Court Decisions

Bankruptcy attorneys are required to file a statement of compensation for each bankruptcy case. The statement discloses all forms of past, present, and future compensation. If they charge a client additional fees after the case is filed the attorney is supposed to file a supplemental statement of compensation within 14 days. Many attorneys do not strictly follow these rules. Frequently, attorneys neglect to file supplemental fee statements during complicated bankruptcy cases where clients pay for additional services after the case is filed.

A bankruptcy  attorney can try too hard to eliminate his client’s debt; when the attorney abuses the bankruptcy rules he can find himself in trouble with the bankruptcy court. Several attorneys in south Florida were sanctioned for filing frivolous pleadings in Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases. 

The 2005 bankruptcy law contains a provision which intends to stop debtors from converting non-exempt funds in to homestead properties otherwise exempt under state law. The Code section provides for loss of homestead exemption to the extent a Chapter 7 debtor used non-exempt assets, such as cash, to buy a homestead within 10 years preceding bankruptcy bankruptcy  when the debtor purchased the homestead with the intent to defraud creditors.

A fraudulent transfers and fraudulent conversions  prior to filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy can be detrimental in two ways. First, the Chapter 7 trustee can reverse the transfer or conversion, take the property back from the transferee (recipient), and sell the property for the benefit of your creditors. In addition, egregious fraudulent transfers within two years of filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy can cost the debtor the bankruptcy discharge.

Florida's  homestead exemption seems simple, but in some respects the exemption involves complicated legal issues. One such issue is the relationship between the Florida homestead protection and a debtor’s status under U.S. immigration laws. There are many bankruptcy cases were a debtor’s immigration status disqualified him from a bankruptcy homestead exemption because the debtor had not yet achieved the legal right under our immigration laws to reside permanently in the U.S. and Florida.