Bankruptcy Mastery

Our professional well being and the successful outcome of the client's case may well depend on how well we, as attorneys, have done our due diligence.  "I asked the client",  you say.  Perhaps not good enough, say the cases. Well done bankruptcy schedules require a substantial amount of information, much of it interrelated.  Part of the strategy of the drafters of BAPCPA was to scare off debtors … [Continue reading...]

Vital information lurks in the debtor's tax return.  Are you flushing that information out and incorporating those nuggets in the petition, or are you content to wait for the trustee to confront your client in public at the 341 meeting with the inconsistency? Ten things you might find in the return: Dependents-  how does the list of tax dependents compare to the current household size Wage … [Continue reading...]

Remember the float?  Your client's check book balance may not be the funds on hand when the bankruptcy case is filed. Too often the client whips out his checkbook to tell what's on deposit when we gather to sign the bankruptcy petition.  The client has already deducted, at least mentally, the recent checks he's written. But call the bank, and you may get a far larger number if … [Continue reading...]

Remember "Where's Waldo"?  As a bankruptcy lawyer, can you pick the transfer out of the crowd? Transfer is a defined term in the bankruptcy code.  Both lawyers and clients understand a sale or a gift as a transfer.  But do you recognize the grant of a security interest as a transfer? I conferred in a case  recently where six months before the bankruptcy filing, a business lawyer had drafted … [Continue reading...]

I've been admitted to the bar in California for 33 years and for most of that time we've had a continuing education requirement of some 15 hours a year.  I've handily exceeded that minimum every year.  When I was new and a generalist, there was so much to learn;  when I specialized, I found depths of bankruptcy practice that I had not imagined.  So when one program sticks out against that … [Continue reading...]

Who wins when the mortgage arrearages in the Chapter 13 plan are less than the  filed proof of claim? I have to admit that this has puzzled me for years, and the  approaches of the three Chapter 13 trustees I practice before are different and without a an articulated theoretic basis. So I embraced a case recently featured at ConsiderChapter13.org:  Euliano, a bankruptcy decision by Judge … [Continue reading...]