Cathy Moran Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

Right To Support When Your Ex Files Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

Outrage is the usual reaction when a former spouse who owes you child support or alimony files bankruptcy.

It reinforces all those less-than-flattering thoughts you harbor about your ex.

But maybe that’s not the right reaction for two reasons, one old, one new.

One is old: support debts can’t be wiped out in bankruptcy.

The second reason is new: failure to pay support is grounds for dismissal of a bankruptcy case.

You may have levers that weren’t available to you before as a former spouse.

Unpaid support dooms reorganization

Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 are reorganization chapters of bankruptcy. The person filing for relief stays in possession of their assets and proposes a plan to solve their financial problems.

If you’re in financial trouble, it seems to offer the best of both worlds: you keep your stuff and get immediate protection from your creditors.

But there’s a condition. The debtor needs to stay current on support obligations that come due after he files the bankruptcy case.

Failure to pay domestic support obligations (the Bankruptcy Code’s catch phrase for alimony, spousal support, child support or family support) is ground for dismissal of the reorganization case, or conversion to Chapter 7, where a bankruptcy trustee takes control with an eye to liquidating assets.

That is just what happened in a case where I represented a spouse with an order for temporary support.

Husband had never paid on the support order before or after the the bankruptcy was filed.

Consequence: husband’s Chapter 11 case was converted to Chapter 7 because he failed to meet the terms of the family court support order. Section 1112 (b)(4)(P) lists failure to pay a domestic support obligation cause for conversion or dismissal of the case.

For this client, conversion has a second benefit: husband’s wages earned after conversion are not protected by the bankruptcy code. My client will be able to get an earnings withholding order to direct his future earning toward the unpaid support.

Support debts never dischargeable

No matter what chapter of bankruptcy is selected, the debtor cannot wipe out support obligations. Support is expressly made non dischargeable by 11 USC 523(a)(5).

If the bankruptcy case is one where payment is going to be made to creditors, support is the very first debt in line for payment. The distribution scheme in bankruptcy provides that a debt with priority gets paid in full before debts with lesser priority are paid.

You need to file a proof of claim, however, in order to be paid.

Property that the debtor is able to exempt from the claims of other creditors is not protected from claims for a domestic support obligation. 11 USC 522(c)(1).

The unanticipated benefit of a bankruptcy of the spouse ordered to pay support is that other, non support debts may get discharged. That leaves fewer creditors competing for payment with the support order.

So, things may not be so bad as they first seemed.

If you have an unpaid domestic support order and your ex files bankruptcy, get help from an experienced bankruptcy lawyer. You may have cards to play in this game.

How to make your divorce bankruptcy-proof

Dividing debts in divorce

Bankruptcy myths

California Homestead Exemption: The Truth Isn’t What You Think

By Cathy Moran

“They can’t take my house, whatever happens. Right?”

The young man in my office “knew” that the substantial equity in his home was exempt as a California homestead, even if he filed bankruptcy.

He “knew” that credit card debt was dischargeable.

And that “knowledge” lead to his conviction that , in bankruptcy, he could keep the house and ditch the credit card debt without payment.

Wrong.

In his mind, bits of legal truth got stitched together into a bankruptcy myth. Let’s piece together the truth.

California homestead

True: every California homeowner can claim a homestead in their principal residence. CCP 704.720

But: the homestead is limited to a certain amount of value. For the single guy sitting across my desk, that amount was $75,000. Equity in his condo in excess of that isn’t protected by the homestead.

Worse, the homestead is only effective against certain kinds of creditors. The tax liens that were of record for old tax years aren’t defeated by a state law homestead. So the tax liens remain enforceable. *

Credit card debt is dischargeable

True: unsecured credit card debt (not incurred by fraud) can be wiped out in bankruptcy.

But: the discharge speaks to whether the debt survives the bankruptcy and is enforceable afterwards. Being dischargeable doesn’t mean that creditors don’t share in the bankruptcy distribution.

Asset value matters in bankruptcy

True: every debtor can claim exemptions that protect the exempt amount from being paid out to creditors in the bankruptcy case.

But: the asset value not protected by an exemption is available to pay the claims of creditors, as far as that value goes. For most unsecured creditors, all they get from the debtor is their pro rata share of the non exempt property of the estate. Any unpaid balance is discharged.

