Time to make those New Year’s resolutions. One of the best things about the New Year is to reflect on the past year and decide what, if anything, you want to do differently. We all want to eat better and do more exercise, but economic health maybe just as important.
The vast majority [...]

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Somma ruled in In re Machado that a Massachusetts Chapter 13 plan may provide for separate payments to a student lender, depending on the particular facts of the case.
This opinion approved a below-median income debtor’s 60 month plan where the regular unsecured creditors at $26,000 shared $276 per month, a 4% [...]

Quoting Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School from her book All Your Worth: “You can’t borrow your way out of debt.”
People in debt are flooded with information that tells them that they should NOT file bankruptcy but they are told to find the answer to their debt problems by refinancing, getting a [...]

The lead article in the December 3, 2007, Business Week entitled Fresh Pain for the Uninsured describes a growing trend in which finance companies team up with medical providers to steer uninsured and underinsured patients into credit-card style repayment plans as part of the admissions process.
The hospital or other health care provider gets paid up [...]

Christmas is behind us and the bills are coming. If the bills are longer than your paycheck’s reach, which ones get paid and which ones deferred? To protect your family, you might have to overcome instinct.
The lesson is this: Face your problems head on, but tackle the biggest threats first. Don’t allow a [...]

What happens if a debtor in chapter 7 bankruptcy dies during the administration of the case? The simple answer is a deceased debtor can receive a discharge of debt, provided the debtor would qualify for a discharge during one’s lifetime. In other words, the case can proceed to completion and you can go to your [...]

Statutory foreclosure procedure in Massachusetts requires two weeks’ advance notice to the borrower by certified mail and two weekly classified advertisements at least one week before the foreclosure sale. The sale is considered complete when the memorandum of sale is signed at the foreclosure sale’s auction, even if the successful bidder has 30 [...]

Parents don’t realize that the credit card debts that they accumulate can hurt their children’s ability to get a college education.  People who can afford to pay their debts should not be allowed to walk away from debts because they don’t feel like paying them, but the strict rules in bankruptcy require debtors in bankruptcy [...]

One of the really cool things about restructuring your debt in Chapter 13 is the flexibility to respond to changing circumstances along the way. Most of my clients are in a Chapter 13 for four to five years, and a lot can change in that time.
Think back–when was the last time you went five years [...]

The Massachusetts Homestead Statute appears on its face to prohibit the protection of manufactured homes on a leased lot unless the owner is disabled or over 62. So ruled U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William C. Hillman in In re Kelly in 2005. It wasn’t appealed, and it was followed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Joel [...]