In Re Evans’s Empirical Analysis

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Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[0]nce a question has been raised regarding the petition preparer's fees under § 110(h)(3), the petition preparer bears the burden of proving the reasonableness of a fee charged or received. See Springs, 358 B.R. at 242-43 ; In re Haney, 284 B.R. 841, 850-51 (Bankr.N.D.Ohio 2002); Bush, 275 B.R. at 85-86 . Here, the U.S. Trustee established that the respondent acted as a petition preparer and collected a fee of $700 from the debtors. Although the respondent asserted a variety of justifications for his fees in his pro se response, he failed to attend the hearing and thus failed to show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the fee he collected from the debtors was reasonable compensation for his services. Because the respondent failed to prove the reasonableness of the fees collected, the court finds that fees paid by the debtors were in excess of the value of the respondent's services. This court has previously held — albeit in an unpublished opinion — that a petition preparer's fees should ordinarily be no more than $160 for the services he or she is lawfully allowed to provide. See In re Darryl Shorts, Case No. 08-14487-SSM (March 11, 2009). In the absence of any evidence by the respondent to show that a greater amount was reasonable in this case, the court will adopt its prior ruling.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. McDow v. Skinner (In Re Jay)

2. “(1) One undertakes for compensation, direct or indirect, to advise another, not his regular employer, in any matter involving the application of legal principles to facts or purposes or desires. (2) One, other than as a regular employee acting for his employer, undertakes, with or without compensation, to prepare for another legal instruments of any character, other than notices or contracts incident to the regular course of conducting a licensed business.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. McDow v. Skinner (In Re Jay)

3. “requires the disclosure of ‘any fee received from the debtors in the year before their bankruptcy filing, not just those fees connected to the typing (or computer entry and printing) of the schedules and petition”) (emphasis in original); In re Moran, 256 B.R. 842, 852 (Bankr.D.N.H.2000) (”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wieland v. Assaf (In re Briones-Coroy)