Selling a house while you are in bankruptcy
What happens if you file a bankruptcy case, and then afterwards suddenly find the perfect buyer (i.e. one who can get financing and will actually go through with the purchase) for your home? A lot will depend on what chapter your case is filed under. If its a Chapter 7, like the majority of cases, [...]
What’s IN your bankruptcy? Everything had better be IN your bankruptcy!
This may be included in the realm of misguided terminology, but I often get comments from my bankruptcy clients that sound something like this: “I didn’t know my cars were IN the bankruptcy.” Or, “I thought we were keeping the house out of this bankruptcy.” These statements are grating on my ears (they would be [...]
The central purpose of the consumer bankruptcy laws
“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven,” said the son of David in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes. But did you ever wonder what the official purpose behind having a bankruptcy system was? An creditor who has just had an account file for bankruptcy might be tempted to [...]
Billy Graham comments on the propriety of consumer bankruptcy
The famous evangelist Billy Graham was recently asked in his local newspaper’s question-and answer forum whether it was morally wrong for a married couple to file a consumer bankruptcy case. The couple wrote to Graham’s newspaper advice column saying they had gotten into a financial bind when they moved, couldn’t sell their old house, and [...]
Banned from filing bankruptcy in Massachusetts?
Could you be banned from even filing a bankruptcy case in Massachusetts? Indeed you could be, and a married couple whose Chapter 13 case was before bankruptcy judge Melvin Hoffman recently was. The case is In re Durham. At issue was section 109 (g) (2) of the bankruptcy code, which prohibits a debtor from filing [...]
Some bankruptcy fees will be increasing on November 1st
Some of the fees charged by the bankruptcy court will be increasing a bit on November 1, 2011. The basic fees for filing a consumer case are increasing by $7. These will be $306 for a chapter 7 case, and $281 for a chapter 13 case. Also starting in November, it will now cost you [...]
Big trouble ensues over bankruptcy debtor’s failure to list his watch on his bankruptcy schedules
File this under “what not to do” if you’re filing a consumer bankruptcy case: “Forget” to list your Rolex watch on the bankruptcy schedules. Brian Sullivan, a debtor from Maine, found this out the hard way recently when the First Circuit Court of Appeals denied his discharge. (In other words, he got nothing out of [...]
median income levels for clients thinking about bankruptcy in Massachusetts or New Hampshire
State median income levels are calculated by the Internal Revenue Service, and are used in bankruptcy court to determine eligibility to file a Chapter 7 case. For residents of Massachusetts: The median income for a one person household is $55,185; The median income for a two person household is $66,200; The median income for a [...]
Bankruptcy and divorce: can the bankruptcy court step in and re-do your divorce settlement?
Bankruptcy and divorce — those handmaidens of a whopping mid-life crisis — are serviced by competing court systems with competing and confusing rules and requirements. Here is a guide to (at least partially) untangling the mess. First, since 2005 there has been a notion in the bankruptcy courts of something called a “domestic support order,” [...]
Confusion reigns on whether a means test is needed when converting a bankruptcy case to Chapter 7
If you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, debtors with mainly consumer debts have to also file a “means test,” which proves they qualify for Chapter 7 relief based on their recent income. If you file Chapter 13 case, there is no pure means test (although there are qualifications), but you file a very similar [...]
