An appellate court has held that a mortgagee may wrongfully apply post-bankruptcy payments to the pre-bankruptcy account without penalty. Ameriquest Mortgage kept two separate books to account for mortgage payments, one computerized and one manually. The computerized account would apply the latest payment to the earliest unpaid month, even if that month was before a [...]
November 2008
image credit: dreamstime No one has advocated Chapter 13 bankruptcy reform, to allow courts to re-write the terms of mortgages secured by homes, longer than the bloggers on this site. I have not seen our argument for Chapter 13 bankruptcy reform put better than in this Washington Post article. Kansas bankruptcy attorney Jill MIchaux [...]
Your credit score (defined here by Kansas City bankruptcy attorney Rachel Foley) can effect the health care treatment you receive. Business Week reports that some hospitals buy software that helps them determine which clients can pay through analyzing their credit score and other financial information. One horror story in the article concerns a woman with [...]
Layaway is a great way to purchase goods without having to pay the entire cost at one time. Typically in layaway, the consumer selects items from a store with a layaway plan. The items are then put in storage and held for the consumer who pays for the items on a regular schedule. When the [...]
On November 17, 2007,Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL]introduced a new bankruptcy bill to the Senate to help struggling homeowners save their homes from foreclosure in bankruptcy. Its purpose is “tohelp struggling families stay in their homes and to ensure that taxpayers are protected when the Secretary of the Treasury purchases equity shares in financial institutions.“
The Means Test reduces income by actual tax expenses, among other permitted reductions. Problems arise when calculating an actual tax expense where there was a refund in the previous year. A refund occurs when someone over-withholds from their income to pay their taxes. No one has a crystal ball, of course, so no one can [...]
