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We mentioned with pride some months ago that a case of ours was winding its way up the appellate chain. Granted, we would have preferred to have simply prevailed at the bankruptcy court level, but when Judge Leonard ruled against…

Nothing puts debtors attorneys in a good mood quite like a juicy story about some tacky debt settlement “law firm” racket getting busted up and fined. It happens all the time and the stories themselves are largely interchangeable: little old lady X hires debt settlement…

The moment a bankruptcy case is filed, an automatic stay is imposed that requires all creditors to stop their collection activities. Since most creditors in a bankruptcy case are large institutions who process countless bankruptcy filings every day (Bank of America, Citi, Ford Motor Credit),…

One of the central tenants of bankruptcy law says that if a debtor has disposable money lying around at the end of each month, they should pay it to their creditors. How to determine a debtor’s disposable income is, however, rather complicated. A regular question…

When an individual falls behind on secured debt payments, there isn’t a lot of good news that we can give. Option one is to walk away from the collateral, thereby changing the nature of the debt from secured to unsecured….

Let’s start with the general rule: the relief granted in an individual’s bankruptcy case is limited to that individual. A co-debtor – whether a spouse, parent, or business partner – will remain liable for any debt on which they co-signed….

Tis the season for tax refunds! It goes nearly without saying that a tax refund – whether a debtor in bankruptcy has physically received it or not – is property of the debtor’s bankruptcy estate and vulnerable to being taken by a chapter 7…

First, just to be clear, a 401[k] loan is not actually a “loan” in the traditional sense. It’s really just a way of accessing some of your retirement money early without paying a tax penalty. Because it’s not a real loan, with a…

Bankruptcy filings were down 11% in 2011. Since 2006, the number of bankruptcy cases filed each year has grown. Last year, for the first time in several years, they fell nationally. There are a couple of reasons for this. The most optimistic perspective on these numbers is the…

When the curtain was pulled back on the mortgage industry a few years ago, one of the alarming surprises was to find what an out-sized role Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc (MERS) played in the home loan industry – not an illegal…