Bankruptcy Mastery

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Learn the Bankruptcy Lingo: Pots & Percentages

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice, Chapter 13

While we’re learning to “walk the walk”, we might as well learn to “talk the (bankruptcy) talk”.  Each profession has its shorthand for concepts that are encountered repeatedly. For bankruptcy lawyers, that includes the distinction between Chapter 13 “percentage plans” vs. “pot plans“. These terms are alternative ways that the dividend to unsecured creditors in […]

Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice, Chapter 13 Tagged With: bankruptcy practice, bankruptcy terms, Chapter 13

Bankruptcy Exemption Mistakes Feed Trustee Coffers

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Exemptions

Bankruptcy lawyers who mess up claims of exemptions were the other target of the trustee’s attorney I spoke with earlier this week.  He rubbed his hands over attorneys who hadn’t collected enough information to understand the asset or who simply didn’t know that the homestead exemption didn’t apply to property other than the debtor’s residence. […]

Filed Under: Exemptions Tagged With: assets, bankruptcy exemptions, bankruptcy practice

Bankruptcy Contested Matters: Won by Showing Up

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Sometimes bankruptcy litigation is won by simple persistence.   As Woody Allen says “80% of success is showing up”.   Two instances this week where being ready and willing to have a hearing on a disputed issue resulted in victory before the hearing. In my case, I had a marginal set of facts in a […]

Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice Tagged With: bankruptcy advocacy, bankruptcy contested matters, bankruptcy law, bankruptcy litigation, bankruptcy practice, courtroom procedure

Bankruptcy Exemptions: 10 Ways to Deal with Excess Cash

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Exemptions, Start Here

bankruptcy exemptions

Bankruptcy lawyers occasionally are confronted with the client with more cash, or other marketable assets, worth more than the available exemptions to protect them. And state exemption systems often protect the darndest things, like a mule and a plow.  A milk cow.  The family bible. Those aren’t the things most of us are striving to […]

Filed Under: Exemptions, Start Here Tagged With: assets, bankruptcy exemptions, bankruptcy planning, bankruptcy practice, bankruptcy skills, filing bankruptcy

Bankruptcy’s Means Test Doesn’t Apply to All

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Means test

New bankruptcy lawyers sometimes forget in the flurry over getting the means test right that it only applies when the debts are primarily consumer. Primarily means over half in dollar amount. The code defines consumer debts in §101(8) as debt incurred for a personal, family or household purpose. You may be surprised by the kinds […]

Filed Under: Means test Tagged With: bankruptcy practice, consumer bankruptcy law, means test, tax

Bankruptcy Procedure Question? Ask a Clerk

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

when lost

The  bankruptcy judge ordered me to get the signature of an absent party on the written version of the order just made from the bench. So, what to do when that party was unwilling to sign? When the judge signed the order anyway, opposing counsel complemented me on knowing how to deal with the problem. […]

Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice Tagged With: bankruptcy practice, courtroom procedure, new bankruptcy lawyer

Discharging Taxes in Bankruptcy: This Year’s Trap

By Cathy Moran, Esq. Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Income taxes are dischargeable in bankruptcy if they meet the three year rule; the two year rule; and the 240 day rule. When you count back for the three year rule (the date on which the return was last due without penalty is more than three years prior to the date the bankruptcy is filed), […]

Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice Tagged With: bankruptcy discharge, bankruptcy practice, filing bankruptcy

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