The caller to my law office kept telling my assistant: I just want to ask Cathy a question. To which my assistant replied: you need to first fill out our questionnaire and make an appointment. But I don’t want a meeting, I just want to ask a question. At which point, both sides of the […]
Search Results for: do you need to file bankruptcy
Pay Your Debts Or Go To Jail?
What would you do if you got a tip there was an arrest warrant out because you hadn’t paid one of your bills? Scrape up the money any way you can? Get out of town? Laugh? The right answer is “laugh”. In the US we don’t arrest people for owing money they can’t pay. Yet […]
When Can I File Bankruptcy Again
You can file bankruptcy tomorrow, so long as you don’t currently have a bankruptcy case pending. When you can get a discharge in that case is a different story. The Bankruptcy Code limits the frequency of getting a discharge, not the filing and completion of the bankruptcy case. My friend Gene Melchionne wrote a marvelous […]
Personal Assets Can Be At Risk For Your 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 […]
Better Credit After Bankruptcy: Does Reaffirming A Car Loan Help?
Does reaffirming a car loan after bankruptcy help rebuild your credit? Rebuilding credit is the motivation that drives lots of debtors to waive the benefits of their discharge as to a car loan. A reaffirmation agreement has the debtor agreeing to be personally liable after the bankruptcy discharge for the car loan balance. Miss payments […]
10 Things Tax Professionals Need To Know About Bankruptcy
Tax season approaches. Tax preparers stand a good chance of encountering clients who either have filed bankruptcy, or who may benefit from a bankruptcy filing. Here’s my list of bankruptcy nuggets that a good tax professional should have at hand. Debts discharged in bankruptcy don’t trigger cancellation of debt income– One of bankruptcy’s compelling features […]
Can You Be Arrested For Not Paying Your Debts?
Despite the story spread all over about federal marshals arresting a man for an unpaid student loan, we don’t arrest people for not paying their debts. And Fox News got the story wrong. The man was not arrested because he owed money he hadn’t paid. He was arrested for blowing off a court order that […]
What’s New In Bankruptcy Law in 2021
The new year of 2021 brings us face to face with a desolate economic landscape and the hope of better things to come. For some significant slice of Americans, bankruptcy will be a consideration. You’ll want to know what’s new in 2021 in the array of bankruptcy options and alternatives. I’m writing after passage of […]
What Your Bankruptcy Lawyer Can’t Tell You
I can share a secret, just between us. Bankruptcy “reform” in 2005 tried in a number of ways to discredit and gag lawyers from helping debtors. One of those additions to the Bankruptcy Code prohibits lawyers from advising those filing bankruptcy to incur new debt. The statute makes no distinction about the kind of debt […]
California Homestead Exemption: The Truth Isn’t What You Think
“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, […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 27
- Next Page »
