May I suggest a 2025 New Year’s resolution? It doesn’t involve diets or workouts or commitments to huge personal transformation. Take a hard look at your financial situation. Consider whether a fresh financial start makes sense. Just getting by A life of minimum payments, minuscule bank accounts, and no retirement savings is a life fraught […]
The Secret Alternative To Bankruptcy
Looking for the secret alternative to bankruptcy which will solve your debt problems without filing? Why not? Ads for debt settlement companies and do-it-yourself books always promise to reveal the tricks to make your bills vanish for pennies, without resort to bankruptcy. (Isn’t it interesting that these “secrets” are known only by people who want […]
Smoke, Mirrors, And Budgets: Are You Missing Where Your Money Goes
Budget tricks keep lots of us from seeing where our money goes. If you don’t know where it’s going, you don’t know whether your spending priorities are sound. As a bankruptcy attorney, I hear this alot: I can’t save anything because it takes every dollar I make just to get by. Sound like a description of […]
5 Things To Do When You Have Been Sued
The ring on the doorbell was a process server. Bingo! You’ve been sued. Now what? Breathe deeply and work your way through this five step check list. Then I’ll suggest some options. The details in this post are based on California law. The basic principles of notice, answer, and trial apply everywhere. Scout the territory […]
Don’t Fall For Your Mortgage Lender’s Insurance
The mortgage lender’s property insurance does not leave you in good hands. No matter how much time it saves you. Your lender is not a good neighbor when it comes to insurance. When your home insurance lapses Somehow my client let her homeowners insurance lapse. She wasn’t worried about it, she told me, because the […]
TImeless Wisdom Doesn’t Apply When Filing Bankruptcy
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”. It’s a time-tested bit of folk wisdom. But applying that kind of thinking to legal claims when you’re filling out bankruptcy schedules is foolish. Worse, it can get you booted out of court. Count your “chickens” Bankruptcy starts with a list of what you own and what you […]
Get Rid Of Liens On Your Home
Bankruptcy gives you a super power: you’re able to remove liens on your home, for good. You can’t wipe out every kind of lien. But bankruptcy law allows you to invalidate judicial liens that attach to your home and invade any exemption you are entitled to. The power is available to individuals in any chapter […]
How Filing Bankruptcy Can Benefits Your Heirs
Elders in California enjoy enhanced state exemptions that protect them from debt collectors. Those protections often make it unnecessary for a debt-laden senior to file bankruptcy. But no one talks about one consequence of relying on exemption law to fend off creditors. California exemption laws that fully protect the assets of seniors provide no protection to the heirs. […]
Can Debt Discharged In Bankruptcy Come Back To Haunt You?
Can debt bankruptcy in bankruptcy come back to haunt me? Worried clients ask me this all the time, fearful that the relief they get from their creditors in bankruptcy is only temporary. The short answer is no. The automatic stay that stops collectors when you file bankruptcy is replaced, at the end of the case, […]
Bankruptcy Alphabet: R is for Retirement
In my bankruptcy alphabet, R stands for Retirement. Retirement plans and IRA’s are safe in whatever chapter of bankruptcy you file. Your rights in an employer’s pension plan or a union pension plan are not even part of the property of your bankruptcy estate. The Supreme Court held almost 20 years ago that ERISA qualified […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- …
- 72
- Next Page »
