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What’s So Scary About Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

It’s Halloween and we indulge in make-believe scary moments and call it fun. In real life,  fear isn’t so fun. People up to their eyeballs in debt are scared witless by the thought of filing bankruptcy. It frightens them more than haunted houses, ghouls, and blood-soaked bodies. So really:  what’s so scary about filing bankruptcy? […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured Tagged With: considering bankruptcy

The Biggest Bankruptcy Mistake You Can Make

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy's biggest mistake

The biggest bankruptcy mistake has nothing to do with choice of chapter, exemptions, disclosure, or attorneys. It has to do with timing. The biggest bankruptcy mistake is waiting too long to consider bankruptcy. Time is seldom your friend What’s wrong with letting time pass before making a momentous decision? Doesn’t time heal most wounds? No, […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured Tagged With: 2023, bankruptcy right for me, consider bankruptcy

Debt Actually Makes You Stupid

By Cathy Moran

It’s easy to tell ourselves that getting into debt was stupid. Maybe, maybe not. Lots of debt happens without making bad decisions.  Think of medical bills. Natural disasters.  Divorce. But regardless of how you got in debt, there’s more bad news. Just being in debt makes you stupid. Stupid, as in, your IQ goes down […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured

Who Cares About Your Spending Before Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

spending before bankrutpcy

Worried about using credit cards before bankruptcy? Afraid of prejudicing your bankruptcy case by spending money before you file? Do you imagine some authority figure deciding that your financial behavior in the run-up to bankrupcy bars you from relief? Take a deep breath. That’s not how it works. Let’s look at what matters and what […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured, How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2024, 341, bankruptcy trustee, credit cards, first meeting

Bankruptcy Alternatives Cost More, Deliver Less

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy alternatives

Everyone wants a solution to their debt problems without bankruptcy. But the truth is, bankruptcy alternatives often suck. The on-line story of one customer of a debt settlement company particularly sticks with me. Using the “services” of this company, the poster now has six new judgments of record and two garnishments in process. The debt […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, True Stories Tagged With: bankruptcy alternatives, debt settlement

Fear keeps folks from bankruptcy relief

By Cathy Moran

lurking tax deductions

Fear of bankruptcy is both common and necessary. Those who aren’t living the American dream of upward mobility and financial security seem to think that’s a matter for shame. Perhaps the second most frequent question would-be clients ask me is whether the fact that they filed bankruptcy will be [The answer is that it’s unlikely.] […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured Tagged With: name in newspaper

Don’t Tidy Up Before Seeing A Bankruptcy Lawyer

By Cathy Moran

before bankruptcy

Don’t tidy up your financial affairs before consulting a bankruptcy lawyer to plan for bankruptcy. Your current mess may present opportunities to plan your case for a better outcome. You may waste money or lose bankruptcy options when you make last minute changes to your situation without understanding how that situation plays out in bankruptcy. […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights Tagged With: plan bankruptcy

Client “wants to think” before getting good bankruptcy information

By Cathy Moran

considering bankruptcy

The caller with a pending foreclosure sale called and canceled an initial consultation with me last week.   He wanted to “think about it” before coming in.  Huh? Think about being homeless? Think about the cost of getting relief through bankruptcy? Think about confronting a dire situation? It was almost as if gathering information about options […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights, True Stories

When Is The Time Right To File Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

time to file bankruptcy

Just like stand-up comedy and batting in baseball, filing bankruptcy is all about timing. Timing your bankruptcy filing is no different. File bankruptcy too early, or too late, and you risk losing assets or advantages that better timing could have assured. Admittedly, you don’t always have the luxury of filing bankruptcy on your own schedule. […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Featured Tagged With: 2020, when to file bankruptcy

Rising From The Ashes Of Financial Disaster

By Cathy Moran

phoenix rising from ashes

Life doesn’t end with bankruptcy. Bankruptcy doesn’t mean that the good times are all in the past. There’s the  future, too. Both the individual and society reap benefits from bankruptcy in ways that you may have missed. So, in my view, Jay Fleichman’s analysis of the bankruptcy of Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET and once […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy

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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

Everyone gets $1M + bankruptcy exemption

Bankruptcy exemptions vary from state to state, but everyone gets an exemption of ~$1.75 M for money in an IRA. It's part of the Bankruptcy Code (section 522(n)) that applies to all filers, wherever they live. The exemption covers both classic, before-tax IRA's and Roth IRA's that are funded with after-tax dollars. … Read more

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