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DYI Bankruptcy Did Him In

By Cathy Moran

For a layman filing a bankruptcy without a lawyer, he didn’t do too badly. He got credit counseling and filed the certificate. He completed the schedules fairly well. He even filed a pro se adversary proceeding to enforce the automatic stay when the foreclosure on a multi million dollar property went forward despite the bankruptcy. […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, True Stories, You & your lawyer

10 Must-Know Things About Money Judgments

By Cathy Moran

judgment at law

What does it mean when a money judgment is entered against you in a lawsuit? It’s not the end of the world, but it has serious financial repercussions. Here are 10 critical things you need to know about legal judgments. More What to do when you’ve been sued Fighting a wage garnishment Protecting your assets […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

7 Keys To Keeping Your House: Chapter 13 After You File

By Cathy Moran

keep the house

You filed filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy to keep your house and stop the foreclosure.  You’ve protected your home, for the moment. Bankruptcy gets you a sheltered legal environment to address the problems with your mortgage. You heave a sigh of relief. But the fight to keep your house isn’t over, just because there’s a stay.  […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2019, chapter 13, keep the house

Don’t Let Your Bank Pick Your Pocket

By Cathy Moran

The right of your bank to take your money when you aren’t looking stops at your credit card. Your bank may be entitled by common law to setoff what it owes you from what you owe it on the garden variety debt. But the federal Fair Credit Billing Act  forbids a bank who has issued you a […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2015, credit card

Debt Actually Makes You Stupid

By Cathy Moran

It’s easy to tell ourselves that getting into debt was stupid. Maybe, maybe not. Lots of debt happens without making bad decisions.  Think of medical bills. Natural disasters.  Divorce. But regardless of how you got in debt, there’s more bad news. Just being in debt makes you stupid. Stupid, as in, your IQ goes down […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured

Who Cares About Your Spending Before Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

spending before bankrutpcy

Worried about using credit cards before bankruptcy? Afraid of prejudicing your bankruptcy case by spending money before you file? Do you imagine some authority figure deciding that your financial behavior in the run-up to bankrupcy bars you from relief? Take a deep breath. That’s not how it works. Let’s look at what matters and what […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2024, 341, bankruptcy trustee, credit cards, first meeting

It Takes More Than Bankruptcy To Save Your House

By Cathy Moran

California homestead

Protecting your house from foreclosure ranks high on the list of reasons people file Chapter 13. The automatic stay stops foreclosures; Chapter 13 gives you time to fix the problem. Powerful stuff. But the stay and more time, alone, aren’t enough to save the day if you run afoul of other rules, written and unwritten, […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2018

How to get copies of your bankruptcy papers

By Cathy Moran

get bankruptcy papers

When you need to get copies of your bankruptcy papers, there’s a long line of people ready to rip you off. I mean, really rip you off. I’d list the companies prepared to overcharge you, but I don’t want to give them any more visibility than they already have. You may need to get bankruptcy […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

California’s Good Deed: Passing Real Property At Death

By Cathy Moran

property upon death

The horror stories about do-it-yourself estate planning are both plentiful and tragic. Between the fear of probate and the fear of legal fees, inventive people invent inexpensive strategies for passing property to the next generation. Adding someone to the deed is the most common one I see. It works like this: in order to see […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2017, estate planning

Means Test Expense Form 122A-2

By Cathy Moran

Get the form Here’s the link to the official form used by over-median income debtors to calculate the expense portion of the means test. Use this as a guide to the future expenses you expect to incur when assessing your eligibility for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Filed Under: Means test

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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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