You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em; know when to walk away, know when to run… So goes the gambler’s advice to the young card player in the hit Kenny Rogers song. Hum along as we think about how we play our cards when we’re in debt: do you file bankruptcy […]
Bankruptcy Filing Requires More Than Honesty
The discharge of debts you can’t pay is the goal of a bankruptcy filing. That discharge wipes out debts, making them forever unenforceable. Yet, it isn’t a slam-dunk that your bankruptcy case ends in discharge. The Bankruptcy Code lists 12 situations in which a debtor doesn’t get a discharge. Which is why my colleague Jay […]
Rising From The Ashes Of Financial Disaster
Life doesn’t end with bankruptcy. Bankruptcy doesn’t mean that the good times are all in the past. There’s the future, too. Both the individual and society reap benefits from bankruptcy in ways that you may have missed. So, in my view, Jay Fleichman’s analysis of the bankruptcy of Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET and once […]
Who To Pay When There’s Not Enough Money To Go Around
If you can’t pay your bills, the squeaky wheel should NOT get the oil… At least, not until you’ve assessed all the other demands for oil. That’s a quaint way of saying that your decisions about which of your creditors to pay when you can’t pay your bills should not be based on who is […]
Which Debt Collector Threats Should You Be Afraid Of?
Threats are the tools of the trade of debt collectors. Why not? Fear is effective to get people to do stupid things. That’s why debt collectors use it. Pay up or… Terror shuts down rational thinking and upends priorities. As a bankruptcy attorney, I meet lots of people because they’ve panicked. A debt collector has threatened […]
What Everyone Knows About Bankruptcy: Not
Lots of people profess to know all about bankruptcy. Whether they have good information or not. But other professionals should know better than to advise people about the workings of bankruptcy. And if they don’t know better, they should be made to pay, in some exquisitely painful way, for the harm they inflict with bad […]
The New Rules Of Asset Protection
I coined a new rule about asset protection schemes after meeting with a bankruptcy prospect: If the asset protection plan is too complicated for the owner to explain, it probably won’t stand up to challenge. This man had paid an attorney a fistful of money to create LLC’s and limited partnerships, each of which held fractional […]
The Kind of Person Who Files Bankruptcy
You’d think the person who files bankruptcy is some alien fraudster, to listen to my clients. This is last place I ever expected to be, says the client sitting in my bankruptcy office. I hear that probably twice a week. Or, the client assures me: I’m not the kind of person who doesn’t pay their […]
“Hold Harmless” Survives “To Have and To Hold”
Divorce usually requires the division of the debts of the marriage along with the assets. The legalese usually requires each party to indemnify and hold harmless the other from the debts assigned to that party. Most folks skim over that provision to worry about the division of assets or support issues or the termination of […]
The Difference Between Good Bankruptcy Lawyer and Great Bankruptcy Lawyer
Finding the right bankruptcy lawyer may be the difference between a successful bankruptcy and a nightmare. Choosing a lawyer you can talk to is critical because the basic bankruptcy bargain is full disclosure in exchange for discharge of debts. You’ll be disclosing lots of information normally held confidential. But there’s more. It’s not just a […]
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