• Home
  • Bankruptcy in Brief
  • ABC’s of Bankruptcy
  • Considering Bankruptcy
  • True Stories
  • Chapter 13
  • Blog
  • About
  • TOC

Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

On The Bankruptcy Soapbox

The Soap Box
  • How bankruptcy works
  • Mortgage Matters
  • Consumer Rights
  • You & Your Lawyer
  • Small Business
  • Family Law

Bankruptcy Can Rewrite The Divorce Property Division

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy upsets divorce

The assets were divided in the divorce. The divorce was over. The house would go to Him, and he would pay Her $75,000 on stated terms. It was the end of a miserable stretch in their lives. Only it wasn’t. Before anyone recorded the judgment of dissolution (that’s Californian for “divorce”) laying out the division […]

Filed Under: Family Law, How bankruptcy works Tagged With: community property, divorce, MSA

Hold Or Fold? How To Decide If Filing Bankruptcy Is Right For You

By Cathy Moran

considering bankruptcy

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em; know when to walk away, know when to run… So goes the gambler’s advice to the young card player in the hit Kenny Rogers song. Hum along as we think about how we play our cards when we’re in debt: do you file bankruptcy […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights Tagged With: bankruptcy and poker, hold or fold

Vince Lombardi Is To Blame

By Cathy Moran

win-lose

Ever feel like you’re battling your mortgage lender for your life?  Or the life of your home? The unfairness and irrationality of mortgage servicing makes it easy to see the fight as one for your self worth.  Who is comfortable being a victim of incompetent and indifferent institutions toying with your life? I’m equally indignant. […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2016, home loan

Considering Going Out Of Business?

By Cathy Moran

ailing business

When the virus shutdown is over, ailing businesses must consider whether to continue.

Filed Under: Featured, Small business Tagged With: 2020, covid-19

Be Prepared When You File Bankruptcy Without Your Spouse

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy alone

The bankruptcy trustee’s question to the debtor was jarring:  “why didn’t your spouse file bankruptcy with you?” For starters, it was the only “why” question in an entire calendar of debtor hearings. Every other question began, “what”, or “do you have”, questions about assets and financial history. This question asked for the motivation of another […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2020

How Much Should You Pay To Get Out Of Debt?

By Cathy Moran

Shop for a bankruptcy lawyer, and you’ll end up wondering what bankruptcy should cost. When you’re flat broke and under pressure, cheaper sure looks better. If a lawyer will do your Chapter 7 for $600, what’s the point of paying $1000? Or even $2000? Like answers to many legal questions, it depends. Bankruptcy relief depends on […]

Filed Under: Before You File, You & your lawyer

Bankruptcy Filing Requires More Than Honesty

By Cathy Moran

get bankruptcy discharge

The discharge of debts you can’t pay is the goal of a bankruptcy filing. That discharge wipes out debts, making them forever unenforceable. Yet, it isn’t a slam-dunk that your bankruptcy case ends in discharge. The Bankruptcy Code lists 12 situations in which a debtor doesn’t get a discharge. Which is why my colleague Jay […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

Rising From The Ashes Of Financial Disaster

By Cathy Moran

phoenix rising from ashes

Life doesn’t end with bankruptcy. Bankruptcy doesn’t mean that the good times are all in the past. There’s the  future, too. Both the individual and society reap benefits from bankruptcy in ways that you may have missed. So, in my view, Jay Fleichman’s analysis of the bankruptcy of Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET and once […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy

Before You List Your Home For Sale: The Essential First Task

By Cathy Moran

Selling your home?   A letter to the servicer of your mortgage. You want full disclosure of what charges, fees, expenses and other “stuff” they want to collect from you when your sale closes. For all you know, they’ve stuffed your loan full of fees, not authorized by law or agreement, that pad their bottom […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017, mortgage servicing

What Happens To Liens In Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

liens in bankruptcy

Liens in bankruptcy have an uncertain fate. While most liens survive a bankruptcy discharge, some liens get wiped out. Think of mortgages, tax liens, and judgment liens. Each of them is a lien, but some get different treatment in bankruptcy. Some liens can even be reduced or eliminated . Lien basics A lien gives the […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2018

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • …
  • 69
  • Next Page »
Bankruptcy Basics

About The Soapbox

You’ve arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said “try”).

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions. We dig deeper into how to consider bankruptcy and navigate a bankruptcy case.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy Means Test

The bankruptcy means test has a fatal weakness in its attempt to keep people out of bankruptcy. Like so much recently, it's health care. It's health care, in the future, to be paid before your creditors get any money in your bankruptcy. It works because, in a logic that only Congress could employ, the means … Read more

More Posts from this Category

643 Bair Island Road
Suite 403
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (650) 694-4700
Phone: (650) 368-4700

Categories

All content copyright © Moran Law Group. All rights reserved.