What New Bankruptcy Lawyers Need To Know: Beyond The Code

What’s Your Next Challenge?

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Ever feel like the practice of consumer bankruptcy law resembles crossing the chasm on a rope bridge? In the dark? I assure you, you are not alone. In one of my first contested matters in bankruptcy, probably within 18 months of passing the bar, and the same distance from adoption of the Bankruptcy Code, I must have set a record for the number of times I continued a hearing, because I … [Continue reading...]

Friday Freebie

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Budget flat? Business slow? How about a federal practice manual, on line, for free? Check out the Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys. It's not shopworn: we don't have enough of those legal aid heroes to smudge the pages. To expand your bankruptcy practice beyond drafting schedules, you need litigation skills. Here's a resource, right in your browser. Hat tip to … [Continue reading...]

Avoid Probate: Lose The Property In Bankruptcy Instead

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

DIY probate avoidance and bankruptcy don't mix

Whether it's fear of the cost of lawyers or joinder in probate-phobia, the public's do-it-yourself testamentary substitutes can have ugly consequences when bankruptcy looms. "When the individual who is supposed to benefit from a parent's accumulations files bankruptcy, the cheapo alternative to a will or trust can cost the players the property", said probate lawyers based in Raleigh area. Do it … [Continue reading...]

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...]

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