Cases crater when debtors inattentive
I sat in a courtroom last week and watched dozens of Chapter 13 cases get dismissed, often because the debtor had not taken seriously the requirement that all their tax returns be filed within 45 days...
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The Case For Savings in Chapter 13
Spending every dollar they make, and then some, is often how our Chapter 13 clients got into financial trouble. Yet Chapter 13, as practiced, validates the practice of continuing to spend 100% of each...
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Cramming Down Mortgage Liens: The Plot Thickens
Can you afford to cram down a mortgage when cram down is permitted? Mortgages on a debtor’s home are protected from cram down in Chapter 13 by 1322(b)(2). Mortgages on any other kind of real estate can...
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Tugging On Superman’s Cape
When a Chapter 13 trustee complains that the means test is not easy to administer when only one spouse files, should I be sympathetic? Here’s what I said recently at ConsiderChapter13.org on that...
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The Underwater Trade-In And Car Loans in Bankruptcy
Car lenders who finance car loans including the excess debt on a trade in lost some of their protected status in bankruptcy when the Supreme Court declined to review a 9th Circuit decision;...
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Bankruptcy Alphabet: S is for Strip
S is for Strip in my Bankruptcy Alphabet. Bankruptcy lawyers delight in stripping liens from people’s homes. In any chapter of bankruptcy, a debtor can void judgment liens that have attached to...
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Lien Strips Live in Chapter 20
Twenty is my favorite number these days. The Oakland bankruptcy judges have ruled consistent with one another that homeowners can strip underwater liens from their homes in Chapter 20 bankruptcy....
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Tax Deductions Hidden In Chapter 13
Don’t miss the tax deductions hiding in your Chapter 13 plan payments. The same, very important debts that your Chapter 13 plan pays are often tax deductible. And you are still the person who’s paying,...
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Bankruptcy Gets New Numbers All Around
Appropriate for the day after Easter, Monday April 1 will be the first day in a new bankruptcy world. Monday, all of the dollar values we work with in filing bankruptcy cases are adjusted for the cost...
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Bankruptcy Judge – Umpire In A Robe?
Chapter 7′s fix things; Chapter 13′s allow debtors to fix things. Doug Jacobs hit on that very profound difference between the bankruptcy chapters available to individuals on BLN this week. Kinda like...
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The Most Important Bankruptcy Decision Of 2013
A bankruptcy case nominally about travel trailers, ATV’s, and a car for a an adult child gets my vote as the most important bankruptcy decision of 2013 for Californians. When the 9th Circuit decided...
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