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Bankruptcy

Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog

The perspective of one Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney on insolvency during a depression.
By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

Post Frequency: 2.4/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 10:42:02

Bankruptcy Options and Non-Bankruptcy Options

Posted on December 10, 2010
Probably the most common thing I hear is that somebody wants to see me to "discuss their options". The bankruptcy decision tree is not precise, but there are often few options by the time somebody thinks to discuss their options with a bankruptcy attorney in Phoenix, Arizona...

In Bankruptcy, As In Life, It's Better to be Lucky than Smart; Smart Doesn't Hurt, Either

Posted on December 10, 2010
Let's suppose you have your identity stolen. That sounds pretty scary, right? And let's suppose that while you're trying to get the bank to fix things for you, all of the rates on your credit cards go through the roof. And they won't go back down. And how long will it take the bank to decide that it should reverse out the bad transactions so that you can pay your mortgage? You know, there are some situations where being persuasive is a good thing; like persuading the bank that you really didn't order five hundred cases of beer...

Please Don't Beat Yourself Up! It Doesn't Help You, and It Leaves Bruises on Your Knuckles.

Posted on December 10, 2010
Normally, it's the ladies who sob. And weep. And cry. And that's fine. Turns out big boys cry, too. Crying is sometimes a pretty good emotional release, and it's fine by me. Hence, the tissue on the corner of my desk, facing the clients. But sobbing on the theory that you are a bad businessman who should have seen this depression coming and made the correct zigs and zags so your business would continue to blossom...

Did You Get Your Christmas Goose this Year?

Posted on December 09, 2010
A lot of small businesses file bankruptcy because the boss loves the employees too much. Because he loves the employees, when the volume of business drops, he fails to take action to drop the business overhead. That means that the overhead runs higher than the income, and that means that the entire business rowboat goes to visit Davy Jones...

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All I Want For Christmas is My Bankruptcy Discharge!

Posted on December 09, 2010
Sadly and softly, the Arizona bankruptcy attorney said, "Bah, Humbug!" No Discharge for you this Christmas, Tiny Tim! Remember the sequence of events in your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Arizona, and just about everyplace else. First, you file. And that's a process and a half, now that we have the BARF Act in place (the 2005 Amendments; and BARF is the polite version, so you know)...

How Much Can I Spend on Christmas Presents Prior to Filing My Bankruptcy?

Posted on December 08, 2010
Less than you want to spend. There is an adage in bankruptcy law: you must be fair before you are generous. That means you must be fair to your creditors prior to being generous to those you love. So if you are contemplating filing a bankruptcy, and you are clearly insolvent, there are at least three things you probably ought to avoid...

Can I Pay My Child's Tuition Before I File a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Arizona?

Posted on December 08, 2010
Absolutely! The real question is, are there consequences to paying that tuition, and if so, what are they? A tuition payment may be a recoverable asset that is pursued by the trustee in a Chapter 7 case, sometimes. For instance, if you pay $4,000 tuition for a 25 year old child not living at home, and you file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy the next day, there is a chance that the trustee will demand a refund of that tuition from the University...

Don't Ask A Bankruptcy Attorney What Effect A Bankruptcy Will Have on Your Credit!

Posted on December 08, 2010
Let's consider this for a few moments. If you need to file a bankruptcy, you need to file a bankruptcy. If you need to file a bankruptcy, you are often the subject of a trustee's sale, a lawsuit or five, and at least a million harassing creditor phone calls...

The Arizona Bankruptcy Resource that I Just Added to my Bankruptcy Resources Blog!

Posted on December 08, 2010
As you know, I'm very proud of my new Arizona Bankruptcy Resources Blog, and there's a reason for that: as of today, I figured out how to put a cactus in the background! And no, this computer stuff is not easy when you're an old guy (I mean, "highly experienced Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney")! But I also realized that, as Arizona bankruptcy resources go, this blog (with more than six hunded entries) is probably as good a resource as most, if you're contemplating bankruptcy in Arizona and you want to learn about the process before you jump into the deep end of the pool...

