A Big Question

[bige1030]

I wasn't talking about lien avoidance or anything like that.

Until you brought up federal exemptions, I actually was talking about lien avoidance, not federal exemptions.

We knew about the definition you cited above.

Do you know what subsection of the Code it is in and what relevance that has to where it applies? I don't know if you were trying to say that definition doesn't apply to lien avoidance, but that's what I read into your first reply to my post in this thread. Unfortunately, after reading the Code itself and the judge's work, I would have to disagree with that.

That's when our attny said if we were using the Federal Exemptions, things would be different.

The definition you gave applies when the Debtor/Filer chooses or has to use Federal Exemptions. And I guess from your quote, that may be the way the Local Rules are applied in the Northern District of Illinois as the author is a Judge in that Court.

I certainly hope that isn't the case! After all, the judge wrote for the American Bankruptcy Institute. His audience for that work, thus, is national, and he would be a bad writer if he disregarded the scope of his audience.

[SinkingFast]

We didn't have any liens to avoid. The only debt we had, by the time we filed was unsecured CC's.

And like I said, I had read the rule you cited about what constitutes Household Goods. We asked our attny about that specifically because in our home, we had more than 1 TV, more than 1 computer, etc. But as is the case with other posters, the extra items belonged to our kids or parent, not us.

Our attny said, if we were using Federal Exemptions, we would have to abide by the 1 TV, 1 computer Code. Since we were using State, Local Rules applied. In our case, Local Rules were that Household goods rested in the Debtor/Filer's bedroom or personal space, and the common use areas of the home.

And FYI,........... We did have to break out books, collectibles, "works of art" and other items that were listed as "cannot be included in Household Goods" seperate from clothing, furniture, and such. Totally different Statutes Codes were applied to those items on our Schedule C than allowable "Household Goods".

Research is just that. Research. What you read and the way you interpret it in your mind may not necessarily be how the law is actually applied in any given Court.

Been there done that. Had a couple of spirited discussions with our attny. We would interpret how a Statute or Code read to us and our attny would say "That could certainly be one interpretation. But it's not the way the Law is applied."