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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

Educational Bankruptcy Video About Pre- and Post- Consumer Credit Counseling

Posted on October 05, 2010
A new batch of videos has started coming back from Marius, and I really like the quality of the videos he's put together for me. This one is about pre- and post- consumer credit counseling, and I guess I slip and release the secret: I think it's dumb as a stump...

IS THE BANKRUPTCY TRUSTEE GONNA COME OUT TO MY HOUSE AND SEE WHAT I GOT? BANKRUPTCY FAQS

Posted on October 04, 2010
Probably not. Hasn't happened in any of my cases in thirty years. One time a bankruptcy trustee told me that he was going to go to a debtor's house to check up on the stuff she had. He wanted to know what the hand-made paper costumes looked like. She was a wedding planner, and she and her mom and kids had constructed some sorts of costumes out of crepe-paper or some such thing...

Brutal for the Workers. Do Ya Think? Really?

Posted on October 03, 2010
I recently ran into an interesting article that had a slightly upbeat tone, and I always like upbeat. Mind you, I think that anybody who suggests that things are better now than they were two years ago is smoking Wacky Tabaccey, but that's just my opinion...

Misery Loves Company and This Is a Depression: Bankruptcy Meditation 505

Posted on October 02, 2010
Turns out that everybody is suffering in this depression, and nobody was prepared for it. While ordinary folks like me understand the concept of good times and bad, partners at BigLaw Firms are somewhat insulated from some economic bumps. On the other hand, this isn't an economic bump; it's The Perfect Wave, or a Depression, depending on the day...

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My Favorite Educational Bankruptcy Video: Zombie Debt Collectors! Da-da-da-daaaaaaaa!

Posted on October 01, 2010
I can't help myself, I have favorites. You already know my least favorite videos, and I'll probably re-shoot them just because they're so awful; of course, I did 'em myself on my little Apple laptop, and I'm not a cinema student like Marius. But my fave of the series we've done so far has got to be "Zombie Debt Collectors": NOTHING IN THIS BANKRUPTCY BLOG CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12...

Even if you are Pretty, and Even if You are on a Television Show, Bankruptcy Fraud is a Bad Idea. The Teresa Guidice Celebrity Bankruptcy

Posted on September 29, 2010
A pretty lady named Teresa Guidice, who appeared on a "Real Housewives" Television Show, filed an ordinary little consumer bankruptcy. Hey, what could possibly go wrong? It was just an ordinary, simple, eezee-peezee consumer Chapter 7 case, after all...

If You Are Contemplating a Bankruptcy in Arizona, Here's a Secret About Cars in Bankruptcy Cases, and Afterward: Edmund's True Market Value(tm)

Posted on September 28, 2010
So what do you use to value cars for purposes of listing them in your schedules? Well, you probably ought to use excellent private party sale value from Kelly Blue Book, because the bankruptcy trustee will. At a very minimum, you need to be aware of the excellent private party sale value so you can explain why the vehicle doesn't meet the "excellent" criteria, and be prepared to have the vehicle inspected to determine for sure that it doesn't have any transmission...

Mortgages, Mortgage Modifications, and Bankruptcy Cases in Arizona

Posted on September 26, 2010
I have read a lot recently about mortgage modification programs failing to work as well as expected. There are a lot of excellent articles about the issue all over the Internet. Here's one, for instance. But I wasn't very surprised. Debtors have told me for months that trying to work their way through an attempted loan modification was an utter nightmare, because the mortgage company would lose their documentation three times, and they'd be told five different stories by seven different mortgage company employees, and first they'd be told they were a shoe-in for a modification, and then they'd be told they weren't...

New Television Show "Outsourced" Is Screamingly Funny, but the Topic Makes Me Sad

Posted on September 25, 2010
There's a new television show called "Outsourced". The plot involves a young man who has just completed a management course with a novelties company so that he can manage a phone room full of telemarketers. But then he discovers that all the employees here in the United States have been "rightsized"...

Blockbuster Filed a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Finally. Technology Giveth, and Technology Taketh Away!

