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 […]
Chapter 13: Know Who Gets Paid First Under Your Plan
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 […]
Scofflaws Must Pay When They Violate The Stay
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 […]
How Chapter 13 Cuts Car Loan Down To Size
Car lenders who make new car loans with an underwater trade-in will face the music in Chapter 13. The Supreme Court declined to review a 9th Circuit decision that stripped car loans of their protected specially protected status in bankruptcy; as a result, Californians will continue to benefit from the debtor-friendly decision in Penrod, rising out of […]
What Your Bankruptcy Lawyer Can’t Tell You
Replace your car before filing bankruptcy. That’s a secret, just between us. Bankruptcy “reform” in 2005 tried in a number of ways to discredit and gag lawyers trying to help debtors. One of those additions to the Bankruptcy Code prohibits lawyers from advising those filing bankruptcy to incur new debt. The statute makes no distinction […]
Bankruptcy Alphabet: J For Justify
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 fear that they will have to justify their choice of bankruptcy and that the trustee could disallow […]
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 […]
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 […]
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