Monthly Archives: January 2011

Bankruptcy clients: not all of your creditors send you a bill!

By doug | Published: January 29, 2011

As a corollary to the idea that you may have more creditors than you think, prospective bankruptcy filers need to check to see if they have creditors who aren’t sending them a bill every month. The most likely place to look for these low lying creditors is in the realm of liens filed against the […]

Posted in Secured loans | Comments closed

Bankruptcy court: not clothing optional

By doug | Published: January 29, 2011

If you are going to file for bankruptcy, you don’t want to do it naked. But you would be surprised at how many people leave the space for clothing blank on their bankruptcy petitions. Really? Who is going to believe that? Certainly not the trustee who is questioning you under oath, and who can plainly […]

Posted in Practical tips | Comments closed

Misunderstanding the Chapter 7 means test rules for business debt

By doug | Published: January 28, 2011

Orlando bankruptcy lawyer Jonathan Alper has written a nice piece reminding us that debtors — and sometimes lawyers, too, often don’t apply the means test rules on business debt correctly. A quick primer: Debtors usually must pass a Chapter 7 “means-test” in order to qualify to file under that chapter and discharge debt outright without […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

Can a bankruptcy judge force you to run a business?

By doug | Published: January 27, 2011

Could a bankruptcy judge force a debtor to keep operating a particular business? In the usual course of practicing bankruptcy law, such a ridiculous question wouldn’t even come up. Bankruptcy judges see more failed businesses and their downcast owners then anyone else. And there is no way that they are going to make a business […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

Student loan debtors need not go begging, and need not avoid bankruptcy either

By doug | Published: January 26, 2011

If you have been looking into bankruptcy, and have a lot of student loan debt, you probably have discovered that it isn’t easy to wipe out these loans in bankruptcy court. Eliminating a student loan requires filing an adversary proceeding (a fancy name for a lawsuit) in addition to the basic bankruptcy case, and then […]

Posted in Student loans | Comments closed

Do you have more creditors than you think?

By doug | Published: January 24, 2011

Quite a few of the people who come in to my office for bankruptcy consultations are under the impressions that their list of creditors is comprised primarily — or entirely — of the major credit card companies and department stores where they have accounts. If you are thinking of filing a bankruptcy case, don’t forget […]

Posted in Practical tips | Comments closed

Cars and bankruptcy

By doug | Published: January 24, 2011

The recent Supreme Court decision in the Ransom case got a lot of bankruptcy academics interested again in the subject of how the Bankruptcy Code treats debtors with automobiles and trucks (which is pretty much all of them). It also may have some debtors nervous about how they (and their rides) will be treated if […]

Posted in The Bankruptcy Code | Comments closed

Wife can’t sue husband’s bankruptcy lawyer

By doug | Published: January 21, 2011

With two weeks of the new year behind us, its time to take a look at the first of the 2011 bankruptcy opinions from our local judges. In a bit of an odd case (is this an omen for the year ahead?) from Western Massachusetts, bankruptcy judge Henry J. Boroff ruled that a non-filing wife […]

Posted in Practical tips | Comments closed

What drives bankruptcy filings: Credit cards or foreclosures?

By doug | Published: January 20, 2011

The final figures for 2010 are in, and the number of residential foreclosures in Massachusetts, no surprise, was sharply higher. All told, 12,233 Massachusetts homeowners lost properties to bank seizure, nearly 32 percent more than in 2009, according to the Warren Group, which tracks real estate trends. As bad as that sounds, do you think […]

Posted in Credit cards, Foreclosure | Comments closed

Massachusetts legislature getting proactive on problem foreclosures

By doug | Published: January 19, 2011

Well, 2011 is certainly getting off to a bang in the Massachusetts bankruptcy and foreclosure arena. While bankruptcy is a federal matter, much of the action is on the state government side, as legislators on Beacon Hill are getting ready to introduce a slew of bills that will affect bankruptcy debtors. First up is Secretary […]

Posted in Bankruptcy News, Foreclosure | Comments closed
Call now: (978) 975 - 2608