A. GOVERNING LAW
Those provisions of sections 2329.70 and 2329.71 of the Ohio Revised Code and the rules herein established by the Court shall govern persons making application for a trusteeship.
B. ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible for the appointment of a trustee, the debtor must be a resident of Butler County, Ohio and must be earning wages, which are subject to garnishment.
C. APPLICATION
A person making an application for a trusteeship must have in his possession a fifteen (15) day notice of garnishment that has been served on him or her by a creditor. The application for trusteeship must be made within fifteen (15) days from the date of the fifteen (15) day notice.
The application shall include the following information about the debtor: 1.) name and address; 2.) place of employment; 3.) present salary; 4.) statement as to whether or not debtor has previously been in trusteeship with this Court and if so date the trusteeship was closed out and reason for closing; 5.) all dependents claimed on most recent Federal Income Tax filing; 6.) names, addresses, account numbers and amount due to all secured and unsecured creditors with liquidated claims. The application shall be sworn to under oath, subjecting the party making the application to suffer the penalty of perjury if any false answers are given.
D. ADDITION OF CREDITORS
If, after the trusteeship is opened, the debtor discovers that he or she has inadvertently omitted a creditor from the list included in the application, the debtor shall immediately submit a statement to the trustee clerk indicating the name, address, account number and amount due to the creditor and an explanation of why the creditor was omitted. It is within the discretion of the trustee clerk to either add or not add the creditor to the original list of creditors. If the creditor is added, it is the responsibility of the debtor to notify the creditor consist with theses rules.
If the trustee clerk refuses to add a creditor to the list, the debtor may appeal the clerk’s decision to a Judge for a final determination. All requests for judicial review of trustee clerk decisions shall be in writing and filed with the Clerk.
Unless as provided above, once an application for a trusteeship has been made and granted, the debtor may incur no additional debts. Once a debtor has been accepted into trusteeship, all of his or her transactions with merchants and professional or service providers shall be conducted in cash.
E. PROOF OF EMPLOYMENT
At the time of making the application, the debtor shall furnish the Court proof of earnings (i.e. a pay stub) to substantiate earnings for a thirty (30) day period prior to the application. If the debtor has been employed for less than thirty (30) days at the time of making the application, the debtor shall submit proof of earnings to the Court after making the application sufficient to substantiate earnings for a thirty (30) day period. Thereafter, every two (2) months the debtor shall submit proof of earnings to the Court. The trustee may increase or decrease the payment due the Court based on changes in the debtor’s earnings.
F. FEE
The debtor shall pay a filing fee of Seventeen Dollars ($17.00) and the costs of certified mail service to the creditors.
G. NOTIFICATION OF CREDITORS
Within two (2) days of swearing to the information in the application, the debtor shall notify all of the creditors listed in the application by certified mail, with return receipt, or in person, that the application has been made for appointment of a trustee. The notification shall include amount claimed by the debtor that is due to the creditor and a request that the creditor notifies the Court if the amount is incorrect. All secured creditors must be notified that they have ten (10) days from the receipt of the notification to notify the Court if they wish to opt out of the trusteeship, otherwise they will be included. A secured creditor included in the trusteeship is estopped from asserting its lien as long as the debtor maintains his or her trusteeship agreement.
Where creditors are notified in person, the notification and any acknowledgements and statements that are to be returned to the Court must all be accomplished within five (5) days after the application is filed with the Court.
H. PAYMENTS TO THE COURT
Each debtor in trusteeship shall pay twenty five (25) percent of his or her monthly net income into the Court. Net income is defined as wages remaining after the following deductions: 1.) Federal Income Tax; 2.) City Income Tax; 3.) State Income Tax; and 4.) Social Security or other retirement amounts withheld. These are the only deductions that the Court will consider when calculating net income.
The debtor shall make payments to the Court on the same frequency as the debtor’s employer pays the debtor. If the debtor is paid weekly, he or she shall make weekly payments to the court, etc. Payments to the Court must be made by cash, certified check or money order. No personal checks will be accepted.
I. MISSED PAYMENTS
If the debtor misses two consecutive scheduled payments, the trusteeship will be cancelled, unless the reasons the payments were missed was that the debtor has not worked and has not received wages from his or her employer. Where the debtor has not worked and has not received wages, the debtor must submit to the Court, on the date the wages are due to the Court, a written statement from his or her employer indicating that no wages were paid.
If a debtor becomes unemployed while subject to trusteeship, he or she is excused from making payments to the Court, even if the debtor is receiving unemployment benefits from the state of Ohio. However, at the time each trusteeship payment is due to the Court, the debtor must submit a statement in writing that he or she is unemployed and either receiving no income or receiving unemployment benefits. The amount of the unemployment benefit received and the frequency must be reported to the Court. The debtor must continue to submit the statements each week until he or she is employed again.
A debtor whose trusteeship has been cancelled for failure to make payments cannot make another application for trusteeship until six (6) months have elapsed from the date of the cancellation. During this six (6) month period, the debtor’s wages will be subject to garnishment.
J. PAYMENTS MADE TO CREDITORS
Payments made by the debtor directly to any creditor do not excuse the debtor from making the full payment to the Court on the required date.
The debtor must make payments directly to any secured creditor who opted out of the trusteeship agreement. Failure to make payments to a secured creditor that holds a mortgage on property can result in the creditor repossessing the property.
The Court will make disbursements to creditors in April, August and December. The debtor will be assessed a fee of Ten Dollars ($10.00) to cover the cost of each disbursement.