Bankruptcy basics are simple, at least in concept: bankruptcy is the legal system’s remedy for debts beyond the ability of the person who owes money to pay. Bankruptcy in the United States operates to satisfy a person’s debts to the extent possible and to enable those with debts they can’t pay to start over. Exemptions […]
Caution: Freedom Debt Relief
Here’s the consent decree obtained by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against Freedom Debt Relief in mid-2019. Freedom Debt Relief stip. For some perspective on debt settlement as a solution to serious debt, see these posts over more than a decade from Bankruptcy Soapbox. Debt Settlement Is A Dud How Debt Settlement Really Works The […]
My 7 Favorite Soapbox Posts Of 2014
I tallied the readership’s favorite posts of the year and found the list far different than mine. So here’s the counter-list of my favorite posts of 2014, drawn from material first published this year. Most impactful appellate decision Welsh was decided in 2013, but I talked about it on Soapbox in 2014: The Most Important […]
Best Of 2014 On Bankruptcy Soapbox
Here are the ten posts that most intrigued readers of Bankruptcy Soapbox in 2014. Some are new this year, and others are classics from earlier. In reverse order, the ten posts that spoke to you. 10. Six Rotten Reasons Not To File Bankruptcy Mortgage law attorney Bill Purdy walks through the misguided reasons his clients […]
Congratulations To Sergio Garcia, New California Lawyer
Welcome to the California Bar, Sergio Garcia. Brought to this country as a teen by his father, Garcia is still waiting after 10 years for his green card. Meanwhile, he graduated from university and law school, and passed California’s notoriously difficult bar exam. But it was unclear whether an undocumented person was eligible for […]
Money management and the things we “deserve”
American Express radio commercials are touting a women’s money group, The Smart Cookies, who, we’re told, got control of their personal debt problems within two years. The five women they featured collectively owed $50,000, which seems small relative to the clients I see. But what set my teeth to grinding was one woman’s assurance that it […]
Mortgage modification as subsidy by taxpayers
The bankruptcy mortgage modification provision, headed to the Senate this week, is a bargain to taxpayers next to the “voluntary” mortgage modification programs instituted by the administration. HR 1106 involves no taxpayer money; it strips the special interest provision sheltering banks from home loan modification. The costs of changing the mortgage so that the debtor […]
Mortgage Modification and Moral Hazard
The NBC Sunday morning new shows were again talking about moral hazard as applied to efforts to stem the tide of foreclosures. This concept looks at the message we send when we rescue a homeowner who took out a bad loan and give nothing to the prudent homeowner who didn’t take an exploding ARM loan. […]
Sell first, litigate later
Meeting with a client with Truth in Lending claims the other day reminded me about the power of the Bankruptcy Code to facilitate the sale of property subject to disputed liens while preserving the claims against a secured creditor. These clients had property they wanted to sell but the amount they owed the holder of […]
