Business is my bankruptcy “B’ word.?? Business debt of the individual filing bankruptcy is dischargeable just as other personal debt. In Silicon Valley, the very innovation and risk taking that makes the Valley vibrant brings with it the risks of not making it in the marketplace.? Bankruptcy can be the “do over” vehicle freeing manpower…
In my bankruptcy alphabet,? “A” is for Assume. Clients assume all kinds of things, most of them incorrect, and invariably more horrific than the truth. People assume that ?they lose everything in bankruptcy. They assume that the court controls their finances. They assume they have to justify filing bankruptcy. They assume they”ll never get credit…
The median income for California families used in bankruptcy’s infamous means test has fallen.? The change is based on new U.S. Census Bureau figures. Those filing bankruptcy whose income is below the median are excused from the full-blown means test.? In fact, most individuals and families who are above median also qualify for bankruptcy, they…
I saw a? story this week about things that never go on sale ;? I would have put legal filing fees on that list, and I would have been wrong.? Or sort of wrong. Bankruptcy filing fees go up November 1.? Yes, the brokest among us must pay more for the privilege. So, one could…
Car lenders who finance car loans including the excess debt on a trade in lost some of their protected status in bankruptcy when the Supreme Court declined to review a? 9th Circuit decision;? Californians? will continue to benefit from the debtor friendly decision in Penrod, arising out of a San Francisco bankruptcy case. At issue…
I needed a vacation, badly. ?After a? long year launching Money Health Central, practicing bankruptcy law through the Great Recession, and teaching new bankruptcy lawyers at Bankruptcy Mastery, I was drained. ?Three weeks away sounded like Nirvana. I had three weeks in which I didn’t have to post a thing to the three or four…
“Being sent to collections” is a boogie man for businesses as well as for individuals, I learned this week. I was counseling a small business with lots of vendor debt.? We were looking for a strategy that could keep them in business.? When I suggested that management sort their payables into vendors they needed and…
It’s not the foreclosing creditor that really threaten California homeowners.? It’s the forces that follow, the junior lender and the tax man who can deliver the truly punishing blows to a family losing a home. Cut-off Junior Lienholders Californians enjoy the protection of the one action rule governing foreclosures.? It says that a creditor who…
When I tell a bankruptcy prospect to stop paying the credit cards and the bank lines of credit, they look at me as though I’d suggested they jump into shark infested waters. “But they’ll start calling me”, they wail.? “I’ll be sent to collection“, as though “collection” was a real place, with manacles dangling? and…
People are desperate to save their homes;? scammers are pleased to part them from their money. Two Bay Area men were convicted this week of foreclosure consultant fraud. The men took money from homeowners seeking loan modifications.? Sounds innocent enough, until you recall that California law prohibits anyone, even an attorney, from taking money in…
