Bankruptcy can be affordable. It requires a lot of money to file for bankruptcy protections. It costs lots more than before the 2005 revisions, which doubled the expenses and work for no additional benefit. Here’s how to make it affordable. Chapter 7 cases are over in three months. One has to save up the fees [...]
L. Jed Berliner, Springfield, MA Bankruptcy Attorney
It’s happening all across the country. Folks have unaffordable mortgages on homes with no equity, so they surrendered the home, filed bankruptcy, and moved on. The Notice of Intent in Bankruptcy said they are surrendering. What more is needed? In fact, lots more is needed. Ownership of the home continues until a foreclosure, a deed in lieu [...]
Yes, Virginia, you CAN change your Chapter 13 bankruptcy payment if something changes in your situation. Chapter 13 requires a monthly payment from three to five years. It allow you to cure arrearages for mortgages, car loans, taxes, or family support, or pay what you are required to pay under the Means Test. A portion of the money may go [...]
Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings often requires that a filer pay something every month to a trustee. The trustee distributes those payments according to a court-approved plan. Nothing in the Bankruptcy Code requires a minimum payment, a minimum dividend, to be paid to any general unsecured creditor such as like a credit card. They often get zero. The required payment [...]
Capital One violated the bankruptcy discharge thousands of times and got caught, as was recently reported by the Wall Street Journal. It filed claims in second bankruptcy cases based upon debts which were already discharged in earlier cases. As my colleague Andy Miofsky wrote, “There is a reason Capital One Bank portrays credit card banks as a horde [...]
Bankruptcy trustees in California and elsewhere were notorious for holding a Chapter 7 case open while real estate prices rose (hah! remember those days?) above the protected values. The trustee would then sell the home, forcing a debtor to move – and spend the protected part of the sale proceeds to do so - while recovering money for [...]
