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Information is power….become more powerful

By Cathy Moran

knowledge is power

In the information age, we’re inundated with information about bankruptcy. Some of it accurate and much of it nonesense or worse. Half the people who’ve filed bankruptcy wouldn’t dream of telling you about it, and those who do talk are as likely to spread outdated or erroneous information as accurate, relevant information. The more you […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2025

Debt Can Kill You If You Let It

By Cathy Moran

Debt is deadly. There is a straight-line connection between debt and health: the stress of too much debt erodes physical health. The single largest source of stress in the US, at least before COVID-19, is money. Or lack of money. Other potent sources of stress include work, the economy, family and relationships.  As a bankrutpcy […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured

How Long Does Bankruptcy Take?

By Cathy Moran

Every client filing bankruptcy asks that question: how long will bankruptcy take? Probably, the real question is “when will this be over?” Like so many questions in the law, the answer is “it depends.” From filing bankruptcy to discharge In a Chapter 7, filing to discharge is about four months;  in Chapter 13 it’s three […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

New California Homestead Numbers For 2025

By Cathy Moran

California homestead amount

It’s time to check out the California homestead numbers for 2025. The 2021 expanded California homestead not only brought the exemption closer to the real cost of housing, it provided for annual adjustments for inflation. The original legislation created a $300,000 floor on the exemption and a $600,000 cap for homeowners, based on the median […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2025, homestead exemption

Bankruptcy Questions Have Few Quick Answers

By Cathy Moran

The caller to my law office kept telling my assistant: I just want to ask Cathy a question. To which my assistant replied:  you need to first fill out our questionnaire and make an appointment. But I don’t want a meeting, I just want to ask a question. At which point, both sides of the call […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, You & your lawyer Tagged With: 2020

Resolve To Thrive In The New Year

By Cathy Moran

finances in new year

May I suggest a 2025 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. 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 […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2023, resolutions

The Secret Alternative To Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

alternatives to bankruptcy

Looking for the secret alternative to bankruptcy which will solve your debt problems without filing? Why not? Ads for debt settlement companies and do-it-yourself books always promise to reveal the tricks to make your bills vanish for pennies, without resort to bankruptcy. (Isn’t it interesting that these “secrets” are known only by people who want […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured Tagged With: 2016, bankruptcy alternatives, debt settlement

Smoke, Mirrors, And Budgets: Are You Missing Where Your Money Goes

By Cathy Moran

budget tricks

Budget tricks keep lots of us from seeing where our money goes. If you don’t know where it’s going, you don’t know whether your spending priorities are sound. As a bankruptcy attorney, I hear this alot: I can’t save anything because it takes every dollar I make just to get by. Sound like a description of […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: budgets, cost of living

5 Things To Do When You Have Been Sued

By Cathy Moran

The ring on the doorbell was a process server. Bingo!  You’ve been sued. Now what? Breathe deeply and work your way through this five step check list.  Then I’ll suggest some options. The details in this post are based on California law. The basic principles of notice, answer, and trial apply everywhere. Scout the territory […]

Filed Under: Debt Collection Rights, Featured Tagged With: garnishment, lawsuit, sued

Don’t Fall For Your Mortgage Lender’s Insurance

By Cathy Moran

lender home insurance

The mortgage lender’s property insurance does not leave you in good hands. No matter how much time it saves you. Your lender is not a good neighbor when it comes to insurance. When your home insurance lapses Somehow my client let her homeowners insurance lapse.  She wasn’t worried about it, she told me, because the […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: force-placed insurance, homeowners insurance

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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

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

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Phone: (650) 694-4700
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