The State of New York is currently debating tougher debt collection guidelines. Well, it’s about time. If passed, debt collectors would be facing stricter scrutiny in their industry. The legislation, if passed, would be called the Consumer Credit Fairness Act. In the law, consumer debtors are provided with better protections than they ever were before [...]
July 2009
Student loans are not discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding unless repayment of the loan will create an undue hardship for the debtor or the debtor’s dependents. The bankruptcy code prevents student loan discharge in most cases. Many courts, including the Oregon bankruptcy court, have adopted a test formulated in 1987 by the Court of Appeals [...]
The law requires that all debtors take a credit counseling course before a bankruptcy is filed. That means that both spouses in a joint case must take the course. It isn’t a multi-session course: just one class of an hour to two on the phone or the internet. And yes, you’ll have to pay for [...]
Many times, it is possible for a bankruptcy attorney to tentatively diagnose your financial problems and outline solutions without detailed documentation. However, the following documents may be helpful during an initial bankruptcy consultation: 1. A recent pay slip for you and your spouse (if you are married). 2. If you own an interest in a [...]
If you’ve filed bankruptcy under Chapter 7, you can usually still sell your home. But there is likely to be a delay before you can complete the sale, so you need to understand basic bankruptcy procedure. Can your home be sold? The answer is: It depends. In fact, that’s the initial answer to most bankruptcy [...]
Bankruptcy debtors have the right to exempt property from the bankruptcy estate up to a certain dollar amount. In Massachusetts, bankruptcy debtors have the option of using either the Federal or Massachusetts exemptions to do this. Where a debtor has a large amount of home equity they want to protect, he or she should use [...]
