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Means test: don’t try this at home

By Cathy Moran

Be an educated client, but don’t tell me how to do the means test!  For someone who has spent as much time as I have trying to get good bankruptcy information out in the public domain, I found I had a very churlish reaction to a new client who wanted to tell me how his bonus would affect the means test.  What is there about law that makes everyone who is literate think he can read the law, and practice law?

The error this client was making was common:  he assumed that current monthly income was the magic number for an above median income debtor.  He missed the entire part of the “test” that looks at deductions from CMI to reach Monthly Disposable Income.  Who could tell whether the bonus made a difference on the bottom line without calculating the allowances and deductions?

Makes me ask myself, what is it that I want in a client?  How much knowledge should they have?  Do I really want to teach each client how the means test works, or doesn’t work, in order to file their case?  Do I truly prefer the passive, non thinking client?  This business of “medians” is more complex than it appears on its face.

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About Cathy Moran

I'm a veteran bankruptcy lawyer and consumer advocate in California's Silicon Valley. I write, teach, and speak in the hopes of expanding understanding of how bankruptcy can make life better in a family's future.

Comments

  1. statestreetlaw says

    March 18, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    Cathy, love your website and your blog. I sometimes tell clients that seem to know the answers that self diagnosis in bankruptcy can be very dangerous. Almost everything in bankruptcy like the business of medians, “is more complex than it appears on its face.” great blog and site

    Eric Olsen

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.

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

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