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Bankruptcy

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Last Entry: February 06, 2013 at 07:38:49

Do Not Rely on Speculative Income When Commiting to Your Chapter 13 Plan

Posted on February 06, 2013
I knew that my Social Security disability client had filed a bankruptcy with another lawyer but I was not aware that my client planned to use his lump sum past due benefit check to fund his Chapter 13 plan. Not surprisingly, my disability client was especially unhappy when his case was turned down by the [...

Bankruptcy Basics: Can I Keep My Tax Refund if I File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?

Posted on November 07, 2012
It is hard to believe, but the end of the year is almost upon us, and the holiday season will be followed very shortly by tax season. So, if you are considering a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you may be wondering whether you will get to keep that tax refund, or whether it will be seized [...

Student Loan Debt A National Bankruptcy Disaster

Posted on September 19, 2012
Discharge of student loans in bankruptcy is an uphill battle according to a New York Times article. News papers these days abound with descriptions of truly desperate families saddled with massive student debt. The story of Ohio student loan debtor Doug Wallace, age 31, unemployed and legally blind is hardly unusual...

Bankruptcy Mortgage Mediation Program Is Gaining Momentum

Posted on September 15, 2012
Mortgage Modification Mediation Program in Chapter 13 bankruptcy continues to gain momentum, there are more positive signs on the horizon. Just yesterday, our firm modified a mortgage with a small bank. The homeowner had accumulated $43,000 in accrued interest and late fees...

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Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Time Bomb: Mortgage Modifications Revisited

Posted on September 14, 2012
So you had to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to avoid foreclosure while waiting for your modification to be approved. You went through the “wash, rinse, repeat” process of submitting your documents over and over while the foreclosure process started and almost finished...

Judgment Liens: No Longer Avoidable in Southern Illinois Bankruptcy Court?

Posted on August 26, 2012
An old adage says that liens “pass through bankruptcy” unaffected. As old adages go, it’s right as much as it’s wrong. Particularly when referring to judgment liens against someones home which are normally subject to “avoidance...

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Plan Payments Can be Lowered if Your Income Decreases

Posted on June 26, 2012
When a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan gets confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court, the monthly payments you are supposed to pay to the trustee are set by the confirmation order. But they are not always set in stone. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy Plan can usually be modified if there is a significant and unanticipated change of circumstances, [...

How To Pick The Right Bankruptcy Lawyer

Posted on June 10, 2012
Most of us have interviewed for jobs: as the interviewee, you come prepared to answer questions and make a pitch why you’re right for the job. Pressure’s on the interviewee, to make the right impression, to get the important facts into the conversation, to project competence and confidence...

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Time Bomb: Mortgage Modifications

Posted on April 22, 2012
Last time, we talked about how a mortgage modification could screw up your ability to avoid a second mortgage in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. If your principal balance is lowered on your first mortgage, your second mortgage may survive a Chapter 13. But there are other dangers for Chapter 7 in the mortgage modification settlement...

Filing Bankruptcy And Getting Your Free House

Posted on March 21, 2012
I’ve been meaning to tell you something for awhile now. It’s going to be a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s better that you know now rather than later. Someone’s be spreading around this rumor, and it’s annoying as all get-out...

Unemployed? Now?s The Time To File Bankruptcy

Posted on March 10, 2012
Before the bankruptcy laws were “reformed”, my rule of thumb was not to file bankruptcy when you were out of work. For most folks, they had nothing that even a creditor who sued and got a judgment could take from them. Wait, I counseled, til things get better, til you know the worst is [...

Student Loans In Bankruptcy

Posted on November 08, 2011
At least the graduate in the picture has a job. Being that is involves wearing a chicken suit, it might not produce enough scratch to pay off his share of the more than $1 trillion dollars in student loan debt now owed in our country. (image credit dreamstime) The issue is no this site [...

Why Do-It-Yourself Bankruptcy Filing Is Like Buying Pills Without A Doctor

Posted on November 08, 2011
Just like the prescription for a medicine, the bankruptcy filing is part of the treatment plan. Unless you take the right drug, at the right time, in the right amount you risk a serious problem. With bankruptcy you only file in the right way, at the right time, with the right planning or you will risk a serious problem...

Not Sure If You Can File Bankruptcy Again?

Posted on November 07, 2011
You want to file bankruptcy but you are not sure if you are eligible to file again. There is a quick an easy way to see if you MIGHT be eligible to file and receive a discharge. On the top line of the image above choose the case that you have filed in the past...

File A Chapter 13 to Buy Time! (Even If You?re Not Insolvent!)

Posted on September 11, 2011
You can file for bankruptcy protection even if are not technically insolvent. The common definition of insolvency is the inability to pay one’s debts as they fall due. So, if you can pay some or most of your bills, you don?t fit the definition...

