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Protecting Your Co signor When You Can’t Pay

By Cathy Moran

cosigned loans

Cosigning a loan links you and your cosignor together for the life of the debt. If you get in financial trouble, your troubles are your co signor’s troubles too. If you can’t pay your debts, the standard bankruptcy discharge will get rid of your debt, but it doesn’t help your co signor. Even while you […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Consumer Rights 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

New Bankruptcy Trends From An Old Hand

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy trends

I’m seeing a real change in the people seeing me about filing bankruptcy. Used to be, the problem was credit card debt, unemployment, or divorce. A surprising trend over the past six months is developing. I acknowledge the sample size is small.  Statistically, you can challenge the significance, but here are the trends. My office is […]

Filed Under: Featured, True Stories Tagged With: 2017

Before You List Your Home For Sale: The Essential First Task

By Cathy Moran

Selling your home?   Before you list your home, before you interview a realtor, before you lift a paint brush, or clean a closet, you need to write a letter. A letter to the servicer of your mortgage. You want full disclosure of what charges, fees, expenses and other “stuff” they want to collect from […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017, mortgage servicing

Can A Trust Protect You In Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

protect assets in bankruptcy

Can a living trust protect your assets in bankruptcy? Or, anywhere else? According to the lawyer advertising and the self-help books, everyone needs a living trust. The asset protection industry loves irrevocable trusts, another much touted trust. An irrevocable trust gets assets out of your name for all time. Unless of course, they are attacked in […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2017

No House, No Discharge When Chapter 13 Goes Off Script

By Cathy Moran

Chapter 13 alarm

Sound the alarm. Bankruptcy cases are getting tossed out when debtors fail to make mortgage payments. 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. If your plan says you will pay your […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017

Will You Come Visit Me In Jail?

By Cathy Moran

arrest tax evasion

There’s a warrant out for my arrest, according to the message on my home phone. The charge is criminal tax evasion and tax fraud. The cops are coming for me, unless… Unless, the caller suggests, I call this number and send money. Who knew the feds could be bought off? Of course, it’s a scam. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2017

5 Essential Tips To Understand Your Mortgage Loan

By Cathy Moran

mortgage debt

Figuring out what your home loan balance is can be harder than a calculus exam. For most people, their mortgage is their biggest debt.  And their home is their most important asset. Yet, the people accounting for your payments are increasingly incapable of the very basics of their job.  And that makes your job, as […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2017

Find The Hidden Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction In Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

MORTAGE INTEREST DEDUCTION

Is your Chapter 13 plan  paying back mortgage payments that were delinquent when you filed bankruptcy? If so, a mortgage interest tax deduction lurks, unclaimed, in the trustee’s records. Track down that tax deduction, add it to your tax return, and you reduce your federal income tax burden. But it’s difficult because, for reasons I […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2017, tax deductions

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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

Speak Fluent Bankruptcy: Guide To Essential 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 … Read more

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