§ 8.01-525.7.Trustee; rights and duties; compensation.

Once a court appoints a trustee under § 8.01-525.6, this section spells out what he can charge and what he must do. He may keep a fee of five percent of the salary, wages, or income he receives and pays out, compensation for the bookkeeping and disbursement work the role demands. But if the trustee happens to be a full-time public officer or employee, he cannot pocket that fee for himself; the article treats that money differently when a public salary already covers his time.

The trustee’s authority reaches beyond the debtor’s own hands. Once he notifies anyone who owes the debtor salary, wages, or income — an employer, for instance — that person must start paying the trustee directly, at whatever time the money would otherwise have gone to the debtor. That redirection is what makes the assignment work in practice: the money never passes through the debtor before it is divided among creditors.

The trustee also has some latitude to negotiate. He may compromise and settle a creditor’s claim against the debtor when he judges the deal will benefit the creditors as a group, letting him close out disputed or marginal claims without asking the court to referee every one.