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Bankruptcy Schedules Are More Than Just Paperwork

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy papers

Bankruptcy paperwork can make you feel like you are drowning in paper. There’s your paper; there’s the paper your lawyer needs.  And there’s the paper the court insists on. Why bankruptcy schedules worth the work It’s easy to try to skate. To cut corners.  To shut down. But that paper is critical. Nearly every question, […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2017, paperwork, schedules

Did You Tell The Whole Truth In Your Bankruptcy Papers?

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy hearing

You must “tell the truth” on your bankruptcy paperwork, bankruptcy advice sites intone. Most of us shrug that off: we can’t imagine deliberately lying to a court. But carelessness about bankruptcy schedules abounds. If you give the bankruptcy paperwork just a lick and a promise, the resulting schedules aren’t truthful, not because of lies, but […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, How bankruptcy works

What’s The Income Limit for Filing Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy income limit

Actually, there’s no income limit for filing bankruptcy. None, nada, no way. Instead, there’s the infamous means test, an awkward and complex formula, written by Congress, to identify individuals who are entitled to file Chapter 7. Not everyone has to take the means test. The means test doesn’s apply to individuals whose debt is primarily […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works, Means test Tagged With: 2024, income limits, means test

Will recent credit card use sink my bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

credit-cards-sink-case

If I’ve used credit cards before filing bankruptcy, do I have to wait? Too many people considering filing think there is some sort of waiting period between financial activity and filing bankruptcy. So, let’s look at the issues in play surrounding recent credit card charges and seeking bankruptcy relief. There’s no 90 day rule Everyone […]

Filed Under: Featured, How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2024, 90 day rule, bank statements in bankruptcy, trustee examination

When Your Bankruptcy Discharge Doesn’t End Your Case

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy case after discharge

Isn’t my case over? I got my discharge.  Why’s the bankruptcy trustee still  hounding me?, my client asks. People who’ve filed bankruptcy are focused on the discharge as their goal. With their discharge in hand, they think it’s all over. They lose sight of the fact that the administration of a bankruptcy estate by the trustee runs on a parallel track to […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

What You Keep In Chapter 13

By Cathy Moran

what you keep in bankruptcy

Just because debtors can keep their upscale trappings and their toys bought on credit doesn’t mean they should. Still, I share my colleagues excitement over the 9th Circuit’s recent decision in Welsh.   The appeals court held that a debtor wasn’t guilty of bad faith in proposing a Chapter 13 plan that kept and paid […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works

What Your Signature On Your Bankruptcy Papers Really Says

By Cathy Moran

Wish I had a buck for every time a client has told me, “Yes, I signed it, but I didn’t read it”. This is usually delivered as though the signature had no meaning if it wasn’t coupled with actual reading. Unfortunately, it isn’t so. Not true in commerce in general, and certainly not true when you […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: perjury, schedules

What You Left Out Of Your Bankruptcy Schedules

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy schedules

One of the first questions a bankruptcy trustee will ask you at the hearing in your bankruptcy case is:  did you read the schedules before you signed them? The obvious, and expected, answer is YES. And if your answer is “yes”, then the trustee can conclude that you stand behind the information that the schedules […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: bankruptcy hearing, bankruptcy papers

What Happens To Your Bank Account in Chapter 13

By Cathy Moran

chapter 13 bank account

Those considering filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy worry about “what happens to my bank account?” Will the trustee take all the money? How do I pay my living expenses after I file? The short answer is: nothing changes. The account remains yours and available for all the expenses of day to day living. Because, in […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works

Bankruptcy Can Rewrite The Divorce Property Division

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy upsets divorce

The assets were divided in the divorce. The divorce was over. The house would go to Him, and he would pay Her $75,000 on stated terms. It was the end of a miserable stretch in their lives. Only it wasn’t. Before anyone recorded the judgment of dissolution (that’s Californian for “divorce”) laying out the division […]

Filed Under: Family Law, How bankruptcy works Tagged With: community property, divorce, MSA

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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

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

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