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Lien Strips Live in Chapter 20

By Cathy Moran

Bankruptcy's Chapter 20

Twenty is my favorite number these days. The Oakland bankruptcy judges have ruled consistent with one another that lien stipping in Chapter 13 is allowed in a case where the debtor isn’t eligible for a discharge. Chapter 20 lives and thrives!! Before you run off to the law library looking for Chapter 20, I confess […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works, Real property & mortgages

Car Crazy In Bankruptcy Court

By Cathy Moran

Keep the car through bankruptcy

My client wants to keep paying on his car after bankruptcy. The lender wants my client to keep paying on his car after bankruptcy. Yet it took an afternoon in court for a hearing set by the judge on approval of my client’s reaffirmation agreement with the car lender to get everyone what they wanted. What […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works, True Stories Tagged With: bankruptcy, Car, Car After Bankruptcy, Car Payment, Reaffirmation Agreement, Repossession

Depressed Property Values & Valueless Liens

By Cathy Moran

Filing bankruptcy to eliminate an underwater lien is perfectly acceptable, says the 9th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. Whew! Sometimes the wave of hostility to debtors that resulted in bankruptcy “reform” in 2005 seems to continue to poison judicial attitudes toward my clients. The Lepe decision is refreshingly different and supportive. And provides a window of […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Even The Rich & Famous File Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

Highly paid and bankrupt

ESPN tweeted the names of some 60 professional athletes who have filed bankruptcy and asked which names surprised the Twittersphere. Included were Johnny Unitas,  Bernie Kosar, Mike Tyson, Dorothy Hamill, Gaylord Perry of my very favorite baseball team, and  Roscoe Tanner, from my very favorite university. While titillating reading, none of them surprised me. Bankruptcy is not […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy

Foreclosure And The Tax That Follows: What You Must Know

By Cathy Moran

The homeowner did the right thing:  faced with the threat of foreclosure, he called his tax professional in advance. He did the right thing that nearly produced the exceedingly wrong result. Because the tax pro asked the wrong question and  got the wrong result. The illusion of professional advice about taxation upon foreclosure almost cost my client […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages, Taxes

Skip Filing Your Tax Return And The Tax Lives Forever

By Cathy Moran

Tax Myth Saddles You WIth Tax Forever

It’s tax season and tax myths are everywhere.  Know what the most dangerous one is? If you can’t pay the tax on the return, you’ll escape collection action if you keep a low profile by not filing the return. I hear it repeatedly, each year, year after year.  And it’s wrong, over and over. Four […]

Filed Under: Taxes Tagged With: bankruptcy, discharge, tax return, taxes

Bankruptcy Alphabet: X is for oeX

By Cathy Moran

X is for OEX

I had to stretch, I admit,  for X in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. An OEX under California debtor/creditor law is an Order Of Examination that is issued when a creditor has a judgment.  It’s a tool for the creditor to find and collect his money.  The OEX allows the judgment creditor to eXamine the judgment debtor […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy, Strictly California

Bankruptcy Alphabet: W is for Wait

By Cathy Moran

W is for Wildcard, a bankruptcy exemption

W is for Wait in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. As in “Wait! Wait! Don’t file yet.” Timing a bankruptcy can be critical. Sometimes, the bankruptcy journey begins, not with a mad dash to the courthouse, but with a short wait. Having made the decision to get out of debt, why would you wait? Many reasons, most of […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy

Bankruptcy Alphabet: U Is For Unsecured

By Cathy Moran

Bankruptcy Alphabet: U is for Unsecured

    U stands for Unsecured debt in my Bankruptcy Alphabet.  Unsecured describes a  bankruptcy creditor who has no collateral to secure his debt. The world is full of pivotal distinctions:  male/female;  apples/oranges;  cold/hot.  The distinction between unsecured debt and secured debt is huge in bankruptcy. A secured creditor has a lien on the debtor’s […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy

Bankruptcy Alphabet: P is for Priority

By Cathy Moran

In Bankrptcy Alphabet, P is Priority

Priority is the P word in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. Priority is the order in which claims of creditors are paid in a bankruptcy case. While all people may be created equal, not so for claims.  Recent income taxes and unpaid child support are among the  priority claims that get paid first and in full before […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy

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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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