Bankruptcy truths

So when the bits of the law my client got right are expanded and seen as a whole, any bankruptcy discharge was unlikely to result in paying less to his creditors. His house represented far more value than the debts, dischargeable and non dischargeable, that he owed.

Likely, in either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, his creditors would get 100% of their claims. In my view, any amount he might save in reducing the interest accruing on those claims to the bankruptcy interest rate would be eaten up by the legal fees to file the case, and the credit hit he would incur.

True story of huge savings on credit card debt

The one critical bankruptcy advantage might be the power of the automatic stay: if the mortgage lender threatened a foreclosure before he could cure the secured arrears, bankruptcy could stop foreclosure long enough to either propose a Chapter 13 plan, or arrange family help to keep the house.

* In Chapter 13, the homeowner could strip a tax lien down to the value of the home after all senior liens were subtracted. The stripped down lien would have to be paid in full through the plan. The balance of the tax lien would be treated as an unsecured claim.

Bankruptcy myths abound

Everything you need to know about the California homestead exemption

Who gets paid first in bankruptcy

Resolve To Thrive In The New Year

By Cathy Moran

May I suggest a 2020 New Year’s resolution? It doesn’t involve diets or workouts or commitments to huge personal transformation.

Take a hard look at your financial situation.

How much of your available income goes to paying existing credit card balances?

What expenses for health care, repair, or just household maintenance are you putting off?

What big dollar items are ahead?

What have you saved for retirement?

Consider whether a fresh financial start makes sense.

Just getting by

A life of minimum payments, minuscule bank accounts, and no retirement savings is a life fraught with financial danger. One illness or even a short stretch of unemployment can spell disaster.

Too often, my clients try to pretend that all is well if they can make the minimum payments on credit cards. They juggle no-interest offers to move money from card to card.

But debt remains and savings are postponed.

Paying off debt versus paying for old age

Take a look at a little exercise that contrasted paying off a modest credit card debt by making minimum payments with devoting the same about of money to retirement savings.

The results are mind boggling. Paying off $20,000 in credit card debt takes 37.5 years. Put the same money into an IRA for the same period and you have almost $316,000.

You can count on having less income in your old age than while you’re working. Take a look at your annual statement from Social Security and calculate how you are going to live on that amount.

The bankruptcy alternative

The secret bankruptcy alternative

Clients walk into my office hoping that I have a magic wand, The Alternative to Bankruptcy, that I can wave and allow them to solve the debt problem without bankruptcy. For most, there is no such secret, unknown cure to debt.

A university study done about 20 years ago found that one in 7 American families would be better off if they filed bankruptcy. At the time, about one in 17 families actually filed. My experiences over 40 years of practicing bankruptcy law suggest that the finding remains true today.

Fear or pride keeps far too many from the rational solution for a difficult situation.

Resolve to take a hard look at your long term financial health. It may be time to swallow your pride, file bankruptcy, and devote the energy now spent on managing debt to saving for the future and enjoying the present.

Is bankruptcy the right choice for you?

Pick the right bankruptcy chapter

How to interview a bankruptcy lawyer

Who To Pay When There’s Not Enough Money To Go Around

By Cathy Moran

If you can’t pay your bills, the squeaky wheel should NOT get the oil...

At least, not until you’ve assessed all the other demands for oil.

That’s a quaint way of saying that your decisions about which of your creditors to pay when you can’t pay everyone should not be based on who is on the phone.

The creditors who call you are the ones with few other tools in their toolbox to collect the money you owe.

They hope to get you to write them a check for money they can’t easily get any other way.

Just because they squeak, doesn’t mean they should get paid first.

Important creditors don’t need to call

The debt collector on the phone certainly feels like he has invaded your sanctuary. Life is challenging enough without your money problems interrupting home life.

You are tempted to do anything to get them off the phone. Or keep them off the phone to friends and family.

But the creditors that really matter don’t bother calling.

The taxing authorities just levy your accounts.

The mortgage creditor schedules a foreclosure.

The car lender repossesses the car.

The ex spouse gets you cited for contempt for not paying support.

These creditors have real weapons, and those weapons aren’t the telephone.

Get them to leave you alone

You have a federal right to have debt collectors stop calling you.

State law may give you other rights not to be contacted.

Write a do-not-contact letter, keep a copy, and send it return receipt requested.

