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Closing Up Shop

By Cathy Moran

closing business

What can you do when it becomes obvious that your  business should close? The hardest part of being in business is recognizing when the business has no future and needs to close.  Yet the overwhelming majority of new businesses fail within 5 years. So you’re not alone.  In fact, in the face of the pandemic, […]

Filed Under: Featured, Small business 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

Speak Fluent Bankruptcy: Guide To Essential Bankruptcy Terms

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy terms

Bankruptcy has its own language.  If you are considering filing bankruptcy, it helps to know the language spoken there. Master just a couple of words and phrases, and input from a bankruptcy lawyer starts to make sense. So, in our continuing campaign for better understanding of bankruptcy, here’s a dozen phrases from the language of […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2017

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

No House, No Discharge When Chapter 13 Goes Off Script

By Cathy Moran

Chapter 13 alarm

Sound the alarm. What began as a trickle of Chapter 13 cases ending badly has become a torrent. More and more, bankruptcy judges are strictly enforcing the direct pay term of Chapter 13 plans. UPDATE: December, 2020 COVID relief bill provides an out for debtors who aren’t current on their mortgages, effective for a year. […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017

10 Top Tricks Of The Lending Industry

By Cathy Moran

consumer credit

The tricks lenders use to sell you a bad loan are limited only by the imagination of the lender. And they’re all conceived with one end in mind — big profits, not helping you. And, unlike Pinocchio’s ever-growing nose,  the consumer doesn’t see any tell-tale signs that warn of deception at work when credit’s being […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2017

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

Bankruptcy Busts Taxes If The Timing Is Right

By Cathy Moran

taxes dischargeable

Got unpaid taxes for 2016?  Three tax discharge timing rules control when those taxes can be wiped out in bankruptcy. On April 15, 2020 those taxes reached the end of the line as priority claims in bankruptcy.  Or, the magic date may be October 15, 2020, if you got an extension to file the return. […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes Tagged With: 2017, bankruptcy timing

Cutting The Car Loan Down To Size

By Cathy Moran

Bankruptcy can strip down what you’re paying on your car loan to just the bare essentials, saving you bundles. Consider my client whose car loan balance was grossly inflated to the point  that she owed twice the value of  her car, bought just a year ago. Before bankruptcy “reform”, she could have stripped the loan […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2017

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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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