Merely having a lien doesn’t make a lender a secured creditor for Chapter 13 eligibility purposes. The draft bankruptcy schedules I was reviewing for a rookie bankruptcy lawyer listed a mortgage loan but the plan didn’t mention the proposed treatment of the loan. Turns out, according to this link, it was because the house that secured […]
Clients to avoid: those with bankruptcy-adverse spouses
Do you scope out the world view of your prospect’s non filing spouse? I didn’t and I’m sorry. The client was full of guilt about the financial situation and kept insisting at our first meeting that “no one should be hurt but him” as a result of the financial predicament leading to bankruptcy. That situation […]
Who Needs To Learn More Bankruptcy Law?
Since the Fundamentals of Bankruptcy course came out, I’ve talked with a number of new bankruptcy attorneys who report that they are waiting for later offerings, since they’ve already filed a number of petitions and feel they have that aspect of the practice down pat. One lawyer reported that he had filed 10 cases, so […]
Bankruptcy Lawyers Needn’t Predict The Future
Do you feel exposed when bankruptcy clients ask about how filing will impact their ability to get credit post bankruptcy? One of the nice things about having practiced bankruptcy law as long as I have is the ability to draw on the outcomes of many prior cases. For years, I’ve had a patter about credit […]
Client Horror Story Contains An Asset Of The Bankruptcy Estate
Do you recognize your client’s tale of woe with prior professionals or not-so-professionals as signs of an incipient asset? A new bankruptcy lawyer was telling me about his client’s dealings with a loan modification lawyer he called a fraudster. That relationship resulted in a near foreclosure on the client’s home while the prior lawyer was […]
Having “The Talk” With Bankruptcy Clients
Are you prepared to boldly go where no outsider has gone before and challenge the client about keeping the house? It seems as taboo a subject as the mechanics of sex, but we as bankruptcy lawyers should be saying openly that maybe keeping the house is not the right route. We like to deliver for […]
What, Me Worry?
Do you think I worry about these issues too much? the rookie bankruptcy lawyer asked me. The issue was exemption planning and the question was whether instituting an IRA and funding it for the current year before filing was a transfer, and if so, would it be objectionable to a Chapter 7 trustee. We went […]
