Dear Members:
We have had a strong start in 2015. The Ninth Annual Ninth Circuit review was very successful as always. Our Litigating with HOA and Unscheduled Lawsuit seminars were illuminating and educational. Our next seminar will be on Reaffirmations and Redemptions and is scheduled for May 16, 2015. Our panel will include Judge Zurzolo, Christian Cooper and myself. We are also planning future seminars on the intersection between taxes and bankruptcy, chapter 13 issues and the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. In addition, preparations are underway for the Second Annual James T. King Bankruptcy Symposium which this year will be called "Dear Congress," which we hope will include Professor Katherine Porter, Judge Lundin, Judge Jury and Jonathan Hayes. Finally, we are looking forward to the Calvin Ashland Award Dinner scheduled for November 5, 2015 which will honor our dear friend James T. King.

As you are all aware, the Board of Judges voted in favor of our proposal to increase the Chapter 13 RARA fees. The fee increases went into effect on March 23, 2015. The fee for non-business cases has increased to $5,000. The fee for business cases has increased to $6,000. Please remember that you may still agree with you client to bill at your hourly rate in accordance with 11 U.S.C. Section 330 instead of filing a RARA. I encourage attorneys to select cases to bill at the hourly rate in order to keep the chapter 13 trustees and judges abreast of the cost and time involved in preparing and prosecuting chapter 13 cases from retainer to confirmation. Otherwise, trustees and judges will have no choice but to assume that the RARA fee is presumptively reasonable and it may take another nine years to see an increase in the RARA fee.

The Board of Directors is working to provide our members with a full day seminar on litigation. Our goal is to provide an intensive practicum on specific aspects of litigation including discovery, motions, pretrial stipulations and trial. We will provide more information on the details of this seminar in the future. Additionally, this edition of the Newsletter includes an article for MCLE credit open to all attorneys. All you have to do is read the article, answer the questions regarding the information provided in the article and mail your answers with a check made out to CDCBAA. We will email the answer key to you along with a certificate for one hour of MCLE credit. If this experiment is successful we hope to bring you more MCLE credit articles in the future.

As always, the CDCBAA's goal is to provide our members and our community with quality continuing legal education. You may now help support our efforts by sending a tax deductible donation. We thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Nancy B. Clark
CDCBAA President