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Why Bankruptcy Cases Go Down The Drain

By Cathy Moran

failed bankruptcy

I  watched dozens of Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases get dismissed in a single afternoon in court recently. Dismissed. Tossed out. Ended. The usual reason was that the debtor had not taken seriously the requirement that all their tax returns be filed within 45 days of the commencement of the case. Regardless of the debtor’s need […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works Tagged With: dismiss case, file, tax returns

Ten Essential Nuggets For Creditors in Bankruptcy Notice

By Cathy Moran

You’re looking at bankruptcy official form B9. It arrived in your mail because someone has filed bankruptcy and listed you  as a creditor on the schedules of a newly filed bankruptcy case. Most likely, the debtor owes you money or you have an open claim of some sort against the bankrupt. Your rights against the debtor […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

6 Things You Need To Know About The California Homestead

By Cathy Moran

California homestead

California’s homestead exemption is the Super Hero of the exemption world. While other exemptions protect things worth a thousand dollars here and a couple of thousand there, the homestead protects big bucks.  Starting January 1, 2021, the homestead for every homeowner is at least $300,000 and as much as $600,000, depending on countywide home prices. […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2016, exemption, homestead

Why Your Mortgage Lender Won’t Send Statements After Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

Lists of stupid laws are lots of fun, when they don’t really touch your life. But the law that gags mortgage lenders after bankruptcy isn’t funny. Preventing lenders from sending mortgage statements to homeowners after bankruptcy just sets families up for foreclosure and rewards servicers with the fees that follow default. It’s just a stupid […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages, True Stories

What Litigators Need To Know About Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

Civil litigation often decides who owes what to whom.  Bankruptcy law can impact ongoing litigation and what happens thereafter to those who owe.  And to those to whom money is owed. So it behooves litigators to have a good grasp on how bankruptcy works. If you’re defendant’s counsel, you want to assess your client’s options should […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2018, lawsuit, litigation

Don’t Get Fleeced At The Car Dealership: Tips On Buying A Car

By Cathy Moran

car buyers get fleeced

Getting fleeced at the car dealership is all too common. The ways to get taken, bamboozled, oversold, and generally ripped off are too numerous to count. But the good folks at NCLC have studied the car-buying extras and add-ons that pad the price of the car.  The mark up on add-ons can be huge. Add-ons, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2017

Will A Second Bankruptcy Really Protect?

By Geoff Wiggs

Immediate protection from collection is at the top of the list for most bankruptcy filers. They want the lawsuit to stop; the wage garnishment to stop; the debt collectors to stop. But, if this isn’t your first bankruptcy case, do you get that protection? What the automatic stay does The Automatic Stay (or “Stay”) protects […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

Hidden Dangers In Tapping The Reverse Mortgage Piggybank

By Cathy Moran

reverse mortgage

Actor Fred Thompson used to appear on my Sunday morning news program every week touting the benefits of a “government insured”,  safe, reverse mortgage. Get the money you deserve to live the good life, he urged. I’m watching the aftermath of that sales pitch play out for one of my clients, and it’s not “the […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages, True Stories

When Chapter 20 Bankruptcy Adds Up

By Cathy Moran

looking for Chapter 20

You can look a long time in the Bankruptcy Code without finding Chapter 20. Chapter 7 is there;  so are Chapters 11 and 13.  But no 20. But you find it in bankruptcy courtrooms and in the arsenal of good bankruptcy lawyers. So, what’s up? Chapter 20 is really bankruptcy slang.  It’s a Chapter 7 case […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2016

The Most Compelling Reason To File Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

retirement planning

Shedding debt so you can save for retirement is the most compelling reason to file bankruptcy in my book. Get rid of the debt that’s dischargeable so you can pay for retirement, I exhort. Between the crippling cost of housing in the Bay Area and parent loans for college, there is so little margin for […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured Tagged With: 2017, reason to file, retirement, saving

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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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