When should you consider bankruptcy?
Bankruptcy Defense Attorney Miami Are you paying your bills with your credit cards? How many credit cards have you applied for in the past 6 months? Is your income smaller than what you’re spending? You’re probably aware that you’re on the verge of bankruptcy or not, and if you’re not then the right thing to […]
The “Black Box” of the Means Test
What happens if you make too much money so that you are over “median income,” but you still want to file a Chapter 7 case? You get to go through the “black box” that is the expenses side of the means test. In the last couple of blogs I’ve covered the first part of […]
In a Chapter 7 Case, “The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself”
There’s a lot you can do to help make your “straight bankruptcy” Chapter 7 a straightforward one, but one thing you can’t control is your creditors’ reactions to it. You know that creditors can try to prevent you from discharging (legally writing off) your debts, so naturally you worry about this. Here’s why you shouldn’t […]
The Goal of Bankruptcy: the Discharge of Your Debts
Most—but not all—debts are written off, or “discharged,” in a bankruptcy case. Is there a simple way to know what will and what will not be discharged? There is nothing more basic than bankruptcy’s main purpose, getting a fresh financial start through the legal discharge of your debts. Both kinds of consumer bankruptcy can […]
“Automatic” Protection from Your Creditors
Many bankruptcy attorney ads say: “Stop garnishments.” “Stop foreclosures.” “Stop repossessions.” So bankruptcy stops all those bad things. But is it as good as it sounds? How does it really work? There’s nothing more basic than getting immediate protection for you, your paycheck, your home, and your possessions. You get this protection the minute […]
The Very Rocky History of U.S. Bankruptcy Law
You think the present Congress can’t get anything done? It took more than a hundred years for Congress to pass the first permanent bankruptcy law. Lots of people know that bankruptcy was important enough to our founders to be included in the U.S. Constitution. But that’s just the very beginning of the story: The […]
The Amazing but True Evolution of Bankruptcy Law
You’ve heard of debtors’ prisons. But that’s only one hideous part of the very colorful history of bankruptcy law. American bankruptcy law was based on the law of England at the time of the colonies. Today’s blog tells how incredibly different pre-Revolutionary War bankruptcy laws were from current law. The first bankruptcy law in […]
Chapter 13 Conquers Both Older and Newer Income Taxes
If you owe a number of years of income tax debt, Chapter 13 allows you to favor those taxes that have to be favored, while dumping the taxes that can be dumped. In my last blog I gave an example showing how Chapter 13 can be an extremely good way to handle income tax debts […]
Don’t Get Disqualified from the All-Important “Automatic Stay”
In VERY RARE circumstances, ALL of your creditors can pursue you even if you file bankruptcy. Here’s how to avoid those rare but dangerous circumstances. In my last blog I listed three special classes of debts for which you can still be pursued in spite of filing bankruptcy. They are exceptions to the automatic stay, […]
Bankruptcy Private Student Loans
Will I be able to discharge my private sector student loans thru bankruptcy?