New California law, effective January 1, 2023, eliminates the need for bankruptcy debtors to reaffirm car loans in order to avoid repossession. Now, you can keep your car after bankruptcy, so long as you keep the payments current, without reaffirming the debt. Until now, reaffirmation had the effect of giving up the discharge as to […]
Which Spouse Is Liable For Debts In California
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” […]
What Happens To 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, […]
Whopping exemption for CA 529 college accounts
A substantial new California exemption snuck into law in 2021, the college savings account exemption. It protects 529 college savings accounts from the creditors of parents. The exemption applies in all California collections and to California bankruptcies when the CCP 704 exemptions are selected. The eyeopener is that a parent (or other donor) can contribute […]
California Consumers Have Powerful Debt Collection Rights
California outdoes the rest of the country in its debt collection rights for consumers. Debt collectors have noticed the growing understanding of debtors about their rights to fair debt collection. And they aren’t happy. The Federal law Fair Debt Collection Practices Act regulates the conduct of third party collectors. Those protections apply everywhere and more […]
Get A Voodoo Discharge Without Filing Bankruptcy
One of the great mysteries of debtor/creditor law is the community property discharge in bankruptcy. When only one spouse files bankruptcy in a community property state like California, the non filing spouse reaps bunches of benefits that creditors can’t imagine. Benefits that aren’t explicitly described in books about bankruptcy or understood by creditors. Those benefits […]
California Bankruptcy Law Is All Our Own
California Bankruptcy law is a lot like a unicorn….appealing but imaginary. Instead, we have bankruptcy in California, where the landscape is shaped by community property; state exemptions, large mortgages, and the 9th circuit court of appeals. Like the Merced River cutting through the granite of Yosemite, those factors alter the bankruptcy landscape here. Community property […]
Wage Garnishment Survival Guide
“Your wages have been garnished, ” reads the letter from your employer. Do nothing and twenty-five percent of your after-tax earnings will be sent to your judgment creditor. So, do something: keep reading this action guide for Californians subject to a wage garnishment. This guide has three parts: the short run guide for minimizing the hit […]
Who Files Bankruptcy In The Face Of Booming Bay Area Economy?
Silicon Valley is booming; our highways are so full of people getting to work that we can’t get to work. Employment is approaching the level of the dot.com bubble. Property values are outrageous. So who files bankruptcy in this pocket of prosperity? All kinds of people, it turns out. Let’s look at the people who sought […]
Do I Have To File Bankruptcy Before There’s A Judgment?
Can I discharge a judgment once it’s entered, was the first question the caller asked. Do I have time to file bankruptcy? The caller was sure he had to file bankruptcy before the court entered judgment or he’d be stuck with the judgment forever. Not so. Bankruptcy discharges judgments. And, a judgment in California does not […]
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