Valuing your assets when filing out your bankruptcy schedules can be challenging. After all, what is a closetful of clothes or a garage full of tools worth? You are tempted to ask: why does it matter? Asset value matters in several different contexts in a bankruptcy case. Using the wrong measure of value or over-estimating […]
What’s The Income Limit for Filing Bankruptcy
Actually, there’s no income limit for filing bankruptcy. None, nada, no way. Instead, there’s the infamous means test, an awkward and complex formula, written by Congress, to identify individuals who are entitled to file Chapter 7. Not everyone has to take the means test. The means test doesn’s apply to individuals whose debt is primarily […]
Acing Bankruptcy’s Means Test For Those Over Median Income
Your future living expenses may be the key to passing the bankruptcy means test. Those who are under median income for their state have already passed the means test. Those over median income move on to the expense portion of the test to calculate whether they have more than the allowed disposable income. Most often, […]
How Much Is My Chapter 13 Payment
Intrigued by Chapter 13, but worried about how much your Chapter 13 payment might be? OK, let’s walk through what your payment must be by law and what you want that payment to cover to get a fresh start. Part of the power of Chapter 13 is that you write the plan, with the help […]
When Your Bankruptcy Discharge Doesn’t End Your Case
Isn’t my case over? I got my discharge. Why’s the bankruptcy trustee still hounding me?, my client asks. People who’ve filed bankruptcy are focused on the discharge as their goal. With their discharge in hand, they think it’s all over. They lose sight of the fact that the administration of a bankruptcy estate by the trustee runs on a parallel track to […]
What You Keep In Chapter 13
Just because debtors can keep their upscale trappings and their toys bought on credit doesn’t mean they should. Still, I share my colleagues excitement over the 9th Circuit’s recent decision in Welsh. The appeals court held that a debtor wasn’t guilty of bad faith in proposing a Chapter 13 plan that kept and paid […]
TImeless Wisdom Doesn’t Apply When Filing Bankruptcy
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”. It’s a time-tested bit of folk wisdom. But applying that kind of thinking to legal claims when you’re filling out bankruptcy schedules is foolish. Worse, it can get you booted out of court. Count your “chickens” Bankruptcy starts with a list of what you own and what you […]
What Your Signature On Your Bankruptcy Papers Really Says
Wish I had a buck for every time a client has told me, “Yes, I signed it, but I didn’t read it”. This is usually delivered as though the signature had no meaning if it wasn’t coupled with actual reading. Unfortunately, it isn’t so. Not true in commerce in general, and certainly not true when you […]
What You Left Out Of Your Bankruptcy Schedules
One of the first questions a bankruptcy trustee will ask you at the hearing in your bankruptcy case is: did you read the schedules before you signed them? The obvious, and expected, answer is YES. And if your answer is “yes”, then the trustee can conclude that you stand behind the information that the schedules […]
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