Two out of three confirmed Chapter 13 cases fail. Those are cases that met all the tests and got the judge’s OK. And still they crater. That’s a heap of people, deeply in debt, who don’t make it out of debt by using Chapter 13. Arizona bankruptcy lawyer John Skiba has a theory about […]
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Hidden Dangers In Tapping The Reverse Mortgage Piggybank
Actor Fred Thompson used to appear on my Sunday morning news program every week touting the benefits of a “government insured”, safe, reverse mortgage. Get the money you deserve to live the good life, he urged. I’m watching the aftermath of that sales pitch play out for one of my clients, and it’s not “the […]
Getting A Loan Modification Is Only Half The Fight
Loan modification troubles persist, long after the loan modification. For all of you who stressed, strained, fretted, wheedled, worried, fought, kicked, and even gouged to finally wrest a loan modification from the lender/servicer that controls of your home loan, I have a message. The fight may not be over. “We Don’t Have Any Record of […]
Locked Out Of Court: The Not-So-Fine-Print Arbitration Clause
Equifax and the CFPB have teamed up, sort of, to focus attention on consumer rights when dealing with huge consumer businesses. Equifax, alongside Wells Fargo of the millions of unauthorized bank accounts, want to limit their customers’ access to the legal system. Their boilerplate agreements prohibit customers banding together in class actions, and lock individual […]
Tax Tidbits As Filing Deadline Approaches
If you got an extension to file your tax return, and tax filing time has arrived, you may need some moral support and some reliable information to get the job done right and on time. This site often focuses on taxes, not because we are tax professionals, but because tax troubles are one of the […]
Foreclosure: The Unseen Hazards
It’s not the foreclosing creditor that really threaten California homeowners. It’s the forces that follow foreclosure. The junior lender and the tax man can deliver truly punishing blows to a family losing a home. Cut-off Junior Lienholders Californians enjoy the protection of the one action rule governing foreclosures. A creditor who conducts a non judicial […]
Four Essential Habits For Successful Entreprenuership
Starting out in business for yourself? Congratulations. Small business, and businesses that were once small, form the tapestry of our economy. I’ve run my own small business for coming 40 years and my favorite clients in my business are other small business people. But, in the euphoria and exhaustion of starting up, don’t put off doing […]
Why I Hate Credit Reporting Agencies
If you have a couple of hours, I’ll count the ways. But this morning, it’s half truths and moralizing by Experian that gets me going. My fellow California bankruptcy lawyer Jay Fleischman published Experian’s explanation of how long your bankruptcy filing stays on your credit record. Chapter 13 bankruptcy is deleted seven years from the […]
Why The Gap Between Judges & Attorneys Over Fees?
Very few bankruptcy judges ever represented average individuals in bankruptcy before they became judges. Fewer were sole practitioners,who must rely on the fees they earn and collect to stay in business. Those two factors seem to create the chasm between bench and bar over attorneys fees in consumer bankruptcy cases. This post starts from the […]
Why Creditors Should Get Less in Chapter 13
Spending every dollar they make, and then some, is often how our Chapter 13 clients got into financial trouble. Yet Chapter 13, as practiced, validates the practice of continuing to spend 100% of each month’s income during the life of the plan. In doing so, we, as a society, squander the chance to use Chapter […]