Posted on September 24, 2010
Took it forever! And this Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is a testimony to "Technology Giveth, and Technology Taketh Away!" And here are a couple of paragraphs from the article in Bloomberg, with a link to the original article: Blockbuster Files for Bankruptcy After Online Rivals Gain By Dawn McCarty, Linda Sandler and Tiffany Kary - document...

Everything Bad is Good News to Somebody in the Economy

Posted on September 24, 2010
This is obvious, and one obvious example of it is that when wages went down, in dollars adjusted for inflation, that was good for some employers. Those same employers are beneficiaries of high unemployment, which is running much, much higher than any official estimate...

Life on the Faultline: the Dagwood Generation Suffers Economic Burnout

Posted on September 23, 2010
There are tectonic plates that interact badly, causing earthquakes. And these days different generations are interacting in ways that cause bankruptcy. An older demographic is starting to file bankruptcy in increasing numbers, because the pressure of trying to do the right thing is causing tectonic shifts in the psyches of grownups...

Fixing this Depression is So Simple! Why Didn't I Think of This? We Redesign the Bills, and the Depression is Over!!

Posted on September 23, 2010
Every now and then I'm struck by an idea so brilliant, and so original, that I'm speechless. One of those ideas recently surfaced on another blog. Here's the idea: if the bills used in the United States are redesigned, people will be happier and will spend more, and then this depression will melt away like the morning dew! Now, I couldn't make this stuff up...

What's Going to Happen to my Tenants When I File My Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?

Posted on September 23, 2010
A lot of my clients are high-end, super duper bankruptcy cases, like doctors, lawyers and CPAs. And a lot are ordinary Joes and Janes. As I've mentioned in a prior post, mature adults seem to be an increasing segment of the bankruptcy filing population, because if they're trying to support one generation up, and two or three down, they don't have a lot of spare money...

"You Lawyers Are All Alike!" No, You Just Found Some Good Ones!

Posted on September 22, 2010
The guys who answer my phones are good guys, and pretty smart, and have been with me a long time. They are not lawyers and have a phobia about giving legal advice, so they normally won't even provide legal information, although they've picked up a lot by osmosis over the years...

We're Number One! We in Arizona are not Number Two! We're Number One! And Yes, That Means More Bankruptcy Cases.

Posted on September 21, 2010
Arizona is Number One again! When I went to Emerson Elementary School on 7th Street and Palm Lane in Phoenix, we were taught that Arizona was tops for copper, cattle, and citrus. And that was good. As a good friend of mine, Robin Dugas, has pointed out to me, Arizona is now tops in another area...

Gee, I Hate Reaffirmations! I Hate Reaffirmations in the Morning, Evening, and Suppertime! I Hate Reaffirmations ALL the Time!

Posted on September 20, 2010
Let's talk about reaffirmations for a little while. Only a little while, though. They make me sad. See, a reaffirmation is a bankruptcy specific agreement, inside your bankruptcy, that you will repay a debt according to its terms, and re-establishing your personal liability on that debt...

My 100% Arizona Bankruptcy Discharge Guarantee!

Posted on September 19, 2010
Every now and then I'll see some bankruptcy lawyer in Cleveland or Denver offering a money-back guarantee about something that is pretty straightforward; for instance, you'll see a guarantee that if the case is dismissed for failure to pass the means test after the debtor has provided accurate information to the bankruptcy lawyer, there will be a refund of the fee...

Judgmental Bankruptcy Attorneys? Nonjudgmental and Sympathetic Bankruptcy Lawyers in Arizona?

Posted on September 18, 2010
It always surprises me when clients tell me that they were afraid to come in and talk to a bankruptcy attorney in Arizona, especially one who is board-certified as a bankruptcy specialist. I'm used to one kind of fear; a lot of folks know that their finances are out of control, because they can't pay their bills! Or because they're being sued...

The Cheapest Bankruptcy Services In Arizona, Guaranteed!

Posted on September 17, 2010
Frequent readers will recall that I am not the lowest-cost provider of bankruptcy services in Arizona, by choice. There are all sorts of beginners who guarantee the lowest prices on a bankruptcy case, Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, in Arizona, for folks who care only about price...

Filing a Bankruptcy To Sell Your House Not a Great Idea. The Automatic Stay Ain't What It Used To Be.

