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Who files bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

The latest news from the office of the courts is: lots of people.  Sixteen percent more bankrupties than last year in San Jose. The release of the 2010 statistics brought a flurry of journalists to my door.  In preparing to talk to a TV reporter who wanted to know what changes I had experienced in […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Zombie Debt Collectors Must Come Clean

By Cathy Moran

Debt collectors in New Mexico must now warn debtors that a debt they are trying to collect may be too old to be enforced by lawsuit.  The warning must also tell the consumer that any payment on the old debt will restart the statute of limitations. This comes about by rule instituted by New Mexico’s […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

New California law protects sellers in short sales

By Cathy Moran

Effective January 1, 2011, a lender who approves a short sale of California residential property may not look to the seller for the shortfall. The addition to the California Code of Civil Procedure at Section 580(e) applies only to properties of one to four units and has an exception if the seller commits waste or […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Word rant: seizure of mortgaged homes

By Cathy Moran

banks don't seize homes

Perhaps I’m feeling particularly crotchety today, but the use of the word “seize” to describe foreclosures seems to me a bit overblown. Headlines like these abound: California Foreclosures Jeopardize Renters as Banks Seize HomesBanks Seize 288K Homes in Q3,Banks seize record number of homes Webster’s dictionary offered this as one definition of seize:  To take […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works, Uncategorized

Student loans: sinking the parents

By Cathy Moran

The numbers on repayment of a student loan for four years at a private university are brutal. No matter how enriching the education, the loan may be the financial death of the graduate. But what sorrows me is the plight of the parents of those same students who have guaranteed or cosigned those loans. Cosignor equally liable […]

Filed Under: Student loans

Rant on realtors claiming to be a profession

By Cathy Moran

Or maybe this is just a continuing, disappointed sigh that this group, who tries to build a profession around selling houses, is itself oversold. Latest example arose where a homeowner was referred to me by his accountant, concerned about a pending short sale of the client’s home.  By our rough calculations, the short sale of […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

Changing view of when to file bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Lanning and the application of the infamous “means test” to a client’s changing income picture has changed my advice about when to file bankruptcy. My standard advice to clients newly unemployed who see clearly they won’t be able to pay their existing bills has been to wait. Wait until […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy

What happened to encouraging Chapter 13

By Cathy Moran

Used to be, bankruptcy law was organized to encourage debtors to file Chapter 13 and repay some part of their debts. Some part of that encouragement came in the form of the Super Discharge: the ability to discharge debts incurred by bad acts; unfiled tax debt from long past tax years; and unfiled claims in […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy

After the loan modification: the underwater house

By Cathy Moran

Two trends in the housing crisis are intersecting in my practice:  we’re seeing more loan modifications, all the while we see more and more homeowners with whopping negative equity. The question I’m asking each client eager for a modification is “what do you expect for this property five years from now?” Most loan modifications are […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Guilt & fear used to keep homeowners paying

By Cathy Moran

Susanne Robicsek’s post on the futility of keeping a home through bankruptcy brought to mind Professor Brent White’s paper on the use by government and financial counselors of fear and shame to keep people paying on mortgages on underwater homes. White cites a litany of messages from apparently credible sources who chant that a foreclosure […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages

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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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