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California Exemptions Increase for 2025

By Cathy Moran

new exemption numbers

New 2025 California exemption amounts becomes effective April 1, 2025. And it’s no joke. The new exemption numbers will protect more value in cash and assets necessary for everyday living. Exemptions define the assets that are safe from creditors in bankruptcy. The California exemptions found in CCP 704 exemptions are also available outside of bankruptcy […]

Filed Under: Featured, Strictly California Tagged With: 2022, california exemptions

7 Principles of California Community Property

By Cathy Moran

community property

Baffled by California community property? Think it makes you personally liable for the debts of your spouse? Lots of people do. But it doesn’t. California has been a community property state since it became a state in 1850. You would think we’d have gotten the hang of it long ago. But the community property system […]

Filed Under: Strictly California

What Happens To Cash In Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

keep cash in bankruptcy

How much cash can you keep when you file bankruptcy? It’s not as though you won’t have living expenses after you file bankruptcy. You need to know how you’ll manage and what you’ll have to manage with. Funding that fresh start is what exemptions are all about. We are talking here about California because exemptions, […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: cash, exemptions, money

California Homestead Exemption: The Truth Isn’t What You Think

By Cathy Moran

how california homestead works

“They can’t take my house, whatever happens.  Right?” The young man in my office “knew” how the California homestead works: he insisted that his home was exempt as a California homestead, even if he filed bankruptcy. He “knew” that credit card debt was dischargeable. And that “knowledge” lead to his conviction that , in bankruptcy, […]

Filed Under: Strictly California, True Stories Tagged With: 2018

New California Homestead Numbers For 2025

By Cathy Moran

California homestead amount

It’s time to check out the California homestead numbers for 2025. The 2021 expanded California homestead not only brought the exemption closer to the real cost of housing, it provided for annual adjustments for inflation. The original legislation created a $300,000 floor on the exemption and a $600,000 cap for homeowners, based on the median […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2025, homestead exemption

How Filing Bankruptcy Can Benefits Your Heirs

By Cathy Moran

Elders in California enjoy enhanced state exemptions that protect them from debt collectors. Those protections often make it unnecessary for a debt-laden senior to file bankruptcy. But no one talks about one consequence of relying on exemption law to fend off creditors. California exemption laws that  fully protect the assets of seniors provide no protection to the heirs. […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Strictly California

Which Spouse Is Liable For Debts In California

By Cathy Moran

liable for debts

California has been a community property state since 1850, and still we struggle to understand which spouse is liable for debts. So here, broad brush, is a guide to the legal liability of spouses, ex spouses, registered domestic partners and their community property for debt. Because, as I’ve written, the community is a third “party” […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2021, California, community property

California Extends Protection For Home Loan Borrowers

By Cathy Moran

California mortgage

One of the home refinance pitfalls for Californians bit the dust. Starting January, 2013,  antideficiency laws that protect home loan borrowers from personal liability have been expanded to include a refinanced purchase money loan. If a borrower refinances a loan used to buy a property in which he will live, he will no longer lose […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: mortgage, recourse

Bankruptcy Discharge For One Spouse Yields Benefits For Non-filing Spouse

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy protection for non-filing spouse

Spouses don’t have to file bankruptcy together. Often there are strategic reasons for only one spouse in a community property state like California to file. So, where does that leave the non-filing spouse when creditors come calling? Community property in bankruptcy Central to this discussion is the way the Bankruptcy Code treats community property. When […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2022, community property, discharge, filing alone, non-filing spouse

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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

Bankruptcy Alphabet: F is for First

In my Bankruptcy Alphabet, F is for First meeting of creditors. Lots of rumors exist about the that meeting; it produces unwarranted anxiety that is avoidable if you understand what's up. Let's check it out. The first meeting of creditors, also called the 341 meeting, is often the only time a debtor has to appear … Read more

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