Can I keep a credit card out of my bankruptcy for future emergencies, clients routinely ask. The short answer is that you can properly omit from your bankruptcy filing any card issuer with whom you don’t have a balance. Those issuers are not creditors at this point. The broader question is just how useful is […]
Student loans ensnare parents
Should you guarantee a student loan, asks my good friend Doug Jacobs. His is the cool, reasoned analysis. I want to jump up and down and say DON”T DO IT. It pains me to say that. My undergraduate education was funded in part with modest student loans. I believe education is the key to much […]
What if you choose an alternative to bankruptcy
I’ve continued to think about my response to David Leibowitz’s discussion of getting out of debt without bankruptcy. My first response focused on the choices inherent in paying off creditors outside of bankruptcy. I forgot to point out the efficacy issue: if you try to pay off your debts via settlement, it takes only one […]
The latest debt collector violation of law
A debt collector including the creditor itself must not contact a California debtor who it knows is represented by an attorney. Yet the collector violation de jour seems to be the refrain, “I don’t care if you have a bankruptcy lawyer, I’ll call you every day until you can provide a bankruptcy case number”. If […]
How long for California foreclosure
The time between a notice of default on a mortgage loan and foreclosure now averages 176 days. California law requires only 112 days. So, while the number of defaults is increasing, the interval between the statutory notice of default and actual sale is also increasing. Before the recent crisis, lenders typically issued a notice of […]
Financial products sold to the unsophisticated
Quick: how is a small Tennessee town like a California family facing foreclosure? The New York Times suggests it’s because they were both sold risky financial products to meet their borrowing needs. The unemployment-wracked town of 11,000 was not told about the interest rate risk in the bond derivatives that financial advisors promoted and sold […]
Financial education program worthwhile
Stand by: I’m going to say something nice about BAPCPA, the bankruptcy “reform” law of 2005. The debtor education requirement that is a condition of getting a discharge is a good idea. Just this week, two clients have reported that they learned useful stuff from the required program. Filing bankruptcy is a teachable moment for […]
Immigrants and bankruptcy disclosure
The culture you grow up in shapes your views of truth telling, business ethics and privacy. I see that day to day as I counsel clients who are immigrants from other parts of the world. It’s sometimes an uphill battle to convince them that the “price” of bankruptcy relief is full disclosure, and that it […]
Loan modification resources
The good folks at the National Consumer Law Center have put together a page of links to various programs and procedures for troubled home loans. My colleague John Mlnarik has begun a discussion of the Obama Treasury programs announced earlier in March on www.norcalmortgagemods.com. Now, we need the Senate to move on S. 61 and […]
Debts not passed on when one passes on
The survivors of someone who dies are not personally responsible for the decedent’s debts. Yet debt collectors seem to be swarming the survivors to collect on bills the decedent owed, or didn’t owe. The New York Times reported on debt collectors who focus on collecting debts of the recently departed, by fair means or foul. […]
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