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Loan Modification Excuses No Longer Good With Courts

By Cathy Moran

    Some excuses never seem to wear out. There seems to be no limit to the number of times a mortgage loan servicer can claim they haven’t received all the documents they need. Then, they base their denial of a loan modification on the borrower’s lack of responsiveness. Whether your mental image of the problem […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Why Tax Software Is Lousy Purchase

By Cathy Moran

Why pay for Turbo Tax or its competitors when, odds are, you can get it for free? Unless you like burning money. Seventy percent of American taxpayers qualify for free tax software. If your income was $62,000 last year or less, you can use commercial tax filing software for free through the IRS FreeFile program. […]

Filed Under: Taxes

My 7 Favorite Soapbox Posts Of 2014

By Cathy Moran

I tallied the readership’s favorite posts of the year and found the list far different than mine. So here’s the counter-list of my favorite posts of 2014, drawn from material first published this year. Most impactful appellate decision Welsh was decided in 2013, but I talked about it on Soapbox in 2014:  The Most Important […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Best Of 2014 On Bankruptcy Soapbox

By Cathy Moran

Here are the ten posts that most intrigued readers of Bankruptcy Soapbox in 2014. Some are new this year, and others are classics from earlier. In reverse order, the ten posts that spoke to you. 10. Six Rotten Reasons Not To File Bankruptcy   Mortgage law attorney Bill Purdy walks through the misguided reasons his clients […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Zombie Debt is Naughty, Not Nice

By Cathy Moran

Despite his bankruptcy discharge, my former bankruptcy client has just been bitten by naughty credit reporting, and the interim results aren’t nice. When several years passed since the bankruptcy, my client thought he’d caught and controlled the old and the inaccurate credit reporting. Four years after the discharge was entered,  a mortgage servicer has just […]

Filed Under: Life after bankruptcy, True Stories

When Stagnant Home Values Mean Huge Savings

By Cathy Moran

I thought the lien stripping ship had sailed. We are finally climbing out of the worst of the Great Recession and California real estate values are recovering. Turns out, I was wrong. It’s not too late to reduce your mortgage debt by tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, if you live where real […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Get Out From Under Student Loans In Half The Time

By Cathy Moran

Work full time for a governmental agency or non-profit, and you can discharge your federal student loans after 10 years of payments. Regardless of the balance. Tax free. And regardless of the job you hold in a qualifying employer. Rich man, poor man, Beggar man, thief. Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief ! Not sure about these […]

Filed Under: Student loans

California Restores Mortgage Debt Relief for 2013

By Cathy Moran

means test

California taxpayers who lost their home to foreclosure or a short sale in 2013 got a last minute tax break when the legislature extended favorable tax treatment for forgiven mortgage debt. The state law covers only sales or foreclosures occurring prior to January 1, 2014.  It mirrors but is less expansive than the federal law on […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Big Ocwen Payout To Victimized Homeowners

By Cathy Moran

servicer leaves money on table

Ocwen’s mortgage servicing failings will cost it big bucks. The Attorneys General of the states and the CFPB have reached a settlement with Ocwen regarding its misconduct as a mortgage loan servicer. Ocwen must provide $2 billion in principal reductions to borrowers, along with cash to those who were victimized in the course of a […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

What You Don’t Know (Yet) About Your Mortgage Loan

By Cathy Moran

mortgage tools for homeowners

The aftermath of  mortgage mess mess will be with homeowners  for as far into the future as we can see. Even those who held on to their homes can expect trouble. The “who’s got the note” theory of foreclosure defense that swept the rest of the country never made much headway in California. We are […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

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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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