The automatic stay is the hallmark of bankruptcy, so when the judge lifts the stay to permit a lender to foreclose, we tend to think the curtain has come down on our client as homeowner. Well, maybe not, or at least, not yet. In some cases, the road to foreclosure seems to be a wandering […]
Lawyers ask “How does bankruptcy work?”
The good folks at the Collaborative Law gathering yesterday had the same questions that their clients have: when is the right time to file bankruptcy? what happens when you file? what does it do to (for?) your life? Collaborative Law, as I understand it, involves couples in a cooperative effort with a shared set of […]
Required financial management education: BAPCPA’s one good thing
Once again, a client told me that if she’d known before what she learned in the financial management class required to get her bankruptcy discharge, she probably wouldn’t have needed bankruptcy in the first place. Pretty strong words, from someone who admitted that she approached the required class with low expectations. She announced that she […]
Is defaulting on mortgage immoral?
Falling home prices have lead to a surge of strategic defaulters, in real estate columnist Kenneth Harney’s words: people who abruptly choose to stop making mortgage payments. These folks have made an economic decision that continuing to pay on a house that is significantly underwater does not make economic sense. Harney is clearly bothered by […]
Wage garnishment ends with bankruptcy filing
We were exploring the timing of a bankruptcy case, trying to live free in the house to be foreclosed while avoiding a garnishment on the working spouse’s wages. I was thinking about comparing the cost of a garnishment to the cost of renting a house: the client was thinking that a wage garnishment was forever! […]
Small businesses increasingly seek bankruptcy relief
Mom and pop businesses are beginning to dominate the list of my new clients over the past 30 days. Retail businesses, construction, internet sales, real estate, all are reaching the end of their ropes. Distressingly, these include a high percentage of long running, well established businesses. Often, the business has been supported on the credit […]
Judicial review of debtor’s attorneys fees
At a hearing on the approval of my attorneys fees in a Chapter 13 case, the judge questioned the fees I attributed to defending a motion for relief from stay which was granted after three hearings. Wasn’t this a lost cause from the start, she asked? My reply was that I had raised questions of […]
Foreclosure the day after tomorrow
The email said: ” We saw you two months ago about bankruptcy. The foreclosure is Tuesday. Can you help?” I wanted to reply: “Where have you been in the past two months? What were you thinking to wait til now to start filing bankruptcy?” Instead I said: “Bring information, money and be here in two […]
Credit card “overspending” parallels housing crisis
Forbes has compiled a list of cities where credit card spending is highest. My scan of the list suggests that this list is simply another version of the areas of the country where housing is in trouble. Homeowners with outsized mortgage payments rely on credit cards to make up the difference needed to support the […]
Keep the house? Deflector shields up
Logic and reality have been bouncing off my clients’ deflector shields recently on the issue of their houses. Confronted with the gap between their income and even the payment on a modified loan, I get the refrain, “But keeping the house is the most important thing in my case!” Yes, and how do you expect […]
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