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Time Running Out On Dynamite Business Reorganization Opportunity

By Cathy Moran

last minute bankruptcy

In less than a month, the nifty new small business bankruptcy option that makes Chapter 11 feasible for the little guy reverts to its far smaller debt limits. Still great, but available to fewer troubled businesses. SBRA is a new subset of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Also called a Subchapter V case, it’s designed […]

Filed Under: Small business Tagged With: 2021, reorganization, SBRA

Free Bankruptcy Advice: 5 Reasons Why I’m Not Free

By Cathy Moran

free bankruptcy consultation

There’s no free bankruptcy advice in my office.  Unlike many, we charge for that initial meeting with a lawyer. (There’s no free lunch either.) That makes us different from lots of other bankruptcy lawyers. Different enough to offend a prospective client who called up this week.  He was unwilling to pay for a consultation, and stormed […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, You & your lawyer Tagged With: 2016

High Income Earners Pass Bankruptcy’s Means Test

By Cathy Moran

ALERT:   Being above the median income on the means test is not an automatic bar to filing bankruptcy I’m so used to railing against deliberate campaigns of misinformation about bankruptcy that I forget that there’s a lot of innocent ignorance out there. Start with “qualifying” for bankruptcy. A very earnest and ethical financial counselor was […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

When You Can’t Pay Your Bills Because Of The Virus

By Cathy Moran

virus and money

The coronavirus has us locked at home where the  worry demons play unrestrained in our heads. Money troubles cause us worry, in “good” times.  These are hardly good times. As more and more of us are hit with shelter-in-place orders that keep us from work and our kids from school, we have even more time […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2020, coronavirus

Chapter 13: Know Who Gets Paid First Under Your Plan

By Cathy Moran

Who gets paid in Chapter 13, and in what order, makes a huge different when charting your course. Sometimes, we must realize that reality exists outside of television shows. And when real-world reality hits some debtors, it’s a trainwreck. It comes up for me when Chapter 13 clients and I sit down to write the […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works

Scofflaws Must Pay When They Violate The Stay

By Cathy Moran

Debtors in bankruptcy got back the right to collect all of their damages for violations of the automatic stay when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals en banc overturned the Sternberg case. We conclude that Sternberg misconstrued the plain meaning of §362(k). To the extent it is inconsistent with this opinion, Sternberg is overruled. I thought […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

Unfiled Tax Returns Are A Life Sentence

By Cathy Moran

unfiled tax returns yield life sentence

Unfiled tax returns upset all the normal rules about discharging taxes in bankruptcy. This story tells you why. Two clients, each with $200,000 in tax debt,  came to my office this week. One can escape it all now;  the other is facing several years before bankruptcy will do anything for him. What’s the difference? Filed […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes

How Chapter 13 Cuts Car Loan Down To Size

By Cathy Moran

Car lenders who make new car loans with an underwater trade-in will face the music in Chapter 13. The Supreme Court declined to review a 9th Circuit decision that stripped car loans of their protected specially protected status in bankruptcy; as a result, Californians will continue to benefit from the debtor-friendly decision in Penrod, rising out of […]

Filed Under: Chapter 13, How bankruptcy works Tagged With: car loan, chapter 13, underwater trade in

Three Barriers To Getting Out Of Debt

By Cathy Moran

getting out of debt

Three emotions, not reasons, keep people from filing bankruptcy and getting out of debt. While not as sexy as the seven deadly sins,  these emotions still keep my clients mired in debt long after logic says “quit”. Fear Stubbornness Pride These emotions keep people mired where they are. They block the road forward. Fear Fear of […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2016

What’s New In Bankruptcy Law in 2021

By Cathy Moran

new in bankruptcy

The new year of 2021 brings us face to face with a desolate economic landscape and the hope of better things to come. For some significant slice of Americans, bankruptcy will be a consideration. You’ll want to know what’s new in 2021 in the array of bankruptcy options and alternatives. I’m writing after passage of […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2021

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Bankruptcy Basics

About The Soapbox

You’ve arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said “try”).

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions. We dig deeper into how to consider bankruptcy and navigate a bankruptcy case.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

Bankruptcy Alphabet: F is for First

In my Bankruptcy Alphabet, F is for First meeting of creditors. Lots of rumors exist about the that meeting; it produces unwarranted anxiety that is avoidable if you understand what's up. Let's check it out. The first meeting of creditors, also called the 341 meeting, is often the only time a debtor has to appear … Read more

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