Bankruptcy Mastery

Becoming a better bankruptcy lawyer

Solo Attorney’s How To Guide

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Solo Attorney Tool Kit

Learn how to evaluate a case in 15 minutes; how to decide whether to give free consultations; and how to avoid conflicts, written for the solo or small firm attorney.  Could the topics be more on point? The current issue of the GPSolo Magazine from the ABA deals with these issues and more.  It's online and it's free. While written for general practitioners, most of the material is, with … [Continue reading...]

Get Your General Ed Credits, Too

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Rookie bankruptcy lawyers could do worse than go the California State Bar Convention for a grounding in practice management basics and developing issues in other areas of law. My law partner Renee Mendoza points out that legal education is nowhere as inexpensive as the convention. You can attend classes from dawn to the cocktail hour, for several days in a row.   I'd lost sight of the fact that … [Continue reading...]

I Flunked Mindreading

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

I Flunked Mindreading

For six months, I've been writing this blog for newish bankruptcy lawyers, trying to imagine what it is that I know about this practice that you, as a newcomer, needs to know sooner rather than later. I've shamelessly lifted stories from my clients and those of my local newbies to write about here.  I've snatched issues I've tripped over to share with you. Enough!  Rather than me guessing … [Continue reading...]

Client as Onion: Peeling Down To The Core

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Bankruptcy Client as Onion

When we finally got there, the client's reluctance to wait 8 weeks to file bankruptcy was predicated on the (unreasonable) expectation that the IRS would forgive tax debt in an offer in compromise. I got involved counseling a new bankruptcy attorney whose clients wanted to file Chapter 7 right now, while one spouse was unemployed.  A job offer was on the horizon, they thought, and their … [Continue reading...]

Financial Information for Financially Stressed

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Five friends and I launched a new personal finance site today Money Health Central where we hope to gather actionable information for those in debt and those emerging from debt.  We hope to put to use what we've learned about personal finances from years of interviewing our bankruptcy clients. The site moves beyond just bankruptcy information to talk about saving, spending, debt alternatives … [Continue reading...]

The Many Hats of a Bankruptcy Lawyer

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

  Lee Rosen, a well known family lawyer, described the demands of his practice thus: Family law attorneys live in an information deprivation zone. They need to know more than they can possibly remember. They’ve got to master the fundamentals of family law. On top of that, they must have a working knowledge of property law, tax law, estate planning, juvenile law, criminal law, and half a … [Continue reading...]

Bankruptcy Lawyer’s Weapon of Choice

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

desk phone

How do you make your first assault on a contested matter in bankruptcy? Pick up the phone to your opponent! Countless times, a new bankruptcy lawyer gets an objection or opposition and indulges in  a reflexive question about what kind of pleading to file or counter manoevre to initiate.  Their first move should be to pick up the phone to opposing counsel to see if the matter can be settled or … [Continue reading...]

Newbie Summer Reading: Rash

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Diesel truck

Is the value of the secured creditor's claim in a Chapter 13 cramdown what the creditor would receive if it foreclosed its lien or what the debtor would pay to replace the collateral. It was 1997 before that question was resolved by the Supreme Court in Associates v. Rash, nearly 20 years after enactment of the Bankruptcy Code. Mr. Rash bought a $73,000  Kenworth tractor truck for freight … [Continue reading...]

But She’s Not a Creditor!

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

An unliquidated tort cause of action is just as much a "claim" for bankruptcy purposes as a credit card bill. Not all creditors send monthly bills  I reminded  my rookie lawyer friend. My friend's fact pattern was a bit more complex than the more common unresolved auto accident:  an exspouse was complaining that a title company mix-up left the property the ex got in the property … [Continue reading...]

Newbie Summer Reading: Johnson v. Home State Bank

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Family farm

After  a Chapter 7 discharge, is there anything left of a mortgage to reorganize in Chapter 13? That's the question that the Supreme Court resolved in Johnson v. Home State Bank, the next on our summer reading list for new bankruptcy lawyers.  Believe it or not, it was 12 years after adoption of the 1978 Code before we got an answer as to what a "claim" was. Johnson mortgaged the farm, fell … [Continue reading...]

Lien on Phantom Property Upsets Debt Totals

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Home with mortgage

Merely having a lien doesn't make a lender a secured creditor for Chapter 13 eligibility purposes. The draft bankruptcy schedules I was reviewing for a rookie bankruptcy lawyer listed a mortgage loan but the plan didn't mention the proposed treatment of the loan. Turns out, according to this link,  it was because the house that secured the loan had gone to the ex wife in the pending divorce. Cue … [Continue reading...]

Clients to avoid: those with bankruptcy-adverse spouses

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Do you scope out the world view of  your prospect's non filing spouse? I didn't and I'm sorry.  The client was full of guilt about the financial situation and kept insisting at our first meeting that "no one should be hurt but him" as a result of the financial predicament leading to bankruptcy.  That situation included back taxes on a joint return. Now the non filing wife is spitting mad … [Continue reading...]