Bankruptcy Mastery

Summertime.....another Gershwin song. Maybe the living is easy, and maybe not.  Bankruptcy is a challenging way to make a living. Two summers ago, when this publication and lots of bankruptcy lawyers were new, we proposed a summer reading list of Supreme Court cases that you should know by name and holding. The focus was on, not the recent stuff, which presumably you're reading as they … [Continue reading...]

What bankruptcy can and cannot do for borrowers in distress is the subtitle of a free, three hour, on demand presentation by PLI. I was part of the panel that surveyed the field for new lawyers and those new to the intersection of real property and bankruptcy. Live, it was fun since all the audience had an IPad with the materials at their seat and my co panelists were … [Continue reading...]

When I trip over the same issue three times in a week, it's time to discuss it here. In my office, it came up when I spotted a creditor on Schedule D with a lien on a pleasure boat.  Only problem was that no boat was listed on Schedule B; it belonged to the debtor's corporation. It surfaced on a list serve when the question turned on tax liens on 401(k) accounts. Then, we saw it when our … [Continue reading...]

The finality of plan confirmation was a two edged sword for the debtor's lawyer defending a relief from stay motion. You win, for now, the judge told him.  But the train wreck is coming. The lender's lawyer complained, unsuccessfully it turned out, that the mortgage payment had increased from the payment at confirmation.   The plan simply provided a number that reflected the mortgage payment … [Continue reading...]

It was community property that garnered me my first hug from Doug Jacobs. Or rather, it was the absence of community property that did it. Confusion in custody determination and acquisitions is a common scene here. You see, Doug had described his dilemma with his case involving an elderly couple who had a home with lots of equity (that's what tips you off to the age of this story) on a list … [Continue reading...]

Usually my posts here have a message or a lesson imbedded. This one doesn't, unless readers can help me find it. But it was a prickly case that resolved well, for unanticipated reasons.  Perhaps, there's a lesson lurking somewhere here. The clients were well above median income:  a high tech engineer and a stay at home mom with two children under 9. The major creditor was the … [Continue reading...]

When an inexperienced Chapter 13 practitioner asks how much a plan has to propose to pay, I envision the Carnac the Magnificent routine from the Johnny Carson show. Carnak, in turban and robes, puts the sealed envelope with the question to his forehead, provides an answer, then opens the envelope to read the question.  The results were uniformly hilarious. Not so when a bankruptcy lawyer … [Continue reading...]