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Why File Bankruptcy? It’s Your Life Expectancy

By Cathy Moran

paying debts

Increasing life spans and the demise of pension plans is why filing bankruptcy now makes sense. Old debt has a way of sucking the air out of today’s budget. You can’t make repairs to your car or see to needed health care or accumulate an emergency cushion because you’re still paying for stuff you bought […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2017, IRA, retirement, savings

Bankruptcy Changes Your Life, Only Not The Way You Think

By Cathy Moran

life after bankruptcy

How will filing bankruptcy change my life? My clients ask all the time.  They imagine the remainder of their life after bankruptcy with neither credit cards nor credit.  Outcasts in our economy.  Shunned by all.  Crippled by bankruptcy. They can see a scarlet “B” tattooed on their foreheads to mark them forever as Bankrupts. My […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy Tagged With: 2017, life after bankruptcy

How 13 Works To Save Your House From Foreclosure

By Cathy Moran

save house

Saving a house from foreclosure is the single reason most people file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy stops foreclosure- that’s a given. But then what? How can bankruptcy save the house from foreclosure,  rather than just putting off the inevitable loss? After all, the mortgage lender has a lien on the house, and liens aren’t discharged in bankruptcy. […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017, chapter 13, foreclosure, keep house, save house

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

California’s Good Deed: Passing Real Property At Death

By Cathy Moran

property upon death

The horror stories about do-it-yourself estate planning are both plentiful and tragic. Between the fear of probate and the fear of legal fees, inventive people invent inexpensive strategies for passing property to the next generation. Adding someone to the deed is the most common one I see. It works like this: in order to see […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2017, estate planning

Is Home Equity A Substitute For Retirement Savings

By Cathy Moran

Home as retirement savings

My home is my retirement plan. If I had a dollar for every time a client said that, I could retire today. But that approach to funding your old age only works if…. Sell your house to retire The value in your house makes your balance sheet strong, but doesn’t put food on the table […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017, home equity, retirement

Bankruptcy Schedules Are More Than Just Paperwork

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy papers

Bankruptcy paperwork can make you feel like you are drowning in paper. There’s your paper; there’s the paper your lawyer needs.  And there’s the paper the court insists on. Why bankruptcy schedules worth the work It’s easy to try to skate. To cut corners.  To shut down. But that paper is critical. Nearly every question, […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2017, paperwork, schedules

When Your Bank Account Is Seized: California Action Plan

By Cathy Moran

beat a bank levy

Time is short when you get a notice that a creditor has levied your bank account. California has protections that may allow you to recover money that’s been seized. But success in getting your money back depends on prompt action and following the procedures. Bank levy basics A creditor with a judgment is entitled to […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2017

Two Strikes & You’re Out (Of Your Home)

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy stay

Three strikes and you’re out.  Anyone familiar with baseball knows that one. The rules are different in bankruptcy. Two strikes and you’re out. And for one couple, they’re not only out of bankruptcy, they’re out of their house. Foreclosed the day after they filed bankruptcy number three. Because, what they didn’t know is that there […]

Filed Under: Featured, True Stories Tagged With: 2017, do it yourself

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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

Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy 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 … Read more

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