Tate v. Bolen’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate ·

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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “shall be the debtor's applicable monthly expense amounts specified under the National Standards and Local Standards, and the debtor's actual monthly expenses for the categories specified as Other Necessary Expenses issued by the Internal Revenue Service for the area in which the debtor resides.... Notwithstanding any other provision of this clause, the monthly expenses of the debtor shall not include any payments for debts.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Ransom · In Re Pelkey

2. “Congress intended that there be uniform and readily-applied formula for determining when the bankruptcy court should presume that a debtor’s chapter 7 petition is an abuse and for determining an above-median debtor’s disposable income in chapter IS. By explicitly referring to the National and Local Standards, Congress incorporated a table of standard expenses that could be easily and uniformly applied; Congress intended that the court and parties simply utilize the expense amount from the applicable column based on the debtor’s income, family size, number of cars and locale. The amounts are entered into the means test form and a determination of disposable income is accomplished without judicial discretion. The clear policies behind the means test were the uniform application of a bright-line test that eliminates judicial discretion. Plainly, Congress determined that these policies were more important than accuracy, (emphasis supplied) However, if the IRM were used to determine the amounts of expenses ... the means test would of necessity again be a highly discretionary test, because under the IRM, a revenue officer is afforded significant discretion in determining a taxpayer’s ability to pay a tax. Tate, 571 F.3d at 427 -28 (citing Kimbro, 389 B.R. at 527-28 ).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Edwards

3. “Under the statute, a debtor’s “actual monthly expenses” are only relevant with regard to the IRS’s “Other Necessary Expenses;” they are not relevant to deductions taken under the Local Standards, including the transportation ownership deduction.... We conclude that the better interpretation of “applicable” is that it references the selection of the debtor’s geographic region and number of cars.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Pelkey