Famous Noname Arizona Bankruptcy Lawyers

Posted on December 07, 2010
Everybody knows the story of Famous Amos, right? He made some of the best darn cookies ever, and those cookies were called "Famous Amos" Cookies. Then his business got hit from the blind side, and had the privilege of filing a bankruptcy to get rid of his debts...

Arizona Bankruptcy Resources

Posted on December 06, 2010
My loyal readers all understand that one of my life's ambitions is to educate everyone on the Planet Earth about bankruptcy law. And that this blog is one reflection of that ambition. And I want to make the process as transparent as possible, so in my companion blog, the Arizona Bankruptcy Lawyer Homework Blog, I try to walk a potential Arizona Debtor through all of the steps that will occur in a bankruptcy case in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Chandler, Mesa, Paradise Valley or anyplace else in Arizona (for that matter, it's pretty close to what happens in a bankruptcy all across the United States, although the exemptions and personalities will differ)...

Small Business Bankruptcy Alternatives: the Seven Faces of Dr. Bankruptcy

Posted on December 05, 2010
Has anybody seen an old movies called "The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao"? Well, don't bother. It's awful. But seeing that name reminded me that there are about seven different alternatives associated with the Bankruptcy Court for a small business that has insolvency issues...

Wake Up and Smell the Insolvency!

Posted on December 04, 2010
Procrastination can sometimes be a good thing. So they say. There are time management classes and books which suggest that by procrastinating unimportant projects, you will automatically prioritize important things. Or so they say. But I get to see many, many cases of malignant procrastination...

1.6 Million Bankruptcy Cases in 2010; But the Recession's Over, Right?

Posted on December 03, 2010
I recently read a nifty article that talks about numbers and bankruptcy. The article is in the Wall Street Journal, and the most interesting part of the article, to me, was the throwaway line, "in the recession's aftermath". Now, I wasn't surprised to hear that bankruptcy filings had reached a five-year high; that was obvious to those of us in the bankruptcy trenches...

Avoid Bankruptcy the Easy Way!

Posted on December 02, 2010
Apparently, many folks who file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, or any other sort of bankruptcy, do so because they have some trouble paying all their bills, and also eating. Silly eaters! But that would suggest that the easy way to avoid bankruptcy of any kind is simply to make more money! And apparently, the easiest way to double your income is to work for the Federal Government...

The Best Reason I Ever Heard for Filing Bankruptcy

Posted on November 22, 2010
"The doctors told me I was going to die. So I didn't really plan for the future. And then I didn't die!" Kind of a good news, bad news, good news story. Here's want you should take away from today's bankruptcy lesson: far better to have debt, and be on the right side of the grass...

The Long Version of Why I Hate Reaffirmations, Written by a Smart Bankruptcy Professor!

Posted on November 22, 2010
A smart bankruptcy professor has written a smart article about the inherent conflicts associated with reaffirmations. If you take the time to read it, you will understand why many experienced Arizona Bankruptcy Attorneys like reaffirmations in the same way that we like plutonium in our orange juice...

Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney AVVO.com Profile: Compare Lawyers Like Eggs, or Books on Amazon!

Posted on November 20, 2010
I love AVVO. It's a directory that permits an ordinary consumer to compare Arizona Bankruptcy Lawyers like eggs in a supermarket, or books on Amazon, or...you get the idea. And I like the idea that consumers of bankruptcy services can get the best possible quality information about bankruptcy lawyers before making a decision, from a completely unbiased source, because the AVVO rating is done by a computer algorithm, whatever that is...

The Mean, Mean, Means Test: One Exception to the Means Test

Posted on November 20, 2010
They say you should never watch either sausage or law being made. I believe that. And today I will discuss an example of odd lawmaking. Not terrible lawmaking, just strange. The reason I don't mind this statute is that it cuts a break for a small slice of the American Military, but only a small slice, and only for a short period of time...

A Free Online Median Income Calculator to Make Contemplating Bankruptcy in Arizona Easier!

Posted on November 19, 2010
There's this thing called "the means test". It is entirely a creature of statute, and didn't exist in United States Bankruptcy Law until 2005 (the Means Test was born in the same horrific statute that killed the Superdischarge in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Cases; I miss the Superdischarge)...

Medical Marijuana May Be Business of the Year! Will Bankruptcy Debtors Toke to Reduce Anxiety?

