Add to your bankruptcy phrase book: ” notice on a scream or die basis.” This means that the notice sent to creditors requires an objection by a dissenting party or the described action will be approved. Contrast this with notice of a proposed action that will be considered at an actual hearing. Thus, the message […]
Bankruptcy Abuse & Schedule J
The debtor passed the means test but lost a motion to dismiss for abuse of the bankruptcy system. Schedule J, the debtor’s projected future expenses, showed a monthly excess of $500. Dollars to doughnuts, the debtor’s bankruptcy lawyer followed the form and the budget provided by the client. Dismissal resulted. What happened here? Two […]
Bankruptcy Schedules Call For Payoff Balance
Bankruptcy debtors hear something different when their lawyer asks, “What do you owe on your mortgage”. It’s as though they speak a different language, Client, while we speak Bankruptcy. As bankruptcy lawyers, we need to be bilingual. It shouldn’t be a trick question, but all too often the answer a bankruptcy lawyer gets back is […]
Bankruptcy’s 3 Year Rule for Taxes
Taxes are dischargeable in bankruptcy once they meet the 3 year rule. Don’t get swept away on April 16th and file a bankruptcy designed to discharge taxes without knowing whether the client got an extension to file for the year on the bubble. The three year rule, found in §507(a)(8), starts counting from the day the […]
Learn the Bankruptcy Lingo: Pots & Percentages
While we’re learning to “walk the walk”, we might as well learn to “talk the (bankruptcy) talk”. Each profession has its shorthand for concepts that are encountered repeatedly. For bankruptcy lawyers, that includes the distinction between Chapter 13 “percentage plans” vs. “pot plans“. These terms are alternative ways that the dividend to unsecured creditors in […]
Bankruptcy Exemption Mistakes Feed Trustee Coffers
Bankruptcy lawyers who mess up claims of exemptions were the other target of the trustee’s attorney I spoke with earlier this week. He rubbed his hands over attorneys who hadn’t collected enough information to understand the asset or who simply didn’t know that the homestead exemption didn’t apply to property other than the debtor’s residence. […]
New Bankruptcy Lawyers Targeted by Trustee
Chapter 7 trustees plan to sue debtor’s lawyers for undisclosed assets, I was told yesterday. In the course of discussing the flood of rookie bankruptcy lawyers into local court rooms, this veteran trustee’s counsel was licking his chops at the opportunity to make creditors whole at the expense of the debtor’s attorney. The stories of […]
