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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

TImeless Wisdom Doesn’t Apply When Filing Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”.  It’s a time-tested bit of folk wisdom. But applying that kind of thinking to legal claims when you’re filling out bankruptcy schedules is foolish. Worse, it can get you booted out of court. Count your “chickens” Bankruptcy starts with a list of what you own and what you […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

Find The Right Cure for Your Debt Problems

By Cathy Moran

get out of debt

Get-out-of-debt advice and sales pitches abound. But too few get-out-of-debt gurus tell you that you need a diagnosis of your financial ills before prescribing the cure. Is the stomach ache indigestion or appendicitis? Is it temporary upset or life threatening? The answer makes a big difference in how you treat it. No single prescription for […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2019, get out of debt

Get Rid Of Liens On Your Home

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy superpower

Bankruptcy gives you a super power: you’re able to remove liens on your home, for good. You can’t wipe out every kind of lien. But bankruptcy law allows you to invalidate judicial liens that attach to your home and invade any exemption you are entitled to. The power is available to individuals in any chapter […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

How Filing Bankruptcy Can Benefits Your Heirs

By Cathy Moran

Elders in California enjoy enhanced state exemptions that protect them from debt collectors. Those protections often make it unnecessary for a debt-laden senior to file bankruptcy. But no one talks about one consequence of relying on exemption law to fend off creditors. California exemption laws that  fully protect the assets of seniors provide no protection to the heirs. […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Strictly California

Can Debt Discharged In Bankruptcy Come Back To Haunt You?

By Cathy Moran

debt discharged in bankruptcy

Can debt bankruptcy in bankruptcy come back to haunt me? Worried clients ask me this all the time, fearful that the relief they get from their creditors in bankruptcy is only temporary. The short answer is no. The automatic stay that stops collectors when you file bankruptcy is replaced, at the end of the case, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy Tagged With: after bankruptcy, debt collectors, discharge

Bankruptcy Alphabet: R is for Retirement

By Cathy Moran

R for Retirement in Bankruptcy Alphabet

In my bankruptcy alphabet, R stands for Retirement. Retirement plans and IRA’s are safe in whatever chapter of bankruptcy you file. Your rights in an employer’s pension plan or a union pension plan are not even part of the property of your bankruptcy estate.  The Supreme Court held almost 20 years ago that ERISA qualified […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy, How bankruptcy works

Get real information about what’s happening with your mortgage loan payments

By Cathy Moran

What have they been doing with my payments on mortgage loan? The client has been making a mortgage payment according to the HAMP formula for almost 18 months of her Chapter 13. Yet without a 1098 form, her very capable tax preparer told her she couldn’t deduct mortgage interest on her tax return. Never fear. We have […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages, Taxes Tagged With: loan payments, QWR, request for information

Bankruptcy Changes Your Life, Only Not The Way You Think

By Cathy Moran

life after bankruptcy

How will filing bankruptcy change my life? My clients ask all the time.  They imagine the remainder of their life after bankruptcy with neither credit cards nor credit.  Outcasts in our economy.  Shunned by all.  Crippled by bankruptcy. They can see a scarlet “B” tattooed on their foreheads to mark them forever as Bankrupts. My […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy Tagged With: 2017, life after 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

How One Family Settled Huge Debt For Pennies

Almost everyone wants to settle debt rather than file bankruptcy. But how about settling debt using bankruptcy? Here's how one family pulled it off. When they started the Chapter 13 trek, they owed $370,000 in personal loans and credit cards. As they completes the plan, they will have settled that debt for … Read more

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