• 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

Bankruptcy Filing Requires More Than Honesty

By Cathy Moran

get bankruptcy discharge

The discharge of debts you can’t pay is the goal of a bankruptcy filing. That discharge wipes out debts, making them forever unenforceable. Yet, it isn’t a slam-dunk that your bankruptcy case ends in discharge. The Bankruptcy Code lists 12 situations in which a debtor doesn’t get a discharge. Which is why my colleague Jay […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

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

Who To Pay When There’s Not Enough Money To Go Around

By Cathy Moran

collection calls

If you can’t pay your bills, the squeaky wheel should NOT get the oil… At least, not until you’ve assessed all the other demands for oil. That’s a quaint way of saying that your decisions about which of your creditors to pay when you can’t pay your bills should not be based on who is […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: who to pay

Which Debt Collector Threats Should You Be Afraid Of?

By Cathy Moran

debt collectors

Threats are the tools of the trade of debt collectors. Why not? Fear is effective to get people to do stupid things. That’s why debt collectors use it. Pay up or… Terror shuts down rational thinking and upends priorities.  As a bankruptcy attorney, I  meet lots of people because they’ve panicked.  A debt collector has threatened […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Debt Collection Rights Tagged With: 2018

What Everyone Knows About Bankruptcy: Not

By Cathy Moran

torture device

Lots of people profess to know all about bankruptcy. Whether they have good information or not. But other professionals should know better than to advise people about the workings of bankruptcy. And if they don’t know better, they should be made to pay, in some exquisitely painful way, for the harm they inflict with bad […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights, True Stories Tagged With: living expenses, means test

The New Rules Of Asset Protection

By Cathy Moran

I coined a new rule about asset protection schemes after meeting with a bankruptcy prospect: If the asset protection plan is too complicated for the owner to explain, it probably won’t stand up to challenge. This man had paid an attorney a fistful of money to create LLC’s and limited partnerships, each of which held fractional […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, True Stories

The Kind of Person Who Files Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

who files bankruptcy

You’d think the person who files bankruptcy is some alien fraudster, to listen to my clients. This is last place I ever expected to be, says the client sitting in my bankruptcy office.  I hear that probably twice a week. Or, the client assures me:  I’m not the kind of person who doesn’t pay their […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights

“Hold Harmless” Survives “To Have and To Hold”

By Cathy Moran

Divorce usually requires the division of the debts of the marriage along with the assets. The legalese usually requires each party to indemnify and hold harmless the other from the debts assigned to that party. Most folks skim over that provision to worry about the division of assets or support issues or the termination of […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Family Law

The Difference Between Good Bankruptcy Lawyer and Great Bankruptcy Lawyer

By Cathy Moran

Finding the right bankruptcy lawyer may be the difference between a successful bankruptcy and a nightmare. Choosing a lawyer you can talk to is critical because the basic bankruptcy bargain is full disclosure in exchange for discharge of debts. You’ll be disclosing lots of information normally held confidential. But there’s more. It’s not just a […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, You & your lawyer

Pay Off Credit Cards Without Interest: Bankruptcy For The Solvent

By Cathy Moran

chapter 13 rescue

Once again, Chapter 13 rescued a client. He’ll get out of debt and pay off credit cards with no interest going forward. So many people tell me they could pay off the credit card balance if it wasn’t for the high interest. This client owned a home, had a job, and was solvent on paper, but […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Consumer Rights, True Stories Tagged With: 2016, homestead

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • …
  • 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.