The bankruptcy means test does not apply to individual debtors with primarily non-consumer debt such as business debts.  Sounds simple enough, but there is lots of room for argument over the application of this rule.
What is  non-consumer debt?  The bankruptcy code defines consumer debt as debt incurred for personal, family, household purposes. 11 U.S.C. 101(8).  [...]

The penalty for intentionally failing to be complete with the information on your bankruptcy petition and schedules can be a Federal criminal offense punishable by a sentence of up to 5 years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000.00.  Under cetain circumstances, the attorney filing such a petition can also be sanction by [...]

It’s no great secret that the banking industry is floundering and that credit has tightened considerably. But to date, no one has considered the effect of all of this on the nation’s credit unions.  Credit Unions are beginning to follow banks and mortgage companies into failure.
While the National Credit Union Administration does publish statistics of [...]

Darrel McGraw, West Virginia Attorney General recently warned the public about scam artists who are threatening consumers about Internet payday loans they never obtained, or paid off several years ago.
McGraw says the scammers pose as law enforcement officers, investigators, lawyers and bankers. They have heavy, foreign accents, indicating they may be from off shore locations [...]

The income guidelines for bankruptcy eligibility are changing for cases filed October 1, 2008.  The census bureau has announced updated median income figures, which are expected to be adopted by the U.S. Trustee for the bankruptcy means test.
If Kansas is typical, the income guidelines increase slightly.  For example, the guideline for one Kansas earner goes [...]

Foreclosures are being stopped because the purported mortgage holder cannot prove it holds rights to the mortgage.  Those cases do not remove the mortgage entirely, but only stop the foreclosure.  More can be done.
Section 506 (d) of the Bankruptcy Code will permanently void a mortgage if the claim is disallowed.  This can be easier than you think.  [...]

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act covers letters to an attorney and not only to the consumer.  This is not commonly understood, yet it can add dollars to your ultimate recovery.
The Supreme Court’s benchmark decision, which ruled that attorneys are subject to the FDCPA, was itself based upon a lawyer-to-lawyer settlement demand for a false insurance [...]

A recent Boston.com article focused on the impact of abandoned and foreclosed homes on towns in Massachusetts. A particularly interesting section of the article related to the Town of Randolph’s attempts to get the owner of an abandoned house to do some basic maintenance of the property, such as disposing of trash and trimming grass.
A [...]

Withdrawals from retirement accounts do not count as “income” for the bankruptcy means test, according to the Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.
At long last, there is again harmony. As I have discussed before, my neighboring courts in the Western District of Missouri had concluded that withdrawals from retirement accounts, like a 401(k) or an [...]

Senator Barrack Obama called for bankruptcy law change in his presidential nomination acceptance speech before the Democrat National Convention Thursday night (08/28/08) in Denver.
“That’s the promise we need to keep. That’s the change we need right now . . . let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president,” Obama [...]