Bankruptcy Mastery

Why should I help my competitors? That was the query of a highly experienced bankruptcy lawyer I met at the Northern California Bankruptcy Forum last week. I heard the same push back on one of Jay Fleischman's listserves from a participant who didn't want to share with others in his professional community an upcoming education opportunity. "I don't want my competition to improve". I … [Continue reading...]

I learned something new last week and it took the ***!#### means test to teach it to me. The case involved a couple where the non filing wife ran an interior decorating business.  The income and expense information we were presented with showed "lots" of money flowing through the business. Subtract the given business expenses and our figures said these folks should be paying several thousands of … [Continue reading...]

    Some mistakes the Chapter 13 trustee will call you on;  others go unremarked.   So let's discuss some simplistic thinking that has your Chapter 13 client paying too much into the plan. I've reviewed any number of newbie plans that use the non exempt equity in the debtor's possessions as the liquidation premium. Subtract the exemptions from the value of the assets and … [Continue reading...]

    The Chapter 13 Trustee almost snarled from the counsel table at last week's hearings. Counsel's "fix", she told the court, put the debtor instantly in default. Huh?  The amended plan was supposed to correct the previous defect in the filed plan.  What's the problem?  Counsel certainly was befuddled. There were several such cases, and whatever dollars and cents problem … [Continue reading...]

After I unloaded on the incompetence I saw in the courtroom last week, it's only fair to ask:  what are you struggling with?  Is there something I can do to help? I'm here to share what I know, with an emphasis on fitting together the pieces of what you can learn from books or traditional CLE courses into a scheme for actual practice of bankruptcy law. I raise the issues I either see around … [Continue reading...]

It's rare when you can get Uncle Sam to funnel clients in your door of your bankruptcy practice.  And at no cost to you. But that's the situation if you know how to handle tax issues in bankruptcy. The IRS threatens, or even worse, levies, and the client is frantic for help.  You, armed as a bankruptcy lawyer, can fight off the feds, and usually lessen the panic. … [Continue reading...]