The squeaking should stop. Then start prioritizing.

Who to pay first

It’s your checkbook. You take control.

Take care of current living expenses first. Short the landlord and you’ll be homeless. Miss the car payments and you can’t get to work.

I’ve seen too many people tinker with their tax withholding to create cash flow to pay credit card bills. They have effectively made the toothless credit card creditor happy at the expense of taunting the big dog, the IRS.

Rest assured, the IRS has more collection rights than a credit card company.

Make a plan and stick to it.

Hands off the retirement money

It’s tempting, if you’ve been wise enough to set money aside for retirement, to dip into that fund to get out of today’s money jam.

Don’t do it.

Retirement funds are precious and almost everyone I talk to has saved far too little. The older you are, the less time you have to restore what you’ve already saved, when you should be adding to that store.

Your creditors can’t take your retirement savings; don’t you do it for them.

If the money doesn’t go around

Get help. Get input from a credit counselor or a bankruptcy attorney.

Find out what your options are. Get objective advice on a long range plan.

Don’t let the threats on the phone tell you how to manage your money.

Understand the weapons of a debt collector

Assess the threats of collectors: most aren’t real

Images courtesy of Erich Ferdinand , Flickr and Tindaisies. and Pixabay.

Best New Bankruptcy Insights Of 2019

By Cathy Moran

As we wave goodbye to 2019, we asked what issues grabbed you in 2019? Or, at least, what bankruptcy issues caught your attention?

So, we tallied the traffic numbers from this calendar year and assembled this list of the top 10 new posts here on Bankruptcy Soapbox in 2019.

Take a look, and see if any of the subjects surprise you.

Guest posts shine

I had more than a little help from my professional friends this year. No less than four of the top 10 new posts were guest posts from the guys I regularly brainstorm with.

They killed it.

2. Wayne Silver spoke to creditors of PGE, whose Northern California Chapter 11 touched us all.

6. Avoiding the tax on debt that you guaranteed when it tanks occupied tax lawyer Bill Purdy.

7. Bankruptcy lawyers are heroes according to mortgage broker Bob Schuman, a veteran of loans to bankruptcy debtors.

10. Bill Purdy returned with some ugly news about new taxes on consumer litigation recoveries.

Two changes in bankruptcy law

The number 1 new post in 2019 reported on new California exemptions available in bankruptcy. Dollar amounts of most exemptions are adjusted for the cost of living every three years. We got our California upgrade in April, 2019.

The feds adjust their dollar figures every three years, too. The number 3 most popular new post dealt with increases to the debt limits for Chapter 13.

Four from atop the Soapbox

The four remaining powerhouse posts dealt with the nuts and bolts of bankruptcy.

Two posts looked at issues tied to the decision to file bankruptcy.

The number 5 post addressed the dangers in do-it-yourself bankruptcy software. Although it was developed by Harvard Law grads and had a noble purpose, it flunked out when it made a fundamental error about the means test.

Number 9 on the list recalled crunching the numbers for a client in deep financial trouble who questioned why a 100% Chapter 13 plan was worth it. By my calculations, it was worth it $20,000 worth.

The final two posts in this group came in at 4 and 8 and looked at life after bankruptcy.

Number 4 revisited the duel between IRS form 1099, issued by creditors for cancelled debt, and the Bankruptcy Code. Spoiler: the Bankruptcy Code wins, and there is no income tax on debt discharged in bankruptcy.

Our final heavyweight looked at bouncing back from bankruptcy. I constructed a to-do list for those who’ve gotten their discharge and face life after bankruptcy.

Winners in order

Slicing our best-of-the-year new posts another way, here they are in order:

Happy New Year!

2019 Reader Favorites From Bankruptcy Soapbox

By Cathy Moran

It’s always fun to see which posts spoke to readers of Bankruptcy Soapbox during the year.

There’s lots to choose from. After all, we touch on law, personal finance, small business issues, and some just basic matters of operating in this economy.

Here, starting with number 10, and working up to your favorite post, are the most-read posts this year.

10. Five Ways To Make Your Divorce Bankruptcy-Proof

Chapter 13 allows the discharge of debts to a former spouse not available in Chapter 7. Five tactics to consider during the divorce that reduce the chance that bankruptcy changes everything.