Engineer A Prison Break With Chapter 13

Posted on September 10, 2011
Anti debtor attitudes in the “reformed” bankruptcy law make Chapter 13 resemble debtor’s prison, claims my BLN colleague Carmen Dellutri. Let me counter that being in debt is itself debtor’s prison, and if the escape route out of debt has some rough spots, it’s still better to end up debt-free through Chapter 13...

Debtors Say Yes!! Trustee Says No!! Creditor Says Maybe? Court?s Decision? No reaffirmation of a lease in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy!

Posted on June 22, 2011
My colleague, Kurt O’Keefe, of Michigan, recently wrote regarding the difference between reaffirming a lease and reaffirming a secured loan on a vehicle. He stated throughout his article that a lease was a different type of animal – neither secured or unsecured and a lease can be assumed or rejected...

Repossession of Vehicle Allowed by Court after Chaper 7 Discharge without Reaffirmation

Posted on June 19, 2011
The Kansas Supreme Court recently ruled in Hall v. Ford Motor Credit Co. LLC, that a debtor’s failure to reaffirm a debt secured by his pick-up truck during his Chapter 7 bankruptcy constituted a default of his loan with Ford Motor Credit. The court found that the debtor’s Chapter 7 discharge significantly impaired the secured [...

Bankruptcy under Chapter 7 and chapter 13 ? what?s the difference??

Posted on May 08, 2011
Clients ask “What’s the difference between chapter 7 and chapter 13″? Sometimes, they call chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” or just “bankruptcy”. Sometimes they call chapter 13 “wage earner plan” or “debt settlement plan” or “debt adjustment”...

The Truth About Chapter 11

Posted on May 08, 2011
You may run an incorporated, or, unincorporated, small business. A corporation that wants to keep operating has to file for Chapter 11 to get bankruptcy relief. Individuals may file also; you do not have to be a corporation to file for Chapter 11. You may own and rent a bunch of houses, operate a store, [...

Beauty From Ashes Isiah 61:3

Posted on May 07, 2011
It is not uncommon that when one files for bankruptcy that they feel that their world comes tumbling down around them. In fact the feeling can become so overwhelming that thoughts of suicide may be present because they view bankruptcy as a direct result of their failures...

Property Divisions and Bankruptcy

Posted on May 07, 2011
What was an affordable property division while you were working may not be affordable after you’ve lost your job. Bankruptcy may help. A Chapter 13 discharge includes property division obligations incurred through a divorce, possibly even a pension division...

Accommodating the Deaf Bankruptcy Client in the Real World

Posted on May 06, 2011
It’s an unpleasant reality that some bankruptcy lawyers react to an inquiry from a potential bankruptcy client, who is a deaf person, with apprehension. The lawyer might view the prospect of running afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act, with its requirement of reasonably accommodating a deaf person’s disability, as a frightening thing which ought to [...

Interest Paid on Credit Card Debt in Chapter 13? Not in the 11th Circuit

Posted on May 01, 2011
Next to emergency threats like foreclosure or repossession, unmanageable high interest credit card debt functions as perhaps the most common problem that drives people into bankruptcy, especially in the Atlanta area (Atlanta cases are subject to 11th Circuit law case law)...

Has the Purpose of Bankruptcy Been Changed by the Supreme Court and Congress?

Posted on May 01, 2011
??What is the purpose of bankruptcy? Is it to take a debtor’s assets or future income and pay at least something back to creditors? Is it to give a debtor the opportunity for a “fresh start”? The US Supreme Court has recently decided that the purpose of the 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy law was to [...

What Should A Bankruptcy Case Cost?

Posted on March 18, 2011
Why is it that bankruptcy lawyers value their work so little that they rush to be the cheapest attorney in the Yellow Pages? Why do they meekly accept what the bench considers a “presumptively fair” fee? Why is eye popping quality not the hall mark of the consumer bankruptcy bar? The court adopted no-look attorney’s [...

How Much Does It Cost To File Bankruptcy?

Posted on March 13, 2011
“How much does it cost to file bankruptcy?” This is often the first thing that someone says to me when they call. What they want to know is the total cost for attorney fees and the filing fees. I understand why they ask me, because for someone in financial difficulty, the cost for filing bankrupty is [...

Income Tax Refunds In Bankruptcy

Posted on February 06, 2011
The answer to the question: What happens to my tax refund if I file bankruptcy is: it depends. Tax refunds received, after you file your case, have to be paid to the Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee, at least in the 6th Circuit, which covers Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, because the U...

Sausage, Guns and Cars: Bankruptcy Exemptions and Thoughts on the Legislative Process

Posted on February 06, 2011
Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made. John Godfrey Saxe, Daily Cleveland Herald (29 March 1869).[1] Previously, I have outlined the exemptions available to Virginia debtors in bankruptcy – property that a debtor gets to keep from the trustee...

Mortgage Modifications In Bankruptcy ? A New Wave Is Beginning

Posted on January 29, 2011
Recently, Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon has been speaking very loudly about the need for the current Congress to amend the Bankruptcy Code to allow cramdowns of first mortgages on primary homesteads. If you recall, the same proposal was attempted by Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois back in 2009...

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