The first question for a business owner considering bankruptcy is:  do you have the time, energy, and desire to continue the business? (Read the other four questions for struggling businesses).
Entrepreneurs are the most optimistic, hard working, and determined individuals in the world.  Often my task is to puncture their irrational optimism:  they are convinced that [...]

The law that defines what you can keep despite filing bankruptcy is found in law books, you’d think. There are two alternate sets of  California exemptions in the Code of Civil Procedure. The state law exemptions, for instance, permit the debtor to keep $2550 in equity in vehicles, while the California bankruptcy exemptions allow $3300.
But [...]

The small business owner wants to know what the options are for a struggling business.  To identify those options, I need to know the following:

Do you have the time, energy, and desire to continue the business?
Could the business prosper if it wasn’t servicing old debt?
Could the business prosper if it shed equipment or premises leases?
Could [...]

Pledge your car for a small loan and save big when you file bankruptcy. Such idiocy follows from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Ransom.
At issue was whether a debtor got a deduction on the means test for the costs of acquiring a car if the car was fully paid for. [...]

Debtors whose budget shows they can’t afford to reaffirm the loan on their car may get to keep the car without reaffirmation under a line of decisions by bankruptcy judges.
A number of judges have ruled that “pay and drive” survives bankruptcy reform if the debtor signs a reaffirmation agreement that is denied by the judge [...]

Small business owners feel as though they and their business are one. Before a bankruptcy filing, we have to separate the business from those who operate the business to determine who needs to file.
This is most dramatic when the business is a separate legal entity, a corporation or an LLC.  These entities are their own [...]

The collector claims she’ll sue me for my deceased companion’s debts because California is a community property state, my client reported. The collector threatened to open a probate proceeding to overturn the sale of the house we had owned in joint tenancy, she continued.

So many violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, where do [...]

My friend Jay Fleischman is on point that our clients filing bankruptcy are stressed.  Let me posit that the cause of the stress is not “filing bankruptcy” but 1) the situation that lead to the decision to file;  2) fear of the unknown, fueled by bad information and unsupported assumptions about the process; and 3) [...]

Even if you state your intention to surrender property in your Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the creditor will stilll have to foreclose to relieve you of ownership.
The election or intention to “surrender”  in the bankruptcy papers is really nothing more than an announcement that the debtor doesn’t intend to attempt to keep the property.  Since state [...]

My clients struggle deciding which of their debts should be listed in their bankruptcy papers.  This is wasted time.  My headline poses a trick question.  There is no decision to make:  you include ALL of your debts. Period.
“But, but, but,” the clients sputter. ” I want to keep my car, or patronize my dentist, or [...]