Posted on September 16, 2010
It used to be, in the good old days, formerly known as these trying times, that the automatic stay at 11 USC 362 would hold off a secured creditor forever. Well, a long time, anyway. Creditors then were less certain of their remedies, and Judges were less certain of the law, and debtor's attorneys were frisky...

Great Scheme to Scalp a Bankruptcy Client!

Posted on September 15, 2010
You know, since I've been doing this for thirty years, you'd think I'd seen it all. But you would be wrong. Today, for instance, I got to talk to a pretty, smart young woman with a nice husband and a bundle of children. And she explained that I wasn't her first rodeo...

I Swiped a Post from a New Blog I'm Building to Help My Small Business Clients AVOID Bankruptcy!

Posted on September 15, 2010
This is a post from a new blog I've started. It has one purpose in mind: it's designed to help folks who have small businesses bring in more customers with zero increase in their non-existent advertising budget. And the idea is that if they just need a few more customers, and this gets it for them, they won't have to file a bankruptcy! And if they have to file anyway, well, these techniques will help them start their next business! The information in it took me forever to learn, and I know that these approaches to marketing work well, although, of course, I don't guarantee that the sky is blue or the grass is green...

I Built Another Blog for AFTER Bankruptcy for my Small Business Clients

Posted on September 14, 2010
My big business clients don't need my marketing help. They have a big budget for marketing and a IT Department and consultants. Actually, Consultants! My small business clients are a different story. A small business does really, really well during good times because it subscribes to the theory that if "you keep it small, you keep it all!" But that also means they don't have expensive help to assist them in marketing...

So Today You Get Statistics and A Link to Bankruptcy Videos

Posted on September 13, 2010
I spent yesterday making new educational bankruptcy videos. Tomorrow I'm going to talk to some non-lawyer buddies about how to establish a presence on the Internet so that they won't ever need to file a bankruptcy (the Good Lord Willing and the Creek Don't Rise)...

Outsourcing: Threat or Menace? Does Outsourcing Jobs Create Unemployment? Does a Hole in a Bucket Cause Emptyness?

Posted on September 11, 2010
Current clients and future clients, you don't need to read this, because I'm just talking about something that makes me hyperventilate if I don't talk about it. So, how's that unemployment these days? Well, the official numbers simmer around 10%. But I keep a pretty good finger on a series of pulses, and my unofficial number is closer to 20%...

Do You Mean Now? The Answer Du Jour on Income and Home Value.

Posted on September 10, 2010
No, I mean in the paleolithic period. There are two questions for which the normal response is always a little surprising to me. One is the question, "How much is your house worth?" The other is the question, "What is your total yearly gross income?" And the correct answer, apparently, is "Do you mean now?" Normally, it's the hubbies who answer the question with a question when I ask 'em about their income...

So How Optimistic Are You? Or are You the Agnostic 16%?

Posted on September 09, 2010
Okay, here we go: 42% of folks think you can't get a job. 42% think you can. And 16% don't know. So what do you think? I actually know the answer, because I'm a bankruptcy lawyer in Arizona, and I keep track of some of my clients, when I'm not pulling new ones out of the undertow...

The Next Economic Bubble that's Going to Burst!

Posted on September 08, 2010
This is pretty ugly. Like the dot.com bubble wasn't ugly? Like the housing bubble wasn't ugly? Looks like higher education is the next bubble. And I've blogged about this impending disaster recently, and I'll link back to it, and you know when I'll do that if you're a frequent reader...

A Travel Guide to a First Meeting of Creditors in Your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Arizona

Posted on September 07, 2010
What happens at a First Meeting of Creditors in a consumer Chapter 7 Bankruptcy? Well, that depends. Did you file your bankruptcy after you did your consumer credit counseling? Did you pass the means test? Did you read The Trustee Letter that you received a couple of days after your bankruptcy case was filed? Did you give the Trustee the copies of documents he or she requested, including three years of tax returns? And did you show up at the First Meeting of Creditors, on time, on the right day, and in the right room, and with your driver's license and your social security card? Because if so, it's at least possible that your first meeting will be fairly routine, and the trustee will ask you a dozen and a half questions, and then everybody will trundle home...

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