One of the stock lines in my sermon to clients about the importance of telling the entire and complete truth in the bankruptcy schedules has been the threat of denial of discharge. If your discharge is denied, I intone, those debts are forever non dischargeable in bankruptcy. It’s akin to the parental threat: the bogeyman […]
Can I Have Those Words Back, Please?
It was one of those occasions when in retrospect, you’re certain there is no neural path between your brain and your mouth. And it happened in public, in a courtroom, with my client present. My creditor client filed an objection to confirmation of a Chapter 13 in pro per. Opposing counsel filed a response. The […]
Why Courtroom Rules Work In Your Conference Room
“Objection: calls for a legal conclusion.” That’s a perfectly good courtroom objection to a question asked of a witness at trial. The rules of evidence make the court, not the witness, the sole arbiter of the law. What does that have to do with filing bankruptcy schedules, you ask. I suggest you import this courtroom […]
The Business Lease: Who’s On First?
A business lease often looms as one of the biggest claims in a bankruptcy case and a big issue for a small business. For bankruptcy lawyers, the lease raises, as most of these things do, both traps and opportunities Beyond the common subject matter, today’s observations are probably otherwise without a theme. Pivotal issue is […]
A Dozen Nuggets Hidden In The Tax Return
Read any interesting tax returns lately? As bankruptcy lawyers, we’re required to collect them from our clients and funnel them to the trustee. But, are you reading them? Often, as a former employee used to say, they’re dry as dinosaur bones. But almost as equally, they provide new information or clues about assets and […]
Buried Treasures Your Clients Don’t Disclose
I had spent at least six hours with the clients over several months, strategizing about extracting them personally from a cratering business situation, when he said, “Oh, I haven’t told you about…” Others at the meeting said my eyes popped and I’m sure my face fell. He owned another business corporation, which had assets, […]
Can You Afford To Help Your Competitors?
Why should I help my competitors? That was the query of a highly experienced bankruptcy lawyer I met at the Northern California Bankruptcy Forum last week. I heard the same push back on one of Jay Fleischman‘s listserves from a participant who didn’t want to share with others in his professional community an upcoming education […]
