Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, includes on his website a summary of his positions on bankruptcy and credit reform.
From his website:
Obama will reform our bankruptcy laws to protect working people, ban executive bonuses for bankrupt companies, and require disclosure of all pension investments.

Cap Outlandish Interest Rates on Payday Loans and Improve Disclosure: [...]

Before Congress passed the “Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act” (BAPCPA) in 2005, dealing with car loans in Chapter 7 cases in most states was pretty simple—if you made your payments you could keep your car, and if you didn’t, even though the car finance company could repossess the car, you wouldn’t be personally [...]

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Are Borrowers Free to Lie?, talks about a recent Bankruptcy Court decision in the Northern District of California. In re Hill dealt with an attempt by National City Bank to hold the Hills’ mortgage loan non-dischargeable, meaning that, despite the loss of their home due to foreclosure [...]

According to the Office of the United States Trustee, audits, which were suspended in January 2008, will resume on May 12, 2008.
The announcement states:
5/9/2008
As mandated in Section 603(a) of Public Law 109-8, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, the United States Trustee Program (USTP) established procedures to audit petitions, schedules, and [...]

A recent bench decision by Maryland Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas J. Catliota was an important ruling regarding the real party in interest requirement of FRBP 7017.
Americredit Financial Services, Inc., an auto loan servicer, filed a MLS in its own name. Its name appears on the car title as the sole lienholder, it represented that it [...]

Jobs are bring cut. Housing prices have fallen off a cliff. Wages are stagnant. The “R Word”–Recession–now seems to be accepted by economists as what the economy’s in, and even the “D Word”–Depression–is being tossed about.
In other words, the economy’s in a mess.
So why is the stock market doing so well?

I’m often asked whether a client can sell his or her (or their) house while they’re in a bankruptcy.
The answer is, “Yes,” but it isn’t quite that simple.
If you liked that post, then try these…Involuntary Bankruptcy and the Credit Counseling Conundrum by Brett Weiss, Maryland Bankruptcy AttorneyA Third Car Is Not A Luxury by Wendell [...]

The pain of foreclosure runs deep. According to an article in The Washington Post, “Losing a Best Friend Along With the House,” local animal shelters are reporting that 15% of animals received in the past two months are the result of foreclosure.
The story quotes Kathy Dillon, the operations coordinator at the Montgomery County, Maryland Humane [...]

You’ve gotten the letter from your mortgage company. It’s threatening foreclosure. What do you do?
The first thing *not* to do is to ignore it. Putting your head in the sand won’t make the problem go away, and can result in your losing your home.
Typically, mortgage companies spend a fair amount of time “leading up” to [...]

Probably the most common question I get asked at parties when I tell people I’m a bankruptcy attorney is, “How do your clients pay you if they’re going to file for bankruptcy?” (The second question usually is, “Can I have one of your business cards?”) It’s a good question, though. How do people pay their [...]