No man, and the rare bankruptcy debtor, is an island. He or she comes with financial connections to family, former spouses, and partners of various sorts. The challenge for bankruptcy counsel is to identify those interconnected others and to advise the debtor of the consequences of the filing on those he cares about. Real estate […]
Beware Predatory Lenders In Sheep’s Clothing
Just when you thought mortgage lender behavior couldn’t get more odious or indifferent, they prove you wrong. Yesterday a mortgage modification for clients currently in a confirmed Chapter 13 plan appeared on my desk. The plan is several years old and the mortgage arrears were about $5000. The lender sought relief from stay over what […]
Get The Tools You Need
You filed the case. If you’re asking, ” Now, what do I do?“, join me for a lunch and learn series this summer. We’ll pack your tool kit with ten essential skills a newish bankruptcy practitioner needs to have to survive clients, creditors and judges. All before Labor Day. The sessions are going to be […]
The Electronic Shortcut To Perdition
Didn’t someone wise say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions? So, my subject today is the need to have the client’s actual signature on each document filed with the court. It should be obvious and go without saying. Yet the point apparently needs to be made. The observations of colleagues in […]
Pick Bankruptcy, Take Care of The Tax
The rule that Uncle Sam comes first, in bankruptcy, can be a life saver, even if the debtor is going to lose everything in the process. I was brainstorming with a colleague about his client who was about to suffer a huge judgment in state court. There were virtually no other creditors that made bankruptcy […]
Five Reasons To Break Up Couples
Consider that your job as a bankruptcy attorney may be to separate married couples. Huh, you say? Doesn’t the traditional wedding ceremony include the charge that “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder“? (I’ll let you know more when I’ve Googled “asunder“). But I suggest that although the code permits married couples […]
Are You Throwing Your Bankruptcy Client To The Predators?
Behind every IRS tax audit lurks the state taxing authority. Fail to give the state its due, and the tax in question may be non dischargeable. I had to dredge this tidbit from memory last week when we were looking over the tax transcript for a client who had been audited by the IRS and […]
