Which bankruptcy schedule does this go on?  Can’t tell you how many questions I field about where on the official bankruptcy forms to schedule some asset. Is the timeshare real property or personal property?  What do you do with the claim, the chose in action, the car titled to debtor but paid for by someone […]

When the appraisals clash, and the fate of a junior lien of thousands of dollars is at stake, what’s a judge to do?  Crunch the numbers himself is  how one judge  came to a decision when the experts didn’t agree. In Duarte, the debtor’s appraiser testified that the house was worth $370,000 based on comparables […]

Got a shingle and a hankering to be a bankruptcy lawyer?  Need to eat regularly?  How does a rookie bankruptcy practitioner get off the bench and into the regular lineup? Go with the experienced lawyer, says my Bankruptcy Law Network colleague Dana Wilkinson, in a piece for consumers who need a bankruptcy lawyer.  Good advice, […]

Preserving exempt property for the next generation may justify a bankruptcy filing  for a judgment proof elder. California exemptions protected a generous homestead for my friend’s frail client;  her pension and social security income also enjoyed an exemption.  I was about to question why the woman needed a bankruptcy at this stage of her life […]

Remember the medieval maps that warned “there be dragons”?  In the bankruptcy world, those dragons are post dated checks from your debtor client.  Stay away. Post dated checks in payment of the debtor’s attorneys fees create a prepetition claim, subject to the automatic stay and the bankruptcy discharge,  held the court inWalton v. Clark & […]

There’s only one lesson here:  it all turns on the evidence. It is widely believed that Casey Anthony was responsible for her daughter’s death, but she was acquitted in a court of law because the prosecution didn’t present evidence that proved culpability beyond a reasonable doubt.  Supposition, inference, and logic won’t cut it;  it required […]

  Brendan Sullivan famously explained his role as an attorney in the Iran-Contra hearings by declaring that he was “not a potted plant“, but the witness’ attorney.  “I’m the lawyer.  That’s my job.” Sullivan was defending his repeated objections to questions asked of his client:  that was his job.  I, similarly, see my job as […]