A recent Minnesota bankruptcy court ruling makes it easier for persons with roommates to claim a two-person household, while simultaneously excluding the roommate’s income from use in the means test. This is important because in some cases, this can result in the debtor’s income being below the state’s median income for a two-person household, thereby relieving the [...]
July 2009
Banks have been cutting credit card limits for consumers for several months now. But consumers shouldn’t feel picked on. It turns out the banks are cutting credit for businesses in a big way, too. Large businesses do not finance their operations on a credit card. Not really. But they usually do have the large-scale equivalents [...]
Bank of America has made a splash recently by updating its short sale agreements. The bank is now, intentionally or not, making it simpler for folks to decide to allow a foreclosure or file bankruptcy instead. Bank of America has reportedly changed its short sale agreements to provide that the homeowner will remain liable for [...]
Iowa bankruptcy courts have been split for a decade over a simple question: Can a consumer exempt a motor vehicle under state law and strip a non-purchase money lien on the car as a tool of trade under bankruptcy law. That split was resolved in favor of consumers by the 8th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel [...]
New legislation introduced, allegedly at the request of California Governor, Schwarzenegger, will make it tougher to get a mortgage modification in California. This legislation, California Senate Bill 94, includes language that says that attorneys can’t be paid for helping a homeowner apply for a modification until the process is completed! Previous California legislation had similar [...]
According to a July 2, 2009 Bloomberg report, there were 675,351 consumer bankruptcy filings in the first half of 2009, a 36.5 percent increase over 2008 numbers. June consumer filings totaled 116,365, up 40.6 percent from the same period in 2008. The monthly rate of consumer filings slowed, however, declining by 6.8 percent from May [...]
