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$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

Personal Assets Can Be At Risk For Your Business Debts

By Cathy Moran

business debts

Business debt can bleed over into an entrepreneur’s personal assets.  Hearing me say that, my client was dumbfounded. He was aghast that the generous equity in the home he and his wife owned was at risk when his corporate business folded. That was not because the shareholder is liable for the corporation’s debts.  A properly […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Small business, True Stories Tagged With: 2017

What Everyone Knows About Bankruptcy: Not

By Cathy Moran

torture device

Lots of people profess to know all about bankruptcy. Whether they have good information or not. But other professionals should know better than to advise people about the workings of bankruptcy. And if they don’t know better, they should be made to pay, in some exquisitely painful way, for the harm they inflict. The rack […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, How bankruptcy works, True Stories

Which Bankruptcy Chapter Is Right For Me?

By Cathy Moran

choose bankruptcy chapter

Seven or Thirteen? 13 or 7? When you have a choice, how do you decide which chapter of bankruptcy works best? Usually, the choice is driven by the scope of the discharge and the kind of debts you have. More kinds of  debts are dischargeable in Chapter 13 and the automatic stay protects you for the […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, True Stories Tagged With: 2016, choose chapter

Tax Liens Live On After Bankruptcy, Unless….

By Cathy Moran

You mean the tax liens won’t  go away when I get a bankruptcy discharge? The client was startled that the lien would live on beyond his bankruptcy. So, if all my debt doesn’t go away, what do I get from the bankruptcy discharge?  he asked. I thought the tax debt went away when I filed. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Life after bankruptcy, Taxes, True Stories

The Means Test: Badly Mangled

By Cathy Moran

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 […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works, True Stories

The Zero Interest Get-Out-Of-Debt Tool: Bankruptcy For The Solvent

By Cathy Moran

chapter 13 rescue

Once again, Chapter 13 rescued a client. He’ll get out of debt and pay off credit cards with no interest going forward. So many people tell me they could pay off the credit card balance if it wasn’t for the high interest. This client owned a home, had a job, and was solvent on paper, but […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works, True Stories Tagged With: 2016, homestead

Who Owns Your Business When You File Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

business bankruptcy

The bankruptcy trustee’s question was straightforward (if inartful) yet the business owner nearly blew the answer. The trustee asked:  are you the sole owner of your business? When my client hesitated, she followed up:  are you a sole proprietor? Focusing on the fact that he was the only person with an interest in the business, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Small business, True Stories Tagged With: 2018

Chapter 13 To The Rescue In Ruinous Business Lawsuit

By Cathy Moran

rescued

Twice in the last six months, Chapter 13 bankruptcy has saved clients facing catastrophic lawsuits arising out of business. And because the targets of these lawsuits filed bankruptcy before they’d spent a fortune on lawyers and before the court had a chance to award huge damages, they fit beneath the Chapter 13 debt limits. We […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works, True Stories Tagged With: 2016

Free Bankruptcy Advice: Consider The Source

By Cathy Moran

Who gets their legal advice from their adversary? My client did. Get your legal advice from your adversary, your brother in law, or the internet and be prepared to get a surprise.  Often, not a pleasant surprise. My client insisted that his tenant’s debt to him survived the tenant’s bankruptcy “because it was listed on Schedule […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, True Stories

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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 on how I think law should work for the consumer and small businesses when it comes to debt.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

How To Pay For Bankruptcy When You’re Flat Broke

One of the cosmic ironies of our legal system is that it costs money to file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy gets you out of debt only if you have the money to file. The costs of bankruptcy include the filing fee collected by the court; the required credit counseling; and, if you're smart, an experienced lawyer to make sure … Read more

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