J stands for Justify in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. Or rather, it stands for “no need to Justify” your decision to file bankruptcy. Those considering bankruptcy imagine the first meeting of creditors as an inquisition by the trustee. They fantasize that they will have to justify their choice of bankruptcy and that the trustee could disallow […]
Debts To The Government: Can They Be Wiped Out
It’s easy to assume that debts owed to the federal government can’t be discharged in bankruptcy. Easy, but wrong. Just because the creditor is Uncle Sam doesn’t mean the debt can’t be wiped out in bankruptcy. In fact, debts to the government range from freely dischargeable to not-in-this-lifetime nondischargeable. Honesty required for discharge All of […]
Six Rotten Excuses Not To File Bankruptcy
I am not a bankruptcy attorney. I never have been. I am a mortgage law attorney. But in the current financial climate, I see clients in my office daily who desperately need to file bankruptcy…And they won’t. The reasons they give, and the parade of horrors they’ve built up in their minds about bankruptcy, are heart-felt, […]
Bankruptcy Discharge vs. Dismissal
Dismissed and discharged. In a bankruptcy case, these two terms are at the opposite ends of the scale of results in bankruptcy. Yet they are often confused. A discharge is a win! The bankruptcy discharge order wipes out your personal legal liability to pay a debt. A dismissal is usually a loss. It means the […]
Bankruptcy Schedules Are More Than Just Paperwork
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, […]
Get A Deal On Your Car After Bankruptcy
How are you going to keep your car after you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy? Here in California , little is more essential to holding a job and really getting a fresh start than a car to get to work in. While the bankruptcy discharge will relieve you of liability for the loan on the […]
California Homestead Works In Other States, Too
California homestead law drives bankruptcy exemptions even for those who no longer live in California. Strange, when the homestead statute was state law originally written for Californians. Two things have expanded its reach: bankruptcy “reform” and the concept of extraterritoriality. The third driver, of course, is mobility: we seem much more likely these days to […]
Can A Trust Protect You In Bankruptcy?
Can a trust protect your assets from loss? According to the lawyer advertising and the self-help books, everyone needs a revocable trust. The asset protection industry loves irrevocable trusts to get assets out of your name so your creditors can’t reach your wealth. So, do trusts work in bankruptcy to change the rights of debtors and their […]
File bankruptcy tomorrow?
Clients clearly have little sense of how long it takes to file bankruptcy. Proof is what happened Monday: there’s an email the morning’s inbox from a client whom I first met weeks ago. He tells me they want to file before Wednesday’s mediation in state court! I have no creditor information, representation agreement, money, or […]
The Means Test: Badly Mangled
Another purported financial professional has confidently and conclusively gotten the bankruptcy means test absolutely dead wrong. And used that wrong conclusion to steer someone away from bankruptcy. Mt. St. Helens has nothing on me in terms of venting. How can financial professionals get this so wrong, more than a decade after the means test was enacted? Mangling the […]
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