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4 Easy Tips To Prepare For Bankruptcy And Beyond

By Cathy Moran

ready for life after bankruptcy

Ready for life after bankruptcy? Even before your case is filed, you can start preparing for your life after bankruptcy. These four steps will probably  make the bankruptcy case be smoother, too. Change banks Your money on deposit in “your” bank may not be solely yours. If you have a loan or other debt to your […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy Tagged With: bankruptcy preparation

What Happens If You Don’t Pay Your Debts

By Cathy Moran

Overdue debts will not send you to jail. Please repeat:  overdue debts will not get you jailed. Yet it is disturbing how many people fear that not paying their debts is criminal and might land them in jail. Relax:  America abolished debtors’ prisons some 250 years ago. Can they put a lien on me? But jail is not […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

What Debts Were Discharged In My Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

After your bankruptcy, one of the hardest questions is figuring out just which debts were discharged. Eliminating debts was the whole point of filing bankruptcy. You’ve got a court order, but no list. You and your creditors understandably  expect to find a single document telling them what debts are no longer enforceable and which survive the bankruptcy. No such […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2016, California

Get A Bankruptcy Discharge Even Without Making All Your Payments

By Cathy Moran

You can get a Chapter 13 discharge even  without making all the plan payments you promised. There are hoops to jump through and facts to marshal to get that discharge, but it’s possible. The Bankruptcy Code provides for a hardship discharge in Chapter 13 to those whose failure to complete their plan is due to circumstances […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2017

What Causes Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

consider bankruptcy

I was playing in my head with a piece I was writing for consumers about the bankruptcy decision. I caught myself thinking about “whether the bankruptcy was caused by mortgage debt or ….” . And I hauled myself to a halt. How did the words “bankruptcy” and “cause” get linked in my head? In my […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights

Bankruptcy Debtors Entitled To Monthly Mortgage Statements

By Cathy Moran

monthly mortgage statement

Servicers must now send monthly mortgage statements to borrowers in bankruptcy under a new CFPB rule effective April, 2018.    Thus ends, we hope, years of uncertainty and indifference, rooted in the automatic stay and a homeowner’s ongoing obligation on their mortgage after bankruptcy. The earlier version of the rule, adopted in 2014, allowed servicers […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2018

California Garnishment Now Provides Greater Protection Of Wages

By Cathy Moran

Workers making close to the California minimum wage got additional protection from wage garnishments under a change in the law effective back in 2013. With the annual increases in the state minimum wage, in 2019 California law now protects an employee’s weekly net wages up to 40 times the state minimum wage, currently $11 to $12 […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Strictly California

Bouncing Back From Bankruptcy: The To-Do List

By Cathy Moran

Recovering from bankruptcy isn’t hard. You’ve hurdled the debt chasm and finished your bankruptcy case. There’s a fresh  start ahead. But where do you start on that fresh start? Consider this to-do list for bouncing back from bankruptcy. Keep on keeping on Whether your bankruptcy case was a Chapter 7, over and done in months, or […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2019, life after bankruptcy

Sloppy Mortgage Servicers Prey On Borrowers

By Cathy Moran

banks behaving badly

  Given the way they behave, you’d think mortgage servicers actually flew a pirate flag over their operations. They cash your check for the mortgage payment, then who knows what they do with it and what they credit it to. Outside of bankruptcy, screw ups in handling your payments are a breach of the contract […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017

What The Wild Things Teach Us About Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy fears overblown

I miss Maurice Sendak, the late author of children’s books. What does a book about a naughty child who adventures in a nighttime land of monsters have to do with being scared of bankruptcy? The last image in his signature book, Where The Wild Things Are, is my touchpiece for clients afraid to file bankruptcy. […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights

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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

Everyone gets $1M + bankruptcy exemption

Bankruptcy exemptions vary from state to state, but everyone gets an exemption of ~$1.75 M for money in an IRA. It's part of the Bankruptcy Code (section 522(n)) that applies to all filers, wherever they live. The exemption covers both classic, before-tax IRA's and Roth IRA's that are funded with after-tax dollars. … Read more

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