The “Tax Cut Act” actually increased the tax on consumer recoveries. Under the new tax law, most damage awards a consumer recovers stand to go, in large part, to the IRS. So even if you are successful in vindicating your legal rights, the expenses of getting the award aren’t deductible from the gross award. The […]
Delay Division of Community Property At Peril of Bankruptcy
Put off the division of community property in a marital dissolution at your peril. Hesitate and you risk all of the community property being swept up in a bankruptcy by the other spouse. And you’ll have little control where community property assets fall. Community property is all in The threat begins with the bankruptcy law […]
List It Or Lose It: When Actual Knowledge Isn’t Enough
To actually effect abandonment of unadministered assets in a bankruptcy case, the asset in question must appear on Schedule A/B. That’s the hard teaching of Stevens v. Whitmore from the 9th Circuit BAP. A passing reference to an asset in the SOFA isn’t sufficient. Neither was the fact the trustee explicitly knew about the claim […]
Why Your Bankruptcy Client Doesn’t Understand You (And How To Fix the Problem)
Bankruptcy terminology, so familiar to lawyers, stymies clients. Even common English words seem to flumox our clients. We are a pair, divided by our common language. Even without legal jargon, we talk past each other. Words at war How do we misunderstand each other? Let me count the ways: Property: I don’t have any property, […]
Hearsay Exception: How Do I Get This Into Evidence?
Quick: tell me everything you know about Federal Rule of Evidence 803(17)! If you’re like me, there’s deafening silence. I’ve apparently skated through forty years of bankruptcy practice without really considering how Kelly Blue Book figures get into evidence. If it worked, I just went on. (Hint: it’s FRE 803(17). But a change in California […]
Your Help Needed With Consumer Attorney Fee Survey
Can I assume you’d like some authority to back up your next application for fees? The US Consumer Law Attorney Fee Survey Report , published for 20 years by Ron Burdge provides just that authority. It’s free and far ranging. So, do your part by taking the survey online to get current information on fees in multiple […]
Delinquent Utilities and Disconnection Under New Bankruptcy Provision
Bankruptcy debtors with delinquent utility bills got a measure of protection from interruption in their service under an amendment to the Bankruptcy Code in the omnibus spending bill enacted December 27,2020. Individual debtors cannot have their utilities disconnected as long as they make some payment for service provided after filing promptly after the commencement of […]
