Chapter 13 families sometimes need three cars. Having a newer car with debt can be a necessity, not a luxury. And trustees have to be reminded the world is not as simple as we would like, at times.
These are the lessons I draw in a recent case won by our friend Andy Miofsky [...]

Under the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. 101, et seq., private trustees typically administer debtors’ estates, subject to supervision by the United States Trustees in their respective judicial districts. 
The United States Trustee is a government official appointed by the Attorney General for a five year term to serve various administrative and monitoring functions in a particular [...]

The Court Interpreters Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1827 requires the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Court to “prescribe, determine, and certify the qualifications of persons who may serve a certified interpreters…for the hearing impaired…and persons who speak only or primarily a language other than the English language, in judicial proceedings instituted [...]

Clients often resist Chapter 13 when I first raise the idea, as they assume, wrongly, that as a “repayment plan”, it must repay all their debt. Chapter 13 provides for a stream of payments toward the consumer’s debt, but most often pays creditors only a tiny fraction of their claim.
Prior to the 2005 [...]

The Federal Judiciary has an informative website where you can find your local federal court, including your local bankruptcy court. Visit http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks/. You can search for your local bankruptcy court by zip code, city and state, circuit, county and state, or area code. After you locate your local bankruptcy court, the site [...]

The Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 2.1 states “[i]n representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent professional judgment and render candid advice.  In rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other considerations such as moral, economic, social and political factors, that may be relevant to the client’s situation.”  [...]

A recent story by First Coast News (Channel 12) in Jacksonville, Florida, notes a disturbing trend: as the foreclosure rate goes up, so does crime.
The article quotes Michael Figgins, with Jacksonville Legal Aid, as saying, “We are seeing it in the community if you track where the foreclosures are happening it’s the same places that [...]

During the summer of 2007, the Governor of Maryland appointed a taskforce to look into the foreclosure crisis. Now that the crisis has worsened (and looks as if the foreclosure crisis is going to get a lot worse before it gets better) it has just released its report.
As reported in The Washington Post, the task [...]

When appearing before a Pennsylvania bankruptcy judge, it is important to not only to be familiar with the Federal and local rules of procedure, but also to check the preferences of the judge before whom you are appearing.
In the Western District of Pennsylvania, the general website is http://www.pawb.uscourts.gov/.  There are five bankruptcy judges in the [...]

If your bankruptcy lawyer has told you about the “means test” contained in the new bankruptcy law, hopefully she has also told you that you have “passed” this test. But what if your lawyer has told that you are “flunking” the means test? You need to understand why she would come to this grim-sounding conclusion, [...]