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California’s New Exemptions For Money In The Bank

By Cathy Moran

california cash exemptions\

California has finally created a state law exemption for cash in the bank. Californians filing bankruptcy no longer face loss of all the funds in their bank accounts when they choose California’s generous homestead, thanks to changes in exemption law. Two exemption statutes , new in 2020 , provide protection for cash in the bank […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: California, exemptions

Title Isn’t Everything: Watch Out For The Assets In Your Spouse’s Name

By Cathy Moran

community property surprise

But it’s titled to my spouse, sputtered the hapless debtor at the bankruptcy hearing. She hasn’t filed bankruptcy. Not so, says the bankruptcy trustee.  It was purchased during marriage, wasn’t it? And so, the trouble begins for those who don’t understand community property. Turns out the debtor left out of his schedules the bank account […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2016, California

What Debts Were Discharged In My Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

  After your bankruptcy, one of the hardest questions is figuring out just which debts were discharged. Eliminating debts was the whole point of filing bankruptcy. You’ve got a court order, but no list. You and your creditors understandably  expect to find a single document telling them what debts are no longer enforceable and which survive the bankruptcy. No […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2016, California

Do You Need To Reaffirm Your Home Loan After Bankruptcy?

By Cathy Moran

refinance after bankruptcy

Banks, most especially Wells Fargo, seem to relish denying refinance applications for debtors who didn’t reaffirm home mortgage in bankruptcy. You didn’t reaffirm your existing home loan, so we can’t refinance that debt Sometimes, the dig is even more painful (to me at least):  your attorney didn’t do this right so you are screwed. As […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2018, California, reaffirm

How Long Til Foreclosure?

By Cathy Moran

Everyone who has made the painful decision to let an unaffordable house go to foreclosure wants to know how long before they have to get out. While the statutory foreclosure process in California takes a little more than 4 months, if the the creditor is perfectly efficient, creditors aren’t perfectly efficient, and often seem to […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: California, default, foreclosure, sale

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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

High Income Earners Pass Bankruptcy’s Means Test

ALERT:   Being above the median income on the means test is not an automatic bar to filing bankruptcy I'm so used to railing against deliberate campaigns of misinformation about bankruptcy that I forget that there's a lot of innocent ignorance out there. Start with "qualifying" for bankruptcy. A very … Read more

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