________________________________________

AVERAGE % FEES

National Average per Trustee:

6.4%

Brian Lynch's Office:

5.4%

Fred Long's Office:

6.2%

Robert Ridgway's Office:

10.0%

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FEES TRANSFERRED

National Totals:

$256,256,713

National Average per Trustee:

$1,224,670

Brian Lynch's Office:

$1,816,115

Fred Long's Office:

$1,373,480

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$81,832

____________________________________________

EMPLOYEE SALARIES

National Totals:

$126,010,122

National Average per Trustee:

N/A

Brian Lynch's Office:

$877,332

Fred Long's Office:

$685,152

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$26,519

_______________________________________________

TOTAL ACTUAL EXPENSES

National Totals:

$239,555,018

National Average per Trustee:

$1,247,682

Brian Lynch's Office:

$1,726,215

Fred Long's Office:

$1,171,865

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$39,650

_______________________________________________

ACTUAL COMPENSATION

National Totals:

$31,847,130

National Average per Trustee:

$165,870

Brian Lynch's Office:

$173,523

Fred Long's Office:

$173,523

Robert Ridgway's Office:

$41,431

By Andrew Toth-Fejel, Bankruptcy Litigation Support for Attorneys, Andy@BLSforAttorneys.com

© 2008 Bankruptcy Litigation Support for Attorneys