• Home
  • Bankruptcy in Brief
  • ABC’s of Bankruptcy
  • Considering Bankruptcy
  • True Stories
  • Chapter 13
  • Blog
  • About
  • TOC

Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

On The Bankruptcy Soapbox

The Soap Box
  • How bankruptcy works
  • Mortgage Matters
  • Consumer Rights
  • You & Your Lawyer
  • Small Business
  • Family Law

Three Barriers To Getting Out Of Debt

By Cathy Moran

getting out of debt

Three emotions, not reasons, keep people from filing bankruptcy and getting out of debt. While not as sexy as the seven deadly sins,  these emotions still keep my clients mired in debt long after logic says “quit”. Fear Stubbornness Pride These emotions keep people mired where they are. They block the road forward. Fear Fear of […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2016

Is Bankruptcy In Your Future?

By Cathy Moran

thinking of filing bankruptcy

Tough economic times make us think about escape by filing bankruptcy. Bankruptcy offers a straight forward, predictable and immediate solution. But to get full measure of bankruptcy relief, you need to know which problems bankruptcy solves and when the time is best to file. Which problems bankruptcy solves Bankruptcy deals with debt, with the outflow […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

Cutting The Car Loan Down To Size

By Cathy Moran

Bankruptcy can strip down what you’re paying on your car loan to just the bare essentials, saving you bundles. Consider my client whose car loan balance was grossly inflated to the point  that she owed twice the value of  her car, bought just a year ago. Before bankruptcy “reform”, she could have stripped the loan […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2017

Better To Live With Debts Than File Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

living in debt

Locked up in debt? What are the consequences of bankruptcy? Or, is it better to live with your debt and keep making minimum payments? Does life get better or worse if you file bankruptcy? That question sums up most people’s fears about shedding their debt through bankruptcy. What will life be like, after bankruptcy? Good questions. […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2016

When Debt Collectors Won’t Stop, Despite Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

collection letter

Get a collection notice after you’ve filed bankruptcy and after you’ve gotten a discharge, and it’s easy to be distressed. You’ve taken the hard step to get a fresh start, and it appears not to have worked. It’s easy to assume that the collector has a right to its money.  Easy, too, to assume your […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

Which Creditors Should You Really Fear?

By Cathy Moran

scary creditors

A debt collector’s threat to sue you usually produces terror. You’re scared about losing your wages, or your bank accounts.  Scared about being served with process at work. The threat of a lawsuit often triggers the first call to my law office. Some collector has said he will take 25% of your wages, or will serve […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

Incorporating A Troubled Business: Work-around Or Worse?

By Cathy Moran

business bankruptcy

Facets on a gem bend light and change how we see things. The same thing happens when bankruptcy law encounters a small business owner and the business itself. Seen from one angle of the law, the business is a valuable asset. Seen from another, it is nothing more than a job for the owner, having […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Small business

Ten Debts That Follow You After Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

debts after bankruptcy

Some debts just follow you out of bankruptcy. Not many but a few. These debts continue to be collectible even after a Chapter 7 discharge.  The discharge in Chapter 13 is different and broader:  just another reason to choose Chapter 13. 1.   Family support Regardless of what it’s called, court ordered payments for support […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy Tagged With: 2017, debts after bankruptcy

Who Owns Your Business When You File Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

business bankruptcy

The bankruptcy trustee’s question was straightforward (if inartful) yet the business owner nearly blew the answer. The trustee asked:  are you the sole owner of your business? When my client hesitated, she followed up:  are you a sole proprietor? Focusing on the fact that he was the only person with an interest in the business, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Small business, True Stories Tagged With: 2018

When Is The Right Time To File Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

when to file bankruptcy

It can be hard to know when it’s the right time to file bankruptcy. But I was blown away by the man who called my law office. Should I wait until all of my savings are gone to file bankruptcy?, the caller asked. And he didn’t mean, until my net worth is greatly reduced; he meant, until […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • …
  • 20
  • Next Page »
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

More Posts from this Category

643 Bair Island Road
Suite 403
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (650) 694-4700
Phone: (650) 368-4700

Categories

All content copyright © Moran Law Group. All rights reserved.