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Search Results for: do you need to file bankruptcy

Bankruptcy Questions Have Few Quick Answers

By Cathy Moran

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 […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, You & your lawyer Tagged With: 2020

Pay Your Debts Or Go To Jail?

By Cathy Moran

jailed for debt-not

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured

When Can I File Bankruptcy Again

By Cathy Moran

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 […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works, True Stories

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

Better Credit After Bankruptcy: Does Reaffirming A Car Loan Help?

By Cathy Moran

rebuilding credit through reaffirmation

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2021, credit score

10 Things Tax Professionals Need To Know About Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: accontants, tax preparers

Can You Be Arrested For Not Paying Your Debts?

By Cathy Moran

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 […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Student loans Tagged With: 2016

What’s New In Bankruptcy Law in 2021

By Cathy Moran

new in bankruptcy

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured

What Your Bankruptcy Lawyer Can’t Tell You

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy secret about means test

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 […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: Car, means test

California Homestead Exemption: The Truth Isn’t What You Think

By Cathy Moran

patchwork

“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, […]

Filed Under: Strictly California, True Stories Tagged With: 2018

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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

Bankruptcy Alphabet: E is for Exemptions

E stands for exemptions in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. Exemptions describe the possessions you get to keep when you file bankruptcy. E could also stand for Exception, since exemptions are the only place in bankruptcy law where the law is explicitly different from state to state. Exemptions vary The Bankruptcy Code … Read more

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