What New Bankruptcy Lawyers Need To Know: Beyond The Code

Welcome New Year

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

It's 6:30 am and I'm anxious to get to my office to implement the improvements in my practice that I've been considering as we approach January, 2011. Isn't one of Poor Richard's aphorisms, "well begun is half done"? Don't miss my friend Wendell Sherk's piece, A Christmas Cheer for Consumer Lawyers. He captures the trials and the triumphs of this practice as well as anything I've read. Let … [Continue reading...]

Resolutions

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

It's time to start considering resolutions for the New Year. I find I'm not very focused on December 31st and the idea has lost steam if I don't line out my resolutions til mid January. In the context of a consumer bankruptcy practice, we're probably talking about "goals" for the New Year: resolutions seems so tinged with self improvement. (I'm going to try the resolves shown above: want to … [Continue reading...]

Why Earmark Tax Payments

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Did you know that a taxpayer making a voluntary payment to the IRS can designate to which liability it is credited? The doctrine is called earmarking and it's really useful when a prospective debtor owes taxes for both priority and non priority years. Absent instructions from the payor, the IRS applies payment to the oldest taxes first, which may well be dischargeable. A taxpayer who makes … [Continue reading...]

Flush Out Client Misinformation

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

After you've gasped and giggled at the misleading bankruptcy information spotlighted here earlier, there is a serious point here: this sort of tripe creates real work for bankruptcy lawyers and a very real trap for clients. Incomplete, overstated, inaccurate stuff about bankruptcy is all over the web, authored by apparently knowledgeable sources. Your prospects read this stuff as if it was … [Continue reading...]

Blog Heaven

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

On the off chance you want to read something other than this blog <g>, may I point you to the ABA's list of candidates for best legal blogs. If I had a 36 hour day, I'd be reading an number of these. My favorite bankruptcy blog, of course, is Credit Slips, the work of a group of law professors which originally included Elizabeth Warren. I wouldn't mind if you perused Bankruptcy Law … [Continue reading...]

Produce Real Evidence In Bankruptcy Disputes

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

More lawyering for faster confirmation of Chapter 13 cases was the advice. The newest judge on our bench called on a room full of bankruptcy attorneys to speed up the flow of cases through his (packed) courtroom by taking discovery. When an informal request of the objecting creditor doesn't yield the information you need, send discovery, he charged. Let's do the numbers. Rule 9014 makes … [Continue reading...]

Near Sighted Leading the Blind

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

When a trainer of bankruptcy paralegals writes about clients failing the Chapter 13 means test, I blanch, or worse. We had a couple who originally wanted to file a Chapter 13 so they could keep their home. However, they were unable to pass the Means Test. The calculation of the debtor's monthly disposable income on the B-22C form is a necessity. It is supposed to measure the debtor's … [Continue reading...]

Amended Bankruptcy Rule Provides More Time

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

One of the traps for debtors instituted with BAPCPA is the provision that an individual's bankruptcy case be closed without a discharge if proof of completion of a financial management class is not timely filed. Rule 1007(b) requires the filing of the certificate of debtor education as among the debtor's duties. Section 727(a)(11) provides that the discharge can be withheld for failure to … [Continue reading...]

Ask “Why Me?” When It’s Chapter 11

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Young bankruptcy attorney was approached to file a Chapter 11 for an LLC developing a condo complex, with a foreclosure sale looming. Should they take the case, she asked me. For all the reasons I've written before, I thought no, not this case, not now. After we discussed the difficulties of a single asset case with no regular income and a secured lender intent on foreclosing, it occurred to … [Continue reading...]

Household Size Vanishes From Means Test Form

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Drafters of the official bankruptcy forms have excised "household size" from the B-22 where we calculate the part A IRS standard allowances. In its place is "applicable number of persons", which the form indicates is the number of exemptions the debtor would currently be allowed on their tax return plus the number of other persons the debtor currently supports. Did the courts reject "heads on … [Continue reading...]

Rich Personal Finance Resource For Clients

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Introduce your clients to Money Health Central, a sound source of ideas and tools for those struggling with debt or looking to reorient their financial lives after bankruptcy. I know it's good stuff because I write it with 5 good friends who are also bankruptcy lawyers. This isn't a site about how bankruptcy works, but rather about how personal finance works. Recent posts that might be useful … [Continue reading...]

Swimming Upstream Against The Current of Client Optimism

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Inflated value provided by client in bankruptcy schedules comes back to bite debtor when Chapter 13 plan collapses. The client's case was driven by substantial taxes and a vehicle she just had to keep. The asset mix included a timeshare which, even at the start of the recession, she valued at far more than I suspected it was worth. I challenged the client's number, but didn't persist in the … [Continue reading...]

Taxes, Bankruptcy & The New Year

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Consider delaying the filing of Chapter 13 cases where the debtor expects to owe taxes for 2010 til January. Otherwise the tax for 2010 is a post petition debt not easily payable through the Chapter 13 plan. It's December and I'm trying to be thorough in asking Chapter 13 prospects whether they will owe taxes for the current year. Income taxes are not owed until the end of the tax year. … [Continue reading...]

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