Posted on November 17, 2010
In California, medical marijuana is supposed to be a non-profit project. Based on the number of medical marijuana locations operating in California, it's a little more "for-profit" than "not-for-profit". And I expect that the number of folks stricken with various and sundry debilitating diseases will go up radically when medical marijuana becomes easily available in Arizona...

TOO MUCH INFORMATION IN BANKRUPTCY SCHEDULES? Impossible! But Maybe Not!

Posted on November 17, 2010
My loyal bankruptcy readers know that a frequently asked question is: how much information do I need to put in my bankruptcy schedules? The smarty-pants answer is that if you have to ask, it isn't enough. Disclose, disclose, disclose. The three biggest areas where you must disclose are obvious and simple: there's real property, and there are cars, and there are transactions (because the bankruptcy trustee needs to know if you've transferred your car and your bare land to your sister the day before you filed)...

It's Ready, Aim, Fire! NOT Ready, Fire, Aim! Research Bankruptcy Attorneys BEFORE You File!

Posted on November 16, 2010
I've been getting a remarkable number of questions from folks who say, roughly speaking, "My bankruptcy has gone South. I found the cheapest bankruptcy lawyer available (or the closest bankruptcy lawyer available), and he doesn't want to do any more work on my case, and he doesn't seem to know how to deal with the objection to exemption/ motion to dismiss for substantial abuse/ complaint to determine dischargeability/ complaint objecting to discharge/ preference complaint...

Will Christmas Save Small Businesses This Year? Or Will We Have Bankruptcy Cases Instead of Small Businesses?

Posted on November 15, 2010
Every year, businesses look forward to the Christmas Season as the time that will save their balance sheets, and even their existence as viable businesses. In retail, the Christmas Buying Season can account for 40% of sales and profit. I used to feel that Christmas had been over-commercialized; then I ran into some big chains that would not permit their employees to say "Merry Christmas"...

Final Hints on Where I Stand on the Upcoming Arizona Bankruptcy Exemption Wars

Posted on November 11, 2010
You've looked at the memo from a smart, experienced bankruptcy trustee. And you know darn well he's right about one thing: furniture has to be itemized, not lumped (some bankruptcy trustees have told me they would prefer lumping in their cases, but you need to assume you'll draw a non-lumping bankruptcy trustee)...

A memo from a Fair and Experienced Arizona Trustee; Can You Tell Which Parts Have My Agreement? And Where There Might Be Some Disagreement? Watch This Space!

Posted on November 10, 2010
NOTHING IN THIS BANKRUPTCY BLOG CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE...

Veterans Catch a Break on Veterans Day, Although It Should Be Every Day; Veterans Should Never Have to File Bankruptcy

Posted on November 10, 2010
There are some guys and gals who spend their time saving the planet. They're called the U.S. Military. They're honored on Veterans Day, which is good, and they are inadequately honored on other days, which is bad. They're also underpaid, which is downright criminal...

Awarded a Top Bankruptcy Resource? Well, That's Very Nice!

Posted on November 09, 2010
Apparently, somebody likes me. Or at least likes my blog. Here's a Top Bankruptcy Resource somebody awarded my bankruptcy blog; that seemed very nice to me. So thanks! CreditCardProcessing.netNOTHING IN THIS BANKRUPTCY BLOG CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12...

I'm Number One? I Beg Your Pardon?? Profile Visibility Rankings on Martindale.com

Posted on November 08, 2010
I have a profile on Martindale.com, which is an important site for historical reasons, if nothing else. Martindale has rated lawyers in a secret, peer-review process for many years. In essence, your lawyer peers get to say whatever they want about you in a confidential lawyer review process, and you get a rating based on whether the other lawyers in the community think you know what you're doing, and whether they think you're ethical enough to be rated on Martindale...

So, Do We Just Lump Our Assets on the Schedules?

Posted on November 08, 2010
Everybody has opinions. A couple of the bankruptcy trustees here in Arizona would rather debtors lump their furniture together on their schedules. And that's their opinion, and they are absolutely entitled to it. But you aren't going to lump furniture, because some furniture is exempt and some is not...

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