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Can You Be Arrested For Not Paying Your Debts?

By Cathy Moran

Despite the story spread all over about federal marshals arresting a man for an unpaid student loan, people aren’t arrested for debt. And Fox News got the story wrong.  The man was not arrested because he owed money he hadn’t paid. He was arrested for blowing off a court order that he appear in court. […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Student loans Tagged With: 2016

Get Annual Credit Report For Free

By Cathy Moran

free credit report band

When is FREE not FREE? In a world seemingly driven in all matters by credit reports, getting that report for nothing ought to be a good thing, But the commercial entities beat the federal government to the web address freecreditreport.com. And they also got a better ad agency that wrote catchy tunes promoting their product, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: free credit report

How To Wipe Out Tax Penalties In Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

tax penalties

Tax penalties seem like a further insult when you’re having trouble paying the tax itself. Everything seems subject to an additional penalty:  failure to file timely;  failure to pre pay sufficiently;  failure to be accurate. They mount up quickly, often equaling the unpaid tax. Bankruptcy can not only eliminate your liability for certain taxes, it […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

10 Top Tricks Of The Lending Industry

By Cathy Moran

consumer credit

The tricks lenders use to sell you a bad loan are limited only by the imagination of the lender. And they’re all conceived with one end in mind — big profits, not helping you. And, unlike Pinocchio’s ever-growing nose,  the consumer doesn’t see any tell-tale signs that warn of deception at work when credit’s being […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2017

Free Bankruptcy Advice: 5 Reasons Why I’m Not Free

By Cathy Moran

free bankruptcy consultation

There’s no free bankruptcy advice in my office.  Unlike many, we charge for that initial meeting with a lawyer. (There’s no free lunch either.) That makes us different from lots of other bankruptcy lawyers. Different enough to offend a prospective client who called up this week.  He was unwilling to pay for a consultation, and stormed […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, You & your lawyer Tagged With: 2016

Unfiled Tax Returns Are A Life Sentence

By Cathy Moran

unfiled tax returns yield life sentence

Unfiled tax returns upset all the normal rules about discharging taxes in bankruptcy. This story tells you why. Two clients, each with $200,000 in tax debt,  came to my office this week. One can escape it all now;  the other is facing several years before bankruptcy will do anything for him. What’s the difference? Filed […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes

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

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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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