9. When Chapter 13 Endangers Both Your House and Your Discharge

An alarming trend in bankruptcy cases has judges blocking the discharge of debtors who’ve fallen behind on their mortgage payments after they filed their Chapter 13 case.

8. Realtor’s Guide To Home Sales In Bankruptcy

Probably the longest post on Soapbox walks real estate professionals through the maze of concepts and rules that apply when a homeowner in bankruptcy needs to sell real estate.

7. Are You Really Liable For Your Spouse’s Debts In California?

California law is tricky about the liability of one spouse for the other’s debts. The short answer is “no”, but it’s complicated.

6. What Does Bankruptcy’s 90 Day Rule Really Say?

Everyone knows about the 90 day rule in bankruptcy, only there are at least 90 different, and wrong, versions of what the preference rule really requires.

5. Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy Means Test

Perfectly legal ways to think about your future reasonably necessary expenses that get you a “pass” on the means test.

4. How To Spot Post Bankruptcy Errors On Your Credit Report And Fix Them

Guest author Mike Cardoza walks you through what can and can’t appear on your credit report after you’ve discharged your debts in bankruptcy and coaches you on correcting mistakes.

3. 7 Principles of California Community Property

A perennial favorite unravels the actual operation of California’s community property system, in bankruptcy and out in the rest of the economy. A must-read for married folk.

2. How To Spend Money Before Your Bankruptcy Case Is Filed

It pays to plan. Because bankruptcy has rules, written and unwritten, about debtor behavior before the case is begun, we’ve set out both the what to spend money on and how to spend it to stay out of trouble.

1. California Homestead, Portrait of a Super Hero

Again this year, our explanation of how exemptions work to protect big value in a family home was the most read post of the year, more than three times the traffic of the second place post.

Retirement Nest Egg: Ostrich Egg Or Quail Egg?

By Cathy Moran

Will my retirement nest egg be enough to live comfortably when I’m done working?

Living will be slow and my needs will be simple.

I look at the growth in my retirement savings, the cost of “things”, and my life expectancy, and wonder if my savings are sufficient to buy what I’ll need.

But, turns out, the analysis is far more complicated.

What I didn’t realize until very recently is that steady inflation is a GOAL of federal monetary policy. Each year, the Fed wants to see 2% inflation.

Policy makers think that 2% inflation represents a good balance between price stability and employment.

If the Fed gets it right and inflation is a steady 2%, the hurdle for my retirement savings just got higher.

In the course of just ten years of my retirement, what cost $100 today will cost $122 at the end of the decade. And $164 in 25 years.

This assumes that inflation rates do just what economists want them to do.

How often does that happen, I ask you? [Read more…]

Pay Down Debt Or Save? Which Should Come First

By Cathy Moran

Pay off debt first or start saving now?

It’s a debate almost as convoluted as which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Experts heatedly take opposite sides.

You get rid of debt faster if you put all available cash into paying off balances.

BUT

You have no reserves for the unexpected if you spend everything that comes in.

After much thought, and triggered by new research, I’ve got my answer.

Start saving now.

I am convinced habits are more powerful than arithmetic.

Pay debts first is cheaper

In a world where your savings earn 1 or 2% annual interest, while credit cards cost 15-25%, it’s clear your net worth benefits from paying debt first.

The biggest bang for your buck, dollars and sense wise, comes from paying off debt.

Unless, of course, you have an unexpected expense and find yourself without funds to pay. Then, short term borrowing is usually on even worse terms than credit cards.

But, hang arithmetic, I say.

Your balance sheet isn’t everything.

Habits drive the bus

Get the savings habit. Even when you’re in debt.

Put a bit of your income aside every paycheck.

Dictionary.com says a habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary:

Habits control as much as 40% of our daily activities.

Most of us have a bad habit on the subject of savings: we label saving as something we can put off til later.

Later

When there are fewer demands on our money.
When our income has increased.
When the kids are grown
When the house paid off.

Whatever it it, we’ve created a habit of thinking that savings can wait til later. That saving will be easy at some future time, whereas it’s hard now.

Only for most of us, no matter what life benchmark we’ve passed, savings never looks easy. Or immediately rewarding.

So, it’s not easy. It’s just essential.

Essential for a stable financial life.

Start small building savings habit

You don’t have to jump head first into the gold standard “set-aside of 10-20% of your income.”

