News Topic: BankruptcyLawNetwork

If you have been reading Bankruptcy Law Network recently, you would have seen various articles about reaffirmations.  What they are, what they do, under what circumstances you should reaffirm a debt or mortgage and when you should not.  There are even some ... Read full article

When you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, one option you have is to reaffirm your mortgage.  Do you have to reaffirm in order to refinance later?  Of course not, but your lender may try to tell you otherwise. Other articles here discuss the actual process of ... Read full article

Before I begin my rant on Chapter 13 and the way I see things turning against some debtors ( not all debtors), I would like to start by saying that I honestly believe that Consumer Bankruptcy is Financial Planning for the Future.  Also, I still believe in ... Read full article

The L.A. Dodgers baseball franchise filed for bankruptcy protection today. After a search, I think this is the only place on the “free internet” that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Bankruptcy Petition can be viewed in its entirety. The list of largest creditors ... Read full article

chart of filings nationally Fewer people have filed bankruptcy petitions so far in 2011 than they did in 2010.  Last year there were over 1.5 million bankruptcies filed in the United States.  In the first quarter of 2011 there were 6% fewer cases filed ... Read full article

Bankruptcy is about providing relief to folks who can’t really afford their debts anymore.  But we often hear from folks who have heard that Chapter 13 can’t help because they won’t have any money left over to live on.  Like many rumors, this one is ... Read full article

  Bankruptcy is not for liars, cheats and crooks. Debt discharge is reserved for honest, but unfortunate, debtors who need a fresh start in life. If you do not want to come clean and make a full and honest disclosure of all your financial affairs, ... Read full article

My colleague, Kurt O’Keefe, of Michigan, recently wrote regarding the difference between reaffirming a lease and reaffirming a secured loan on a vehicle.  He stated throughout his article that a lease was a different type of animal – neither secured or ... Read full article

The Kansas Supreme Court recently ruled in Hall v. Ford Motor Credit Co. LLC, that a debtor’s failure to reaffirm a debt secured by his pick-up truck during his Chapter 7 bankruptcy constituted a default of his loan with Ford Motor Credit.  The court found ... Read full article

An illegal immigrant can file for bankruptcy in the United States.  There is no reference to a citizenship requirement in the Bankruptcy Law.  US Code §109 provides the requirements to be a “debtor.” The most common way to be eligible to be a debtor is to ... Read full article

If you are an “above-median income” debtor, you may wonder if you can still file Chapter 7.   The answer to this question is “yes,” but your case will be more complicated. Although the phrase “means test” suggests a single calculation, in fact, means ... Read full article

An individual same-sex married person who files bankruptcy faces a choice whether to include spousal income for purposes of determining how much unsecured creditors could receive from the bankruptcy case.  This choice is not available to the heterosexual ... Read full article

According to an opinion signed, extraordinarily, by 20 of the 24 judges of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, based in Los Angeles, the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) is unconstitutional insofar as it bars same-sex couples ... Read full article

Earlier this month, I posted a rebuttal to a Forbes online article written by a tax lawyer named Stephen Dunn.  Mr. Dunn opines that usually Chapter 7 is not the best option for debtors facing severe financial hardship. Noted consumer advocate Geri ... Read full article

Technically, you can file a bankruptcy the same day you meet with a lawyer.  However, this is advisable only under the most extreme circumstances.  Under normal conditions, you can expect the process to take a couple of weeks from the time all of your ... Read full article

You filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and something went wrong.  Maybe you didn’t have a lawyer, or perhaps something went awry in your case.  Whatever it was, you want to get out of the case as quickly and easily as possible. You need to know that you don’t ... Read full article

A New York bankruptcy court ruled that a same sex married couple can file a joint bankruptcy case, just the same as a heterosexual married couple, regardless of the existence of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.  This case, In re Somers and Caggiano, ... Read full article

Bankruptcy has some of the more powerful protections for consumers around — the automatic stay and the discharge.   There’s an unfortunate secret about the law that no one wants to brag about — with the automatic stay, you can often violate it until ... Read full article