I’ve always assumed that California law excluded from income debt forgiven in bankruptcy, just as federal tax law does. When a client asked me to confirm that the treatment was the same, I realized that this was one of those things I had just assumed. As a lawyer, I ought to know the danger […]
Was Your Credit Score Trampled By Unwanted Wells Fargo Accounts
Fake Wells Fargo accounts opened without consent may adversely affect victims’ credit scores. Are you affected? Wells Fargo employees opened an estimated 500,000 unauthorized credit card accounts and more than 1 million deposit accounts. Your credit score is figured in part on new credit accounts and available credit. If you banked with Wells Fargo, […]
Glimmer of Hope For Change In Student Loan Dischargeability
A small opening in the legal barrier to discharging student loans in bankruptcy has appeared in a case called Roth. To discharge a student loan in bankruptcy, the borrower must show that repayment of the loan would cause he and his dependents undue hardship. The test for what constitutes “undue hardship” is many circuits the […]
Social Security Safe In Bankruptcy
The Chapter 13 trustee objected to the debtors’ repayment plan because they did not plan to devote their Social Security income to repaying creditors. And, he complained, they proposed to keep and pay for vehicles that are luxury items. The plan is not proposed in good faith, he claimed, as required by the Bankruptcy Code. The […]
Costs of Incarcerated Kid Dischargeable in Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy “reform” a decade ago expanded protections for those owed family support. Any debt “in the nature of support” can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, regardless of to whom it’s owed. Orange County tried to ride that change in the law to make its claim against the mother of a kid in juvie survive her bankruptcy. Last week, the 9th Circuit […]
Melania Trump Sold The American Dream Short
The infamous Melania Trump speech at the Republican convention shared more than a paragraph or so with Michelle Obama. It shared Michelle’s aspirational thought that in America, any child with hard work and perseverance can succeed. “The only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for […]
Not Too Late To Strip Mortgage Lien
It’s never too late to value a lien and avoid it in bankruptcy. Even after the Chapter 13 case is done and closed. So says the 9th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel in Chagolla, decided February 9, 2016. In the absence of prejudicial delay, we find that a motion to value and avoid the lien of a junior […]
File Bankruptcy All Alone: No Spouse Required
We’re so used to thinking about married folk as a couple, rather than as two individuals: George and Gracie; Bill and Hillary; John and Abigail. The Bankruptcy Code feeds that perception when it allows a married couple to file a joint case. Two people, one set of papers, one filing fee. But while filing together […]
Who Gets To Choose Your Bankruptcy Chapter?
Does someone other than the debtor get to choose which chapter a bankruptcy case is filed under? Some seem to think so. There’s an ongoing tug of war in the courts between the bankruptcy establishment on one side and debtors and their lawyers on the other about whether a Chapter 13 that pays only the attorneys […]
Dead Debts Haunt Home Purchase
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. It’s also the price of freedom from old debts, as my former bankruptcy client learned. He was about to close escrow on a new home a couple of years after his discharge. But the sale came to a screaming halt when an old, discharged debt reappeared on his […]
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