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Bankruptcy Alphabet: I Is For IRS

By Cathy Moran

  “I” stands for IRS in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. Bankruptcy law treats the IRS little different  than other creditors.  The tax collector is just one of the boys. But the most important point is that income taxes can be erased in bankruptcy.  There are rules, three of them in fact, that govern when income taxes […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy, Taxes

Bankruptcy Alphabet: G is for Guaranty

By Cathy Moran

G is for guaranty in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. A guaranty is just as much a debt as the bills one incurs directly, yet guaranties are often forgotten when the list of creditors is assembled to file bankruptcy. Any time you sign for a debt, yours or someone else’s, you create a legal relationship. The lender […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy

Bay Area Loan Modification Scam Busted

By Cathy Moran

Bay Area Foreclosure Scam

People are desperate to save their homes; scammers are pleased to part them from their money. Two Bay Area men were convicted this week of foreclosure consultant fraud. The men took money from homeowners seeking loan modifications. Sounds innocent enough, until you recall that California law prohibits anyone, even an attorney, from taking money in […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Oakland Bankruptcy Judge Upheld At 9th Circuit

By Cathy Moran

time til foreclosure

Ruling against the California Franchise Tax Board, the 9th Circuit upheld Oakland bankruptcy judge Edward Jellen’s decision in the Chapter 13 case of Brenda Marie Jones. At issue was whether Jones could discharge a state tax debt in her Chapter 7 case; the question turned on an arcane question of what the Bankruptcy Code means […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

No Recourse for Junior Lien in Short Sale

By Cathy Moran

Junior lenders who consent to a short sale of underwater homes are barred from seeking to collect anything further from sellers under a newly enacted California statute. The law, signed on July 15, 2011, becomes effective immediately. It applies to properties, held by individuals, comprising 1-4 residential units.  Senate Bill 458 accords the same restrictions […]

Filed Under: Strictly California

Your Choices For The Underwater House

By Cathy Moran

Gerri Detweiler kicks off a six part series on dealing with a home worth less than you owe at Credit.com. Check her out this week for another point of view on this oh-too-common problem. I’m fond of her piece especially since she includes my lament that I spend my days talking people out of houses. […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Self Employed, But Not By Choice

By Cathy Moran

One of the thorniest problems I’m confronting in the Great Recession is what advice to offer to those who are self employed only because there is no option. In the past year, I’ve seen half a dozen folks whose small business isn’t really making it.  In better times, I would have urged them to acknowledge […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

How Long Til Foreclosure?

By Cathy Moran

time til foreclosure

Everyone who has made the painful decision to let an unaffordable house go to foreclosure wants to know: how long before they have to get out. While the statutory foreclosure process in California , on paper, takes a little more than 4 months, if the the creditor is perfectly efficient, creditors aren’t perfectly efficient. In […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages, Strictly California Tagged With: California, default, foreclosure, sale

Tax Fallout from Foreclosure & Loan Modification

By Cathy Moran

It’s bad enough when the client loses their home to foreclosure, but it’s a double whammy when the tax bill arrives for money they never saw. Scope out the tax traps in the world of indebted clients at a 2 hour workshop for lawyers and tax professionals April 9 at Lincoln Law School. Be prepared […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages, Taxes

Debtor Bites Collector Over Stale Debt

By Cathy Moran

The collection law firm had to pay, not the debtor, when they sued a disabled man on a stale debt without facts to validate the claim. The consumer got an award of actual and punitive damages totaling $311,ooo  from the debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act . The case, McColllough v. Johnson, Rodenburg & […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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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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