Lee Rosen, a well known family lawyer, described the demands of his practice thus: Family law attorneys live in an information deprivation zone. They need to know more than they can possibly remember. They’ve got to master the fundamentals of family law. On top of that, they must have a working knowledge of property law, [...]
Listening Skills Part of Bankruptcy Lawyer’s Skill Set
Active listening to your client, or your judge, is as important as precise talking to a bankruptcy attorney. We spend 45% of our waking life listening, yet many of us do it poorly. Artika Tyner article on the ABA site offers ideas for better listening in the context of mediation of legal disputes. Her points [...]
Bankruptcy Lawyer’s Weapon of Choice
How do you make your first assault on a contested matter in bankruptcy? Pick up the phone to your opponent! Countless times, a new bankruptcy lawyer gets an objection or opposition and indulges in a reflexive question about what kind of pleading to file or counter manoevre to initiate. Their first move should be to [...]
Newbie Summer Reading: Rash
Is the value of the secured creditor’s claim in a Chapter 13 cramdown what the creditor would receive if it foreclosed its lien or what the debtor would pay to replace the collateral. It was 1997 before that question was resolved by the Supreme Court in Associates v. Rash, nearly 20 years after enactment of [...]
But She’s Not a Creditor!
An unliquidated tort cause of action is just as much a “claim” for bankruptcy purposes as a credit card bill. Not all creditors send monthly bills I reminded my rookie lawyer friend. My friend’s fact pattern was a bit more complex than the unresolved auto accident: an exspouse was complaining that a title company mix-up [...]
Newbie Summer Reading: Johnson v. Home State Bank
After a Chapter 7 discharge, is there anything left of a mortgage to reorganize in Chapter 13? That’s the question that the Supreme Court resolved in Johnson v. Home State Bank, the next on our summer reading list for new bankruptcy lawyers. Believe it or not, it was 12 years after adoption of the 1978 [...]
Filing Bankruptcy Petitions: Playing Connect the Dots
I almost took the client at her word and filed schedules that told half the story. Well, maybe it was 3/4 of the story, but the client who, to my consternation, seemed to enjoy nit picking the draft schedules, told me about the cabin on the lake that they rent out, but omitted the rental [...]
Lien on Phantom Property Upsets Debt Totals
Merely having a lien doesn’t make a lender a secured creditor for Chapter 13 eligibility purposes. The draft bankruptcy schedules I was reviewing for a rookie bankruptcy lawyer listed a mortgage loan but the plan didn’t mention the proposed treatment of the loan. Turns out it was because the house that secured the loan had [...]
Clients to avoid: those with bankruptcy-adverse spouses
Do you scope out the world view of your prospect’s non filing spouse? I didn’t and I’m sorry. The client was full of guilt about the financial situation and kept insisting at our first meeting that “no one should be hurt but him” as a result of the financial predicament leading to bankruptcy. That situation [...]
An Bankruptcy Exemption Planning Basic
The most elemental exemption planning tool is to save exempt assets while consuming non exempt assets. It doesn’t require last minute transfers or fundamental alterations in the way assets are held. It simply requires attention to which pocket the debtor pays bills from. Clients who receive Social Security, disability, or other forms of income that [...]
