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Bankruptcy Alphabet: L is for Life

By Cathy Moran

What was omitted from bankruptcy schedules

In my bankruptcy alphabet, L is for the Life you can get back when you get rid of your debts. My bankruptcy clients are often simply consumed by managing their debts. There is no room for rest, savings, dreaming. Life has become the struggle to make the next round of payments. L could also be […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy, Consumer Rights

Forgiveness Starts At Home

By Cathy Moran

Kansas City bankruptcy lawyer Rachel Foley wrote about forgiveness in the bankruptcy context. She wasn’t talking about the forgiveness of debt, but about the negative emotions that can eat you up. Shed the anger at others who threaten your family’s well being, she counseled, and look forward. I don’t often see clients who need to […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

Last Call For Loan Modifications Under HAMP

By Cathy Moran

house at risk

If your house is teetering on the edge of foreclosure, the time to act has a deadline. HAMP, the government program incentivizing home loan modifications, ends in 2016. To qualify for HAMP, you must submit a complete Initial Application Package by December 30, 2016. That package must include:  A  RMA form which includes a required hardship […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2016

Staying Out Of Bankruptcy Trustee’s Crosshairs

By Cathy Moran

Clients who want the benefits of bankruptcy without any change in the way they want to live life have been the theme of my practice lately. This seems to come out when we do a Schedule J budget in a Chapter 13:  they want $300/month in recreation, $1400 in food, and $300 in clothing. While […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Pondering

Your Rights When Your Home Is Foreclosed

By Cathy Moran

The foreclosure sale is over and the bank now owns the home. You’re now living in someone else’s property. What next? If you were the homeowner in California, here are your choices after the foreclosure: Your rights before the foreclosure sale

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2016

The Tortoise Is The Mascot Of Retirement Savings

By Cathy Moran

Every campaign needs a logo. Make the logo of your financial planning a turtle, rampant. Rampant, you say?  Turtle? In the Middle Ages, knights put their ID’s on their shields in  elaborate heraldry that told bystanders who he was, what his birth order was, and which side of the blanket he was born on. Heraldry featured animals, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

Dividing Debts At Divorce: What You Need To Know

By Cathy Moran

The division of the debts of a failed marriage, however carefully crafted at divorce, can be utterly destroyed if one of the former spouses files a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. A Chapter 13 discharge is double barreled.  It will eliminate the debts that the filing spouse owes to creditors.  It also wipes out any obligation to the […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Family Law

Social Security Safe In Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

The Chapter 13 trustee objected to the debtors’ repayment plan because they did not plan to devote their Social Security income to repaying creditors.   And, he complained, they proposed to keep and pay for vehicles that are luxury items. The plan is not proposed in good faith, he claimed, as required by the Bankruptcy Code. The […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Consumer Rights

Melania Trump Sold The American Dream Short

By Cathy Moran

The infamous Melania Trump speech at the Republican convention shared more than a paragraph or so with Michelle Obama. It shared Michelle’s  aspirational thought that in America, any child with hard work and perseverance can succeed. “The only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Pondering Tagged With: 2016

File Bankruptcy All Alone: No Spouse Required

By Cathy Moran

File Bankruptcy Without Your Spouse

We’re so used to thinking about married folk as a couple, rather than as two individuals:  George and Gracie;  Bill and Hillary;  John and Abigail. The Bankruptcy Code feeds that perception when it allows a married couple to file a joint case.  Two people, one set of papers, one filing fee. But while filing together […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights

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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 on how I think law should work for the consumer and small businesses when it comes to debt.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

High Income Earners Pass Bankruptcy’s Means Test

ALERT:   Being above the median income on the means test is not an automatic bar to filing bankruptcy I'm so used to railing against deliberate campaigns of misinformation about bankruptcy that I forget that there's a lot of innocent ignorance out there. Start with "qualifying" for bankruptcy. A very … Read more

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