What New Bankruptcy Lawyers Need To Know: Beyond The Code

When The Means Test Is Not So Mean

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Means test

It isn't often that the newspaper provides ideas for this site, whose focus is polishing new bankruptcy lawyers. But a story on the surge in cost for health insurance based on a study by the Commonwealth Fund reminded me to remind you: the means test allows deduction for the cost of health insurance, even if the debtor doesn't have health insurance! The opportunity to deduct … [Continue reading...]

Wait, Wait, Don’t File

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Three weeks til the New Year and I'm starting to look at each Chapter 13 filing in my shop and ask whether we should file this case. It's not that the calendar has much influence on whether clients need a bankruptcy. It's "Will these folks owe taxes for 2011?" For the case I reviewed yesterday, the clients expect to owe $11,000 in income taxes for 2011. If we file this week, as the client … [Continue reading...]

Bankruptcy Advice Lost In Translation

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

How do you misunderstand me...let me count the ways. A year into a confirmed Chapter 13 plan, I learned about my client's hitherto unscheduled car loan when the creditor called up about missed payments. Huh? There was no car loan in the schedules. This was a loan in the debtor's name, secured by a car titled to his significant other and paid, or in this case, not paid, by the … [Continue reading...]

Two Free Treasures For Bankruptcy Lawyers

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Howdy, nice of you to drop in. Now, I've got two reasons for you to skedaddle out of here. Bankruptcy Rule Changes New bankruptcy rules took effect December 1. If you can't recite them in your sleep, the National Consumer Law Center has generously made their otherwise subscription only newsletter available for free. Click on www.nclc.org/form10 to download. NCLC's John Rao (he's the … [Continue reading...]

Finding Exemption Gold In The Probate Code

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Would you expect to find an exemption applicable in bankruptcy in the probate code? But that's where I found one yesterday. And if it exists under California law, it may exist where you practice as well. A testamentary trust paying some current income to a prospective client sent me to the cases. I needed to know did the trust have a spendthrift clause if so, was the income stream … [Continue reading...]

Expect The World, New Bankruptcy Lawyers!

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

The New York Times challenges us to "Expect The World." For the new bankruptcy lawyer, that world has limited horizons. Can we work together to change that? The front page piece of the Grey Lady recently exposed that newly admitted lawyers can't practice law. Had the reporter contacted me for input, I would have pointed to this site as an attack on the problem. After all, that's what … [Continue reading...]

How Long Can Underwater Lien Hold Its Breath?

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

What happens to an underwater mortgage after a Chapter 7? That was the sorta metaphysical question my newbie luncheon partner asked at the NACBA workshops this fall. She knew that you could not strip off a consensual lien in a Chapter 7. So, just what was the situation post discharge? I really like questions 1) for which there is an answer, and 2) for which I know the … [Continue reading...]

Consumer Is A Bad Word

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

I'm not usually at a loss for words, but I'm certainly less than excited about the word "consumer". As a moniker for our potential clients, it's inadequate. After all, how perverse to identify them by a trait we'd like to change, consuming. Yet, I'm struggling for another word. "Debtors" is a word the public confuses with "creditors". "Individuals" is insipid, and "families" excludes the … [Continue reading...]

What Are We Worth As Bankruptcy Lawyers?

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

I sat with a new client discussing his bankruptcy options, puzzling how to price a Chapter 7 that's fair to me and fair to the client. To the client, it no doubt looked like a "simple" Chapter 7: a job, a couple of pieces of underwater property, no taxes, no spouse, no sweat, right? To me, it looks like a minor quagmire: There's an income blip in the look back period Client's parent … [Continue reading...]

Tell Them Apart: Exempt and Exclude

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

New and not so new bankruptcy lawyers muddle the difference between "exempt" and "exclude". It makes a world of difference. You have to make the call when listing property of the bankruptcy estate, usually various kinds of retirement assets. All of the debtor's assets and legal rights come into the estate. Exemptions allow you to extract assets from the estate . The … [Continue reading...]

Unfinished Business Of Learning The Law

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Every legal seminar needs an extra day, in solitude, to internalize what you've "learned". At the NACBA Fall Workshops last weekend, Jay repeated the old saw that a workshop is worthwhile if you bring home one good idea. He told our group in the Business of Bankruptcy Law tract that we aimed to provide more than one good idea. But the gems that you can tick off easily are … [Continue reading...]

NACBA Workshops A Real High For Bankruptcy Lawyers

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

The content and the company at NACBA's fall workshops has me flying. I've come off two days in Colorado Springs, making presentations on the means test and on applications for compensation and hosting the Business of Bankruptcy track with New York bankruptcy lawyer Jay Fleischman . The energy and curiosity of the newer bankruptcy lawyers was particularly energizing. They came with difficult … [Continue reading...]

Why you should want your competition to become better bankruptcy lawyers

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Sounds counter intuitive, doesn't it? It should be easier to be a stand out if all the bankruptcy lawyers around you are Lilliputians. Yet I second Jay Fleischman's wish for more good bankruptcy lawyers around me. And I think that the attitude I've encountered among some newcomers to the field, that they won't share anything with their competition, is shortsighted and self … [Continue reading...]

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