• Home
  • Bankruptcy in Brief
  • ABC’s of Bankruptcy
  • Considering Bankruptcy
  • True Stories
  • Chapter 13
  • Blog
  • About
  • TOC

Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

On The Bankruptcy Soapbox

The Soap Box
  • How bankruptcy works
  • Mortgage Matters
  • Consumer Rights
  • You & Your Lawyer
  • Small Business
  • Family Law

Mix Old Debts & Good Faith Payments For Bad Results

By Cathy Moran

Old debts don’t live forever. The shell of the debt may hang around, like this mummy, but inside the shell, the debt is dead. But just like a bad mummy movie, old, dead debt can be brought back to life. All it takes is an attempt on your part to be honorable , or an attempt by […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Debt Collection Rights

Donald Trumpets: I Didn’t File Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

As much as it pains me to say, Donald Trump was doubly right about filing bankruptcy. He loudly announced at the debate that he had never filed bankruptcy. And, he’d only taken advantage of our laws in filing. Now, he was contemptuous of his creditors and dismissive about what the filings said about his business judgment. […]

Filed Under: Featured

No Discharge Chapter 13 Effective To Strip Lien

By Cathy Moran

The wait is over; the decision is in. Homeowners in the 9th Circuit can strip off underwater mortgages in Chapter 13 cases even when they aren’t entitled to a bankruptcy discharge, the 9th Circuit BAP has held. Thus, courts have taken another step in the building consensus that the debtor doesn’t have to be eligible […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13

Homeowner Beats Loan Servicer On Foreclosure Appeal

By Cathy Moran

California appeals court  slaps down servicer’s attempt to require payment of the entire mortgage loan a condition of homeowner protection. Nice try, Ocwen. But no, says an intermediate California appeals court. Such an interpretation would gut the California Homeowner’s Bill of Rights. Facing foreclosure The facts in Valbuena v. Ocwen  are common:  Ocwen became the servicer […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages, Strictly California

Why No-Look Bankruptcy Fees Are No-Good

By Cathy Moran

Law of average doesn't work here

Lawyers become lawyers, in large part, because they can’t, or don’t want to, do math. Judges are lawyers who got promoted. And therein is the root of the problem with “no look” attorneys fee for consumer bankruptcy cases. Judges don’t understand mathematics.  They expect the “law” of averages to result in fair compensation for debtor’s lawyers, relieving judges […]

Filed Under: You & your lawyer

Time Running Out To Claim Prior Year Tax Breaks

By Cathy Moran

last minute bankruptcy

Time is running out on your 2011 tax return. Whaaaat?, you say.  You’re working on 2014 between now and April 15th. But if you’re one of those people who overlooked a tax deduction or, better yet, a tax credit like EITC, you’re running out of time to amend your 2011 return and capture some of that money. An […]

Filed Under: Taxes

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

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • …
  • 71
  • Next Page »
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

More Posts from this Category

643 Bair Island Road
Suite 403
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (650) 694-4700
Phone: (650) 368-4700

Categories

All content copyright © Moran Law Group. All rights reserved.