Newly appointed to the bench, the young judge considering a calendar of fee applications complained to the assembled lawyers. “Before I became a judge, you used to tell me the greatest client stories in the hall. How come those stories are missing from your fee apps?” That wistful question was voiced now well more than […]
Perils Of The Courtroom
The judge approved my fee application for another $8,000 in a Chapter 13 that was never confirmed, but ambushed me on the statutory rules of conversion. It wasn’t the fight I had prepared to make over getting paid. My fee application was an inch thick; it sliced and diced the work I had done before […]
When It Doesn’t Add Up
It wasn’t a week after my friend Fredrick’s presentation on due diligence for bankruptcy lawyers that the need for one of his tricks emerged. There seems to be an ethereal convergence about such things. The client hadn’t revealed to the young lawyer bonuses that he had received in the means test look back period. The […]
Five Steps To Due Diligence
Our professional well being and the successful outcome of the client’s case may well depend on how well we, as attorneys, have done our due diligence. “I asked the client”, you say. Perhaps not good enough, say the cases. Well done bankruptcy schedules require a substantial amount of information, much of it interrelated. Part of […]
A Tax Reminder for Chapter 13 Debtors
Don’t let your client forget to look at the Chapter 13 trustee’s disbursements in the case for income tax deductions. Mortgage interest, property taxes, business expenses and state income tax payments all may lurk in the trustee’s record of disbursements for 2010. Those payments are made with the debtor’s money, and it seems therefore to […]
10 Clues in The Debtor’s Tax Return
Vital information lurks in the debtor’s tax return. Are you flushing that information out and incorporating those nuggets in the petition, or are you content to wait for the trustee to confront your client in public at the 341 meeting with the inconsistency? Ten things you might find in the return: Dependents– how does the […]
Don’t Take The Client At His Word
Given all the energy bankruptcy lawyers spend extracting information from clients, it’s discordant to point to a situation where you, as the bankruptcy lawyer, should blow past the client’s input. But here’s the situation where that is true: Don’t list the debtor’s interest in a decedent’s estate without further inquiry. Ask the client if they […]
