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List It Or Lose It: Why It’s Critical To Tell All

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy disclosure

It is vital to include everything in your bankruptcy list of assets. Transparency is the essential ingredient in bankruptcy. The name of the game is disclosure. In exchange for that full disclosure in your bankruptcy papers of assets , debts, and financial history, you get a discharge. Do it right, everyone with notice of your […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2017, bankruptcy papers

Automatic Stay Has Exceptions: It Doesn’t Stop Everything

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy stay

The automatic stay is the signature feature of American bankruptcy, but the stay has important exceptions. Just by filing a bankruptcy case, a federal court injunction instantly prohibits your creditors  from actions to collect a debt from you or your assets. But, there’s a whole list of actions that aren’t included in the stay.  We […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2018

Bankruptcy Judge: The Phantom In Your Case

By Cathy Moran

Will the judge approve my bankruptcy case? Do I have to explain to the judge why I’m in bankruptcy? What if the judge makes a plan I can’t pay? When you’re considering bankruptcy, you start to think about your upcoming encounter with a federal bankruptcy judge. Black robes.  Sober face.  Gobs of power over your […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2016

Debts You Can’t Wipe Out In Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

nondischargeable debts

Three kinds of debt survive bankruptcy discharge, because they are unlike the other sixteen non dischargeable debts. Those three exceptions to discharge look, not at the kind of debt such as taxes, or support or student loans.  Rather the exceptions look at  how the debt arose. These exceptions prevent bad actors from escaping the consequences in bankruptcy.  […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2018, fraud, non dischargeable, timing

The Strange Rules When A Creditor Is Left Off Bankruptcy Schedules

By Cathy Moran

missing creditor

What happens if you miss putting a creditor on your bankruptcy schedules?  In the bustle of preparing to file bankruptcy, a slip up is not uncommon. Notice is one of the fundamental rules of bankruptcy.  Everyone to be affected by a bankruptcy case gets notice.  That notice provides the creditor with an opportunity to participate […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2018, creditor, notice

$7000 Off The Price Of The Car In Chapter 13

By Cathy Moran

car loan in 13

How would you like to reduce your car payment, by lots? In a recent case, Chapter 13 allowed my client to save $7000 off the loan balance based on an examination of the car finance contract. You couldn’t see the issue from the monthly statement. When I got the finance agreement itself, I found the […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works, True Stories Tagged With: 2018

Bankruptcy Alphabet: E is for Exemptions

By Cathy Moran

E stands for exemptions in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. Exemptions describe the possessions you get to keep when you file bankruptcy. E could also stand for Exception, since exemptions are the only place in bankruptcy law where the law is explicitly different from state to state. Exemptions vary The Bankruptcy Code gave the states the right […]

Filed Under: ABC's of bankruptcy, How bankruptcy works

High Income Earners Pass Bankruptcy’s Means Test

By Cathy Moran

ALERT:   Being above the median income on the means test is not an automatic bar to filing bankruptcy I’m so used to railing against deliberate campaigns of misinformation about bankruptcy that I forget that there’s a lot of innocent ignorance out there. Start with “qualifying” for bankruptcy. A very earnest and ethical financial counselor was […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works, Means test

Chapter 13: Know Who Gets Paid First Under Your Plan

By Cathy Moran

Who gets paid in Chapter 13, and in what order, makes a huge different when charting your course. Sometimes, we must realize that reality exists outside of television shows. And when real-world reality hits some debtors, it’s a trainwreck. It comes up for me when Chapter 13 clients and I sit down to write the […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works

Scofflaws Must Pay When They Violate The Stay

By Cathy Moran

Debtors in bankruptcy got back the right to collect all of their damages for violations of the automatic stay when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals en banc overturned the Sternberg case. We conclude that Sternberg misconstrued the plain meaning of §362(k). To the extent it is inconsistent with this opinion, Sternberg is overruled. I thought […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

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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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