Pstt! Homeowners. Bankruptcy Lawyers. We’ve been handed a new tool for dealing with problems with mortgage lenders. Or maybe the courts are just showing us how to use some tools we’ve accumulated. Tools to make sure that homeowners who emerge from Chapter 13 are right and square with their mortgage lender. Scott v. Caliber (Bankr. […]
All Star Soapbox Posts For 2017 – The Readers’ Favorites
We’re half way through the year here on the Bankruptcy Soapbox. Let’s take an All Star break and single out the best performing posts so far this year. Strikingly, the team is all veterans. Not a single post written in 2017 cracked the top ten. Nor did the two topics that animate me the most, […]
Tax Trap When You Settle Debts Outside Of Bankruptcy
Debt settlement has a hidden tax consequences no one ever discusses. If you own a home, debt settlement can bite you in the asset down the road. That’s because debt forgiven outside of bankruptcy gets deducted from the basis of your home. Result: more potentially taxable capital gains on sale. That’s the killer reason […]
Homestead Law Little Protection For California Seniors
Home equity makes up most of the net worth of California seniors. Most are house poor. Lots of equity, little in liquid assets. But unless you take a very expensive reverse mortgage, that equity may as well be under lock and key. You can’t pay the monthly expenses from value in real estate. When expenses […]
Google & Me
Google and BankruptcyInBrief share a birthday, I’ve learned. I’m sure you saw the similarities in a flash. The Mercury News reports that Google was founded in 1998, the same year I bought a book and set out to make a web site about bankruptcy. I knew nothing about programming, and less about web design. But I knew that […]
Bankruptcy Alphabet: D is for Discharge
“D” is for discharge in my bankruptcy alphabet. Getting a discharge of debts is the goal of most bankruptcies. The discharge is the court order, issued at the conclusion of a case, that wipes out the filer’s personal liability for most debts that existed when he began the case. Not everything is discharged. The Bankruptcy […]
Drive-in bankruptcy?
We got a call about three o’clock the other afternoon from someone who wanted to come in that afternoon and file bankruptcy that day. When my partner hesitated, the caller responded, “Well , you are open now aren’t you?” I had a mental image of one of those parking lot, drive up coffee vendors, selling […]
Discharged Debts Don’t Bar Chapter 20 Lien Strip
Underwater liens that linger after an earlier bankruptcy don’t count in Chapter 13. At least, they don’t count against the unsecured debt limit that restricts entry into Chapter 13, says the 9th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel in Free. Great news for homeowners for whom Chapter 13 was not initially available because they exceeded the debt limits. […]
Four Essential Habits For Successful Entreprenuership
Starting out in business for yourself? Congratulations. Small business, and businesses that were once small, form the tapestry of our economy. I’ve run my own small business for coming 40 years and my favorite clients in my business are other small business people. But, in the euphoria and exhaustion of starting up, don’t put off doing […]
Couple Beats Big Banks Who Ignored Bankruptcy Discharge
A couple of banks found out that it’s expensive to ignore the bankruptcy discharge. For a change, money will flow from banks to my clients. Because even a bank can’t just do business as usual when their borrower files bankruptcy. Equally important, the judge recognized, in dollars, the emotional costs to debtors when their discharge is ignored. […]
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