If you’ve got debts from your past, it’s probably not really feasible.

Start small. Save $30 bucks a month this month.

Save $35 next month. And so on.

Pay down your debts, but cultivate that saving habit.

Don’t allow yourself to think that saving is discretionary. That’s a nasty habit.

Yes, saving while you’re paying interest on old debts slows your climb out of debt.

But the savings habit gets stronger.

As your debt shrinks, your rate of savings can increase.

Along with your peace of mind.

That’s where I come down on which comes first: paying off debt or savings.

It’s not one or the other.

Smoke, mirrors, and budgets

Update your money software

The most powerful debt management tool: not what you think

Debts You Can’t Wipe Out In Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

Nineteen kinds of debt survive a bankruptcy discharge: but three stand out from the rest.

Those three exceptions to discharge look, not at the kind of debt such as taxes, or support or student loans. Rather the exceptions look at how the debt arose.

These exceptions prevent bad actors from escaping the consequences in bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is supposed to help the honest but unfortunate person.

There’s another, significant difference: a creditor who holds one of these claims has to act, promptly, to except his claim from discharge.

The creditor has to file a timely challenge to the discharge of its debt.

And then, carry the burden of proof at trial. The debtor gets a presumption that the debt is dischargeable.

So, what kind of bad behavior may keep a debt from being discharged?

Fraud is first

Debts that are created as a result of fraud, misrepresentation or false pretenses aren’t subject to being wiped out. That’s §523(a)(2).

Note that the exception looks at the transaction at its begining. The statute focuses on money, property, services to the extent obtained by fraud.

While the debtor may have behaved badly after a debt was created. that bad behavior doesn’t exclude the debt from discharge.

There’s another wrinkle. If the alleged false statement is one about the debtor’s financial condition, that statement must be in writing to preclude discharge.

Breach of fiduciary duty survives

The second clutch of bad behaviors that can’t be discharged involve breach of fiduciary duty, embezzlement and larceny. §523(a)(4).

Embezzlement and larceny, which is a kind of theft, are easy to understand. But not so, fiduciary duty. Bankruptcy law has a narrow definition of who is a fiduciary.

For breach of fiduciary duty to be nondischargeable, the duty must arise under an express trust. So trusts that are created by law to further equity or prevent undue enrichment don’t fall under this subsection.

One of the first judges I practiced before used to say that under California law, everyone is a fiduciary for everyone else. But not in his federal court.

Willful and malicious injury gets no discharge

Debts grounded in intentional injury to person or property live on after bankruptcy. Section 523(a)(6)makes non dischargeable debts for willful and malicious injury by the debtor to another entity or to the property of another entity;

There’s a huge body of law tussling with the meaning of “willful” and “malicious”. And the plot thickens when you realize that the protections for creditors created by this subsection is greater in Chapter 13 than in Chapter 7.

In Chapter 13 a debt for damages for personal injury is non dischargeable if it results from either willfulness or malice! Damage property willfully or maliciously and you’re OK in Chapter 13.

Timing is everything

There’s a timing issue for both creditors and debtors in these three discharge exception cases.

Debtors facing state court litigation may want to file bankruptcy before trial of the matter. Findings of fact made in a state court trial will be entitled to finality in a bankruptcy trial.

So, suffer an adverse finding in state court and you’re stuck with that finding in bankruptcy.

But since the standards of what is fraud or false representations is slightly different in federal law than in state law, you may have a dispute about whether the finding is really on the same issue that the bankruptcy court is focused on.

It may be cheaper to try the issue once, in bankruptcy court, than risk having to defend yourself twice in state court, then bankruptcy court.

Creditors must be diligent once a bankruptcy case is filed, to meet the filing deadline for challenging the discharge of their debt. Generally, the bankruptcy court sets a deadline 60 days after the date set for the first meeting of creditors by which challenges to dischargeability must be filed.

Miss that deadline for one of these kinds of debts and you’re out of luck. The debt will be discharged regardless of the merits of the challenge you could have brought to exclude it from discharge.

How bankruptcy treats debts to the government

What happens to judgment liens in bankruptcy

Does a bankruptcy discharge last forever?

Which Bankruptcy Chapter Is Right For Me?

By Cathy Moran

Seven or Thirteen?

13 or 7?

When you have a choice, how do you decide which chapter of bankruptcy works best?

