After the holiday weekend, in a bit of a light mood, I thought I would take a look at some of the more obscure items on the list of Massachusetts bankruptcy exemptions. The Massachusetts exemption scheme is reasonably kind to small farmers, allowing them to keep post-bankruptcy, “two cows, 12 sheep, 2 swine and 4 [...]

With the change in Massachusetts state law that went into effect earlier in April, Massachusetts residents have a few new arrows in their quiver if they need to go to bankruptcy court. One of the most important of these is that Massachusetts now has a “wild-card” exemption, just like federal law (and New Hampshire law, [...]

Massachusetts legislators recently increased the bankruptcy exemption for automobiles, but the new law doesn’t stop there. The new law, signed by the governor last week, and slated to take effect in early April, also allows debtors who use the Massachusetts bankruptcy exemptions to keep up to $2,500 in a savings or checking bank account when [...]

Governor Deval Patrick has now signed into law a long awaited provision increasing the automobile exemption that Massachusetts debtors can claim when filing for bankruptcy. Under the new law, Massachusetts debtors can keep automobiles in which they have up to $7, 500 in equity when they file a bankruptcy case. This is an increase from [...]

It’s not a done deal yet, but there are possible changes coming down the pike for Massachusetts debtors in the form of updated bankruptcy exemptions under state law. The most important of the changes raises the exemption allowed for equity in an automobile from a measly $700 to a more modern level of $7,500. For [...]

We briefly interrupt your holiday preparations for breaking news — Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick has signed into law some of the biggest changes in the Massachusetts homestead exemption in many a year. When the new law takes effect in mid-March of 2011, it will no longer be necessary for every homeowner contemplating a bankruptcy case [...]

By the time hunting season rolls around this fall, the federal bankruptcy code may have a specific exemption allowing debtors to keep firearms when they file a bankruptcy case. The House of Representatives has passed a bill that will create a new exemption covering “the debtor’s aggregate interest, not to exceed $3,000 in value, in [...]

A homeowner whose divorce was final before he filed for bankruptcy can’t claim a homestead exemption when the property was sold and he received half the proceeds, according to a recent ruling of the Bankruptcy Court in New Hampshire in the Visconti case. The debtor lived in Hampstead in 2007 when he conveyed his interest [...]

Just last week I was attending a meeting of creditors with one of my clients on a Massachusetts bankruptcy case, and we were watching the trustee handle a previous case involving a “pro se” debtor — a do-it yourselfer not represented by an attorney. Well this poor fellow just about got torn apart by the [...]

You think I’m kidding, right? No one with a big pile of cash needs to file for bankruptcy, right? Well, not so fast. Just one example is very topical now, around April 15th; some folks are getting big tax refunds. Not big enough to pay off all the debts, mind you, but big enough that [...]