Regardless of the ultimate destination, all bankruptcy roads lead through Chapter 5. A few bankruptcy cases are derailed there. Because Chapter 5 provisions tell you what comes into the bankruptcy estate, what can be exempted, and what can be changed using Chapter 5. Sometimes the results tell you that bankruptcy is not the right choice […]
Juggling in Defense of the Tax Refund
As long as clients use tax withholding as a form of savings account, bankruptcy lawyers will have to juggle to protect that refund when bankruptcy looms. Limber up, and let’s look at a fact pattern I faced with a December client who needed to file, but faced no immediate crisis. The point for analysis was […]
Charting The Course of A Case
Planning the bankruptcy often determines whether the case succeeds or fails. To obtain good results for a bankruptcy client, sometimes you have to serve up unpleasant news and force the client to swallow that bitter pill. Hum a chorus of You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Of course, you can’t really force them to […]
What Debts to Include in Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy lawyers know that all debts need to be scheduled. Clients think or hope that they get to pick and choose. Every effective bankruptcy lawyer needs a line, a phrase, or a story to squelch the client’s instinct to exclude things from their bankruptcy filing. The instinct to omit Often the client’s desire to be […]
Filing Bankruptcy Petitions: Playing Connect the Dots
I almost took the client at her word and filed schedules that told half the story. Well, maybe it was 3/4 of the story, but the client who, to my consternation, seemed to enjoy nit picking the draft schedules, told me about the cabin on the lake that they rent out, but omitted from the […]
Prompt Full Disclosure from Bankruptcy Clients
If the price of a bankruptcy discharge is full disclosure, some clients still want to underpay. No matter how carefully you script your initial interview with a client in quest of everything you need to know to advise them on bankruptcy, there will be some tidbit, relevant to your quest, that isn’t evoked with your […]
Dig Deep In Your First Meeting With A Prospective Client
The success of a bankruptcy case is frequently determined at the first meeting between client and lawyer. The information that is exchanged and the confidence that is built at that encounter shapes the client’s expectations, the choice of chapter, the timing of the filing and much more. So I cringe when I hear stories about […]