Usually, the choice is driven by the scope of the discharge and the kind of debts you have.

More kinds of debts are dischargeable in Chapter 13 and the automatic stay protects you for the 60 month duration of the case.

So why did the client this week choose to walk out of Chapter 7 with fewer debts discharged than if he’d chosen 13?

It’s all about his future. And who will get to share in his growing earning capacity.

Chapter 7 over Chapter 13

On the surface, this client seemed a great candidate for Chapter 13, which is my favorite bankruptcy chapter.

Some of his debts were only dischargeable in Chapter 13; in Chapter 7, he’d emerge still owing some debts from a divorce.

So why choose the smaller discharge?

Because his earnings were likely to double or triple over the life of a Chapter 13 case.

If that happened, we anticipated that a Chapter 13 trustee would move to modify his payment plan to pay more to general unsecured creditors.

Credit card debt, which would get nothing in a Chapter 7, might well get a substantial repayment from his increased earnings.

He’d pay fewer dollars paying the non dischargeable debt that survives a Chapter 7 directly than he would paying in a larger slice of his paycheck to all of his creditors in a Chapter 13 plan.

Chapter 13 after confirmation

Judges approve Chapter 13 plans based on the situation when the bankruptcy case is filed. The means test looks at recent income. The liquidation test looks at non exempt assets at filing.

For this client, each of those numbers was modest and a repayment plan would be relatively cheap.

But Chapter 13 involves committing your future income to the supervision of the Chapter 13 trustee.

Now, that supervision is pretty minimal: it usually means the trustee monitors your tax returns to see in your income has increased.

If there’s a significant increase, the trustee can file a motion with the court proposing increased monthly payments going forward.

The debtor gets to respond with updated expense schedules, and if the parties can’t reach a deal, a judge decides whether payments change.

In the Bay Area, this happens very infrequently. I’ve seen it less than a half dozen times in 20+ years of doing lots of 13’s.

But it can happen, and for this client, it seemed quite likely that a new job in his usual profession would dramatically increase his income.

Chapter 7 looks at today

If Chapter 13 is a years long process, Chapter 7 is a single event.

The rights of the debtor and the creditors are determined by the situation on the day the case is filed.

If the means test says that Chapter 7 is an option, then the creditors get only what the debtor owns at the filing of the case.

And what the creditors share in is only what’s left after the debtor chooses his exempt property. Most Chapter 7 cases make no distribution to creditors.

Future income belongs to the debtor. The Chapter 7 trustee can’t come back a year later and ask for a slice of a larger paycheck.

So, much to my surprise, when we looked at this client’s current situation and his prospects, the more limited discharge was a better deal than Chapter 13.

He’ll get to enjoy a larger share of his future earnings and a fresh start.

Cheat sheet for passing the means test

Figuring what you pay in Chapter 13

How to make your divorce bankruptcy-proof

When your ex files bankruptcy

Dividing debts in divorce

Unpaid support dooms reorganization

Support debts never dischargeable

More

California homestead

Credit card debt is dischargeable

Asset value matters in bankruptcy

Bankruptcy truths

More

Just getting by

Paying off debt versus paying for old age

The bankruptcy alternative

More

Important creditors don’t need to call

Get them to leave you alone

Who to pay first

Hands off the retirement money

If the money doesn’t go around

More

Guest posts shine

Two changes in bankruptcy law

Four from atop the Soapbox

Winners in order

10. Five Ways To Make Your Divorce Bankruptcy-Proof

9. When Chapter 13 Endangers Both Your House and Your Discharge

8. Realtor’s Guide To Home Sales In Bankruptcy

7. Are You Really Liable For Your Spouse’s Debts In California?

6. What Does Bankruptcy’s 90 Day Rule Really Say?

5. Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy Means Test

4. How To Spot Post Bankruptcy Errors On Your Credit Report And Fix Them

3. 7 Principles of California Community Property

2. How To Spend Money Before Your Bankruptcy Case Is Filed

1. California Homestead, Portrait of a Super Hero

Pay debts first is cheaper

Habits drive the bus

Start small building savings habit

More

Fraud is first

Breach of fiduciary duty survives

Willful and malicious injury gets no discharge

Timing is everything

More

Chapter 7 over Chapter 13

Chapter 13 after confirmation

Chapter 7 looks at today

More

Categories