What New Bankruptcy Lawyers Need To Know: Beyond The Code

Non Support Debts In Bankruptcy: Our Options Have Changed

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Family Law in Bankruptcy

Read the case annotations for Section 523(a)(15)of the Bankruptcy Code casually, and you can go really wrong. It's like the phone tree admonition: listen carefully because our options have changed. Before 2005, the dischargeability of non support obligations to former spouse or child incurred by the debtor in the course of divorce might be dischargeable, based on a weighing of the … [Continue reading...]

Loss Mitigation: The Rules Have Changed

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

New federal rules on mortgage servicing can help homeowners avert disaster. But they only help if advocates know the latest. John Rao and Tara Twomey return next week with Part II of a free webinar on the new federal rules on loss mitigation for home mortgages. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued new regs, effective January 10, 2014, implementing … [Continue reading...]

How Bankruptcy Courts Deal With Alimony and Support

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Family Law in Bankruptcy

The starting place for our exploration of bankruptcy and family law is support. Whether it's called alimony, maintenance, or support, any amounts due at the commencement of a bankruptcy case are non dischargeable. Actually, since BAPCPA, it's called a domestic support obligation. It got a statutory definition, as well: (14A) The term “domestic support obligation” means a debt … [Continue reading...]

Bankruptcy And Family Law : Your New Frontier

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice, Family Law in Bankruptcy

Divorce is one of the three major predictors of bankruptcy filing, along with job loss and illness. Families that might have been making it as a single household are now two households. Debts manageable before are now crushing. Or, families weren't making it and the stress over money troubles hastens the end of the marriage. Opportunity in divorce For a bankruptcy lawyer to … [Continue reading...]

Readers Vote With Their Mouse

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Last time, I listed my 10 favorite Bankruptcy Mastery posts from 2013. Just for fun, I went back and looked at the 2013 traffic numbers for the top 10 Mastery posts, by readership. The two lists do not share a single post! What you read and hopefully found useful was an entirely different set of posts from my list. Now, the traffic numbers take in all posts since Mastery started in … [Continue reading...]

The Best of Bankruptcy Mastery in 2013

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Let's have some retrospective before we look forward to bankruptcy lawyering in 2014. Here are my picks for my 10 favorite Mastery posts for 2013: Business Bankruptcy and the Bingo Effect- flushing out business creditors your client is oblivious to Untangling the Converted Case- what you need to know and what you need to tell the client Exceptions to Bankruptcy Discharge Not in Our … [Continue reading...]

What Price Silence?

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Read any good orders lately? I read a not-so-good order yesterday. It affirmed sanctions against debtor's counsel for advising the client to remain silent in the face of a Chapter 13 confirmation order to disclose. That sent me off to read through the standard order confirming plan in the Northern District. I was not keen to see my name in the advance sheets in that context. I … [Continue reading...]

The Trick To Getting All Pending Actions To Bankruptcy Court

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Don't overlook the ability to keep your client and any litigation that you want or need to go forward post petition together, in bankruptcy court. You can keep them together by removing pending state court actions to bankruptcy court. I say "bankruptcy court" because that's almost inevitably where the case, removed according to statute to the district court, will end up. Removal will … [Continue reading...]

BankruptcyMastery Chosen One of Best Blogs of 2013

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Bankruptcy Mastery was selected one of the 100 top Blawgs of 2013 by the American Bar Association! I'm blown away. Mastery serves such a distinct segment of the law world that I never expected that anyone beyond bankruptcy lawyers, and new bankruptcy lawyers at that, would notice. But someone did notice (thank you whoever nominated this site). Now, the ABA has opened voting for the top … [Continue reading...]

Bankruptcy Rules And Forms Change

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

The only thing constant is change, we're told. So, here are the important changes to the rules of bankruptcy procedure and the official forms effective December 1. Bankruptcy rules Rule 1007 now permits the provider of the personal financial management course to notify the court of the debtor's completion thereof. The debtor is relieved of filing the declaration if the provider files it. … [Continue reading...]

The 50 State Treasure Hunt

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Before filing

Joint bank accounts present one of the most vexing problems for a bankruptcy lawyer. Too often, your client is a signatory on an account containing someone else's money. The parties think a joint account is a convenience; often it's a hedge so that the client can care for a parent or other dependent person should the other become incapacitated. It becomes a lot less convenient when your … [Continue reading...]

What You Need To Know About Conversion Of Bankruptcy Cases

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Sometimes, the most challenging questions for a bankruptcy lawyer come up well after the case is filed. New assets are disclosed Values are greater than expected Income falls Illness intervenes Catastrophic debts arise For whatever reason, your initial choice of chapter is now problematic. That's when you have to understand which way to go, now. You need to understand … [Continue reading...]

Do You Believe in Magic Exemptions?

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice, Exemptions

I commend to you 11 U.S.C. 522(c). For therein lies a magical tool even for the client who has non dischargeable debts. It boils down to this: exemptions, like diamonds, are forever. Once an exemption is allowed in a case that isn't dismissed, that property is forever beyond the reach of creditors whose claim arose before filing. The exceptions to the rule are narrow: non … [Continue reading...]

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