Why Chapter 13 is So Nifty
Chapter 7 is short and sweet and to the point. It often gets what you need—a discharge (a legal write-off) of all or almost all of your debts. But in SO many situations, Chapter 13 gives you so much more. A couple blogs ago I showed a simple Chapter 13 case works. In my example, […]
Keeping Everything You Own Through Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
One good reason that people filing Chapter 7 don’t lose any of their stuff to the bankruptcy trustee—if they did have something to lose, they would likely have filed a Chapter 13 instead. How does Chapter 13 protect what you’d otherwise lose in a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy”? As I said at the beginning of […]
Keeping Everything You Own in Bankruptcy
You want to know: “Can I really keep everything I own if I file bankruptcy?” A two-part answer: 1) Yes, you can, usually, keep those possessions that are all yours (you don’t owe any money on them). 2) Yes, you can, usually, keep those particular possessions on which you are making payments to a creditor […]
Can an Individual Chapter 7 Case Ever Save Your Business?
Chapter 13 can be a great way to keep certain small businesses afloat, but how about Chapter 7? Can’t it ever be a simpler and cheaper way to do so? In my last blog I said that Chapter 7 is “seldom the right option if you own a business that you want to keep […]
Preserve Your Ability to File Bankruptcy at the Time You Want
Sometimes the timing of your bankruptcy filing hardly matters, but other times it’s huge. The three examples in this blog should convince you that you want to avoid being rushed to file your case because a creditor sued you earlier and is now garnishing your wages. Instead you want to preserve the ability to file […]
What Makes Your Bankruptcy Simple, and Not So Simple?
If your financial life is legally simple, your bankruptcy will likely be simple. What is it about your financial life that makes for a not so simple bankruptcy case? Bankruptcy can be very flexible. If your finances are complicated, bankruptcy likely has a decent way to deal with all the messes. My new clients are […]
“If Only I’d Gone to See My Bankruptcy Attorney Sooner . . . ”
Those are the words I hate to hear from a new client. Bankruptcy attorneys are in the business because we truly want to help people. It’s an emotionally tough area of law, dealing all the time with clients who are financially hurting. Usually my client are also hurting in other ways, related to what caused […]
Property Exemptions in Bankruptcy—A Grand Political Compromise
The amount of property you get to keep in a bankruptcy is the result of a 200-year-old Constitutional battle of states’ right versus federal power. The Bankruptcy Code provides for a uniform federal set of property exemptions, but if you live in one of 35 states you cannot use those exemptions. Instead you’re stuck with […]
Do Non-Citizen Debtors Get All the Benefits of Filing Bankruptcy?
In a blog last week I said that non-citizens—legal or not—can file bankruptcy. All they need is appropriate identification. But that begs two questions: 1) Would that non-citizen receive all the benefits from that bankruptcy that a citizen would receive? 2) And would filing the bankruptcy hurt a legal non-citizen’s efforts to become a citizen, […]
Save Your Home with 5 Powerful Prescriptions Found in Your Chapter 13 Medicine Cabinet
Chapter 13 is often the best option for holding onto your home. That may be simply because it solves one of your major home debt problems, or instead because it solves a bunch of them all in one package.