The California homestead increase effective January, 2021brought the homestead closer into line with the cost of a home in the Golden State. It’s a change for the better. But how will the change impact the balance of homestead law? Time, or further legislation, will tell. The newly enacted version of California Code of Civil Procedure […]
More Californians Eligible For Expanded Pandemic Mortgage Relief Grants
Need help with your California house payments due to COVID? Grants from California’s mortgage relief fund are now available to cover delinquent property taxes and defaults on second mortgages. The expanded eligibility includes those who have previously received grants. Almost $700 million remains in the fund, created in 2021, to preserve homeownership from the ravages […]
Women win new protections in California exemption law
New California exemption laws will expand protections for alimony and eliminated a barrier to filing for bankruptcy protection without the involvement of an estranged spouse. Although not limited to women, in the bulk of cases in my 40+ years of practice, it’s women who will most often benefit from these changes. Exemptions operate to define […]
No More Lawsuits On Old Debt In California
California law has turned the tables on debt buyers suing on old debt. Under new California law, a creditor must allege that the statute of limitations has not run when it files a lawsuit. No more suing on long-dead debt and winning unless the consumer files an answer and pleads the statute of limitations. No […]
Californians Can Now Keep Their Cars After Bankruptcy Without Reaffirmation
New California law, effective January 1, 2023, eliminates the need for bankruptcy debtors to reaffirm car loans in order to avoid repossession. Now, you can keep your car after bankruptcy, so long as you keep the payments current, without reaffirming the debt. Until now, reaffirmation had the effect of giving up the discharge as to […]
What Happens To Cash In Bankruptcy?
How much cash can you keep when you file bankruptcy? It’s not as though you won’t have living expenses after you file bankruptcy. You need to know how you’ll manage and what you’ll have to manage with. Funding that fresh start is what exemptions are all about. We are talking here about California because exemptions, […]
Whopping exemption for CA 529 college accounts
A substantial new California exemption snuck into law in 2021, the college savings account exemption. It protects 529 college savings accounts from the creditors of parents. The exemption applies in all California collections and to California bankruptcies when the CCP 704 exemptions are selected. The eyeopener is that a parent (or other donor) can contribute […]
California Consumers Have Powerful Debt Collection Rights
California outdoes the rest of the country in its debt collection rights for consumers. Debt collectors have noticed the growing understanding of debtors about their rights to fair debt collection. And they aren’t happy. The Federal law Fair Debt Collection Practices Act regulates the conduct of third party collectors. Those protections apply everywhere and more […]
Get A Voodoo Discharge Without Filing Bankruptcy
One of the great mysteries of debtor/creditor law is the community property discharge in bankruptcy. When only one spouse files bankruptcy in a community property state like California, the non filing spouse reaps bunches of benefits that creditors can’t imagine. Benefits that aren’t explicitly described in books about bankruptcy or understood by creditors. Those benefits […]
California Bankruptcy Law Is All Our Own
California Bankruptcy law is a lot like a unicorn….appealing but imaginary. Instead, we have bankruptcy in California, where the landscape is shaped by community property; state exemptions, large mortgages, and the 9th circuit court of appeals. Like the Merced River cutting through the granite of Yosemite, those factors alter the bankruptcy landscape here. Community property […]
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