When I had a cavity last year I was struck by a distressing thought: not only did I not have a good dentist, I didn’t have one at all. And so began a quest that took me from website to website, friend to relative, neighbors and colleagues in a quest for the right dentist. It [...]
March 2011
(picture from University of Pennsylvania blog on regulations) The most common question I get for a long time is what happens if I do not, or cannot, pay my mortgage? If you can afford to continue paying, and are current, there is really no bankruptcy alternative. The so-called “strategic default” option is to simply stop [...]
Do people really have their bankruptcy case paid for through litigation? It depends. It depends on what happens during your case such as a stay violation or what happens after your case is completed such as a discharge violation. It depends on whether your attorney feels comfortable filing the litigation because not all attorneys do. While it [...]
Our economy is in the toilet, I don’t care what anyone says. I’ve got well-educated, worldly friends who have been unemployed for well over a year, colleagues reporting that their divorce practices are flailing (people tend to remain together during hard times because they don’t have the money to live separately), and others reporting that [...]
It’s no secret that federal bankruptcy courts are reluctant to grant a bankruptcy discharge of student loans based on section 523(a)(8)’s “undue hardship” standard. Indeed, courts have usually construed the phrase “undue hardship” narrowly, rendering it difficult to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. However, in a recent Ohio case, the court went to unusual lengths in [...]
Lawyers who represent consumers in foreclosures, collection abuse or civil lawsuit defense matters often refer to attorneys on the other side as “mills.” In my experience, that’s not too far off the mark; when law firms file huge numbers of lawsuits at a clip without any meaningful involvement by the attorneys allegedly in charge, that’s [...]
