Is bankruptcy worth it? If you see filing bankruptcy to get a fresh start as painful or less than honorable, you might wonder what life is like, on the other side of bankruptcy. What’s the return on taking the big step? I got a report from the other side this week from a Chapter 7 […]
Debt Can Kill You If You Let It
Money is the single largest source of stress in the US, at least before COVID-19. Other potent sources of stress include work, the economy, family and relationships. As a bankrutpcy lawyer, I can’t offer a remedy for these stressors. But I do have a cure for debt troubles. On National Stress Awareness Day, the connection between […]
The Real Threat To Your Retirement Savings Isn’t Bankruptcy
Your retirement accounts are safe from your creditors. California state law and federal bankruptcy law protect your savings for retirement held in recognized retirement vehicles from levy or lien. But retirement savings are at risk. Look in the mirror. You are usually the only person who can withdraw money from an IRA or take a […]
Credit Reports Heal
Will filing bankruptcy hurt my credit? Probably. Should that hit to your credit keep from filing bankruptcy? Not by a long shot. Incredibly, I encounter people drowning in debt who think their credit report is more important than their financial health. Their thinking seems to be that credit, once damaged, is never the same. It’s not […]
Rising From The Ashes Of Financial Disaster
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 […]
Why File Bankruptcy? It’s Your Life Expectancy
Old debt has a way of sucking the air out of today’s budget. You can’t make repairs to your car or see to needed health care or accumulate an emergency cushion because you’re still paying for stuff you bought long ago. Worse, old debt blights your old age. Few of us have sufficient income to […]
Surefire Steps To Avoid Bankruptcy
Most people would rather parade naked down Main Street than file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy makes them feel exposed, defeated, ashamed. If you don’t want to go there, you can order your life so you don’t ever need bankruptcy relief from debts you can’t pay. I’ve figured out the formula that assures that you’ll never met me in […]
California Garnishment Now Provides Greater Protection Of Wages
Workers making close to the California minimum wage got additional protection from wage garnishments under a change in the law effective in 2013. With the annual increases in the state minimum wage, in 2019 California law now protects an employee’s weekly net wages up to 40 times the state minimum wage, currently $11 to $12 per […]
Is Your Choice Of Bankruptcy Chapters Really Dictated By Your Stuff?
Through my Twitter feed came a link to the pro’s and con’s of filing bankruptcy from the business section of the Chicago Tribune. Good chance to see how non lawyers see my world, I thought. Bankruptcy was all about protecting “stuff”, said the writer, and the choice of chapters is driven by the kind of […]
Does Bankruptcy Discharge A Judgment In California?
Nothing gets a person into a bankruptcy lawyer’s office quicker than being served with a lawsuit. The prospect of losing a lawsuit and having a judgment entered against them terrifies. Callers are frantic to see if they can file bankruptcy before judgment is entered. They worry that once a judgment is entered, their options in bankruptcy […]
