News Topic: TheFloridaBankruptcyLawBlog

Here’s a relatively simple, but common,  question I was asked by email this past week. The writer makes payments on his daughter’s car titled in his daughter’s name. The writer (the parent) wants to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy and asks whether his monthly ... Read full article

How to mess up a bankruptcy exemption. I happened upon a Florida bankruptcy case decided in 2010 wherein a court held that a debtor’s self-directed IRA was not exempt. The debtor’s had a securities account that clearly was titled as an IRA account. The ... Read full article

I wrote blog posts in this blog and on my asset protection blog about  Florida court decision finding that a debtor’s IRA inherited from another family member, excluding spouses’ rollover, was not exempt from the debtor’s creditors because the IRA ... Read full article

I really liked this post on Georgia attorney Jonathan Ginsburg’s bankruptcy blog about how debtor’s Facebook posts could jeopardize their bankruptcy case . ... Read full article

When a debtor calculates a Chapter 7 means test analysis he is entitled to deduct from income transportation expenses associated with ownership of a car. All Florida debtors can deduct from income a general transportation expense which is approximately ... Read full article

Many self-employed debtors file bankruptcy because they have personally guaranteed debt of their failing business. Some of these debtors want to discharge their guarantees of business bank loans or credit cards used for the business, and they want to try ... Read full article

Here is an interesting bankruptcy case which demonstrates the pitfalls in titling a car in the name of anyone other than the principal driver. A grandfather wanted to buy a car for his grandchild. He purchased a car for all cash and put the title in the ... Read full article

Many people who wanted to file Chapter 13 found that they were ineligible because their debts exceeded the Chapter 13 debt limits of approximately $1 million of secured debt or approximately $360,000 of unsecured debt. The debt limits have affected more ... Read full article

I have rarely discussed bankruptcy attorneys fees in this blog even though I know that fees are an important consideration for readers who are considering filing bankruptcy. I do not want this blog to be interpreted as an advertisement for my own fees in ... Read full article

A woman called me to ask whether she and her husband could file bankruptcy while her husband was in prison. The woman is concerned about her husband’s inability to attend the trustee meeting. She said her husband could not initiate phone calls, and that ... Read full article

Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases have claim deadlines by which date the debtor’s creditors are supposed to file claims in order to be included in the roster of creditors entitled to distributions of money out of the Chapter 13 plan. I represent a debtor who ... Read full article

Most Chapter 13 bankruptcies fail. Most debtors do not pay their required payments to the Chapter 13 trustee throughout the term of their plan, and when payments fall behind their bankruptcy is dismissed without a discharge. It takes financial discipline ... Read full article

Bankruptcy trustees seem to be getting tougher on debtors who incur significant credit card debts and large secured debt obligations prior to filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I am seeing challenges asserted against significant credit card charges within six ... Read full article

Some people with minimal credit card debt file Chapter 13 bankruptcy primarily to strip a second mortgage. You may be able to accomplish the same result without filing bankruptcy now that banks are becoming somewhat more flexible to work out mortgage ... Read full article

From time to time I receive inquiries from people seeking to discharge a student loan in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Student loans can only be discharged for “undue hardship.” Undue hardship in this context means things are really, really bad. ... Read full article