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How To Pick A Bankruptcy Lawyer

By Cathy Moran

interview a bankruptcy lawyer

How do you pick a bankruptcy lawyer when you’ve never hired any lawyer and never before considered filing bankruptcy? What do you ask a bankruptcy lawyer to determine if the lawyer is the right one for you? After all, the conversation has to move beyond “what does bankruptcy cost?” Financial troubles are tough and bankruptcy […]

Filed Under: Featured, You & your lawyer Tagged With: 2016, choose a lawyer, find a lawyer, pick a lawyer

Co Signers Put Themselves In Creditor’s Crosshairs

By Cathy Moran

cosigner in crosshairs

The liability of a co signer is the single most common misunderstanding about the law that I see. Put bluntly, a co-signer is just as liable for the debt as the primary borrower. Co sign someone else’s debt and you put yourself in the creditor’s cross hairs. That should make the hair on the back […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2016

Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy Means Test

By Cathy Moran

cheat sheet for means test

The bankruptcy means test has a fatal weakness in its attempt to keep people out of bankruptcy. Like so much recently, it’s health care. It’s health care, in the future, to be paid before your creditors get any money in your bankruptcy. It works because, in a logic that only Congress could employ, the means […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2016, means test, medical expenses

Don’t File Bankruptcy In December

By Cathy Moran

wait to file bankruptcy

Bankruptcy can provide tax relief,  if your timing is right. Tax troubles are at the heart of so many bankruptcy filings.  It makes sense:  bankruptcy is a powerful and predictable tool to get out of tax debt. But filing bankruptcy before the end of the year may fix only a part of your tax problems.  […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2016, discharge taxes

Bail Yourself Out Of Payroll Tax Trouble

By Cathy Moran

Business owners with unpaid payroll taxes are in deep trouble. Even if the employer is a corporation, the corporation’s managers are personally liable for the trust fund portion of unpaid payroll taxes. There’s no corporate shield when it comes to payroll taxes. You are in the IRS’s cross hairs, personally, if the business hands out “net” checks […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Small business, Taxes Tagged With: 2016

California Bankruptcy Law Is All Our Own

By Cathy Moran

california bankruptcy law

California Bankruptcy law is a lot like a unicorn….appealing but imaginary. Instead, we have bankruptcy in California, where the landscape is shaped by community property;  state exemptions, large mortgages, and the 9th circuit court of appeals. Like the Merced River cutting through the granite of Yosemite, those factors alter the bankruptcy landscape here. Community property […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2016, california bankruptcy

4 Compelling Reasons To File The Tax Return Even If You Can’t Pay

By Cathy Moran

Should you file the tax return if you can’t pay the tax? You got to the bottom of your tax return and the amount you owe is bigger than your checkbook balance. Scared of filing the return for fear of immediate collection action? Scared of even calculating how much you owe?  think an extension of […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2016

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, timing

Disarm The Debt Collector: Understanding The Weapons of Debt Collection

By Cathy Moran

debt collector

You can stop a debt collector cold, wherever you live, using federal law. It doesn’t take a lawyer, a court, or an enforcer. That’s because the weapons of a debt collector are fear, shame, and annoyance. The weapon delivery system is communication. Those weapons don’t have to be any more threatening than a plastic toy […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Debt Collection Rights Tagged With: 2016

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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.

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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