Government is serious work. For it to work well, it requires lawmakers who take those responsibilities seriously. Making laws requires making choices and expressing values. The rest of us live with those choices. As a bankruptcy lawyer, I live day to day with the vindictive and creditor friendly choices the Congress made in 2005 when […]
Pay Your Debts Or Go To Jail?
What would you do if you got a tip there was an arrest warrant out because you hadn’t paid one of your bills? The right answer is “laugh”. In the US we don’t arrest people for owing money they can’t pay. Yet scammers are out in force, counting on you having slept through civics. Whether […]
Stay At Home Doesn’t Mean Get Left Behind At Retirement
Just because you don’t work outside the home doesn’t mean you can live on nothing in your old age. If you are married and your spouse has qualifying income, you can contribute to a spousal IRA. And you should. The IRA rules for a nonworking spouse are essentially like the rules for an employed person: […]
When Your STBX Files Bankruptcy: An Action Plan
Whether the news comes by phone or mail, the notice that your soon-to-be-ex spouse has filed bankruptcy can bring fear and confusion. You need some facts and a plan, now. So let’s look at how bankruptcy affects a non filing spouse and how to chart a course through a STBX bankruptcy case. Child support safe […]
California Bankruptcy Law Is All Our Own
California Bankruptcy law is a lot like a unicorn….appealing but imaginary. Instead, we have bankruptcy in California, where the landscape is shaped by community property; state exemptions, large mortgages, and the 9th circuit court of appeals. Like the Merced River cutting through the granite of Yosemite, those factors alter the bankruptcy landscape here. Community property […]
Separate Finances Doesn’t Protect Spouse From Financial Disaster
By keeping separate finances, this California couple thought they had insulated the wife from the financial woes of her entrepreneur husband. They didn’t share bank accounts nor credit cards while she carefully kept her distance from his business dealings. Her name was not on anything tied to his business. But “separate” isn’t enough to overcome […]
Do You Need To Reaffirm Your Home Loan After Bankruptcy?
Banks, most especially Wells Fargo, seem to relish denying refinance applications for debtors who didn’t reaffirm home mortgage in bankruptcy. You didn’t reaffirm your existing home loan, so we can’t refinance that debt, they chortle. Sometimes, the dig is even more painful (to me at least): your attorney didn’t do this right so you are […]
Facing Foreclosure, You Need A Plan B
Bankruptcy stops foreclosures, with certainty. It’s the surefire defense to a scheduled foreclosure sale. Then why do homeowners keep waiting til the day before the sale to find a bankruptcy lawyer? Most of the other ways to stop a foreclosure sale require either gobs of money or an agreement with the existing lender or a […]
Wage Garnishment Survival Guide
“Your wages have been garnished, ” reads the letter from your employer. Do nothing and twenty-five percent of your after-tax earnings will be sent to your judgment creditor. So, do something: keep reading this action guide for Californians subject to a wage garnishment. This guide has three parts: the short run guide for minimizing the hit […]
Which Bankruptcy Chapter Is Right For Me?
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 […]
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