Category Archives: Exemptions

Massachusetts bankruptcy debtors who need to use the state-specific Massachusetts list of exempt property got some good news recently from Judge Hoffman, whose ruling in the Sutherland case may have effectively doubled the wild card exemption under state law. The Sutherland case was reviewed here previously, where another aspect of the case looked at the […]

Practicing bankruptcy law in Massachusetts means you are always learning new things. A question that cropped up recently: Does a Harley – Davidson motorcycle count as a debtor’s automobile? And a little more broadly — is a motorcycle a vehicle? These questions were one of the subjects in the Sutherland case, decided on July 16, […]

A very modest increase in the amount of equity in a car that a debtor can keep after filing a bankruptcy case went into effect in April, 2013. Previously, a single debtor claiming federal exemptions was allowed $3,450 in equity in a vehicle. With the cost-of-living increase that took effect on April 1st, that was […]

A bit of good news just came in for anyone out there considering filing a bankruptcy case: As of April 1, 2013, the total amount of property that a debtor can “keep” after filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy increased to $12,725.00, an extra $750 over prior law. The increase is part of an every-three years tweaking […]

If a debtor files a bankruptcy case after having written checks on a personal account, but before they are cashed who gets to keep the money? This is a question that is being asked in the Henson case before the United States Court of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over the nation’s […]