The first meeting with a bankruptcy prospect is the best and hardest work I do. It’s probably the most important as well. I use it to figure out what the issues in the case are, what the client’s goals are, and to convey what I will need from the client to produce a successful outcome. […]
How To Get More Than Your Share Of The Bankruptcy Business
I have a theory about growing your bankruptcy practice: as long as you take on only the most straightforward cases, growing your practice becomes more a matter of marketing than lawyering. You and every bankruptcy lawyer around you are competing for the same cases: the simple, the certain, the routine cases with fees tightly packed […]
How to avoid bankruptcy blunders
Avoiding bankruptcy malpractice is a learned skill and necessary for professional survival. If word of mouth from happy clients is the world’s best advertising for a bankruptcy lawyer, loud complaints from unhappy clients in the internet age is professional poison. So, for both client and lawyer future wellbeing, it’s worth considering how to avoid bankruptcy […]
2026 Brings Larger California Homestead
It’s time to check out the California homestead numbers for 2026. The 2021 expanded California homestead not only brought the exemption amount closer to the real cost of housing, it provided for annual adjustments for inflation. The original legislation created a $300,000 floor on the exemption and a $600,000 cap for homeowners, based on the median price of a […]
The Trick To Getting Paid For All Your Work In Chapter 13
Tired of eating fees at the end of a Chapter 13 when the debtor-client gets a discharge and you get a write off of the unpaid fees? The problem– attorneys fees incurred during the case but unpaid at case end are uncollectible when the debtor gets a discharge. It happens all too frequently when you […]
Use your authentic voice to humanize yourself and the law
The legal chatter is full of the promise of Artificial Intelligence to revolutionize the practice of law. It can write your letters, your briefs and your website, they say. But there’s a catch here (other than the fact that AI sometimes makes stuff up, including case law, out of whole cloth.): ChatGPT and its ilk […]
My Client Communication Strategy: Flood the Zone
Poor client communication is the source of both client anguish and discontent with the legal profession. Case in point: failure to return calls is the most frequent complaint to the state bar where I practice. As bankruptcy lawyers, we’re dealing with people under stress: they are seldom at their best and their capacity to absorb […]
