Your decision to file for bankruptcy should involve a great deal of thought and discussion with both your loved ones as well as your legal counsel.  Once filed, a bankruptcy carries with it some significant consequences.
First, your credit will be affected if you are bankruptcy for one day, one month, one year, or longer.  Credit [...]

In Santulli v. Texas Board of Law Examiners, 2009 WL 961568 (Tex.App.-Austin, April 10, 2009), the Texas Court of Appeals upheld the revocation of a lawyer’s license to practice law, based upon his failure to either make payment arrangements for his outstanding debts or discharge them in bankruptcy. 
The Board of Law Examiners had found that [...]

In the real world, families help each other.  Sometimes this help can be in the form of co-signing a debt or even entering into debt to help a family member.  In my practice I frequently see situations where an adult child signs as the sole or primary mortgagee for a parent’s house.  Sometimes a parent [...]

Once a bankruptcy is filed, a credit union may not apply funds received from a bankruptcy debtor’s paychecks by means of an automatic payroll deduction to the payments due for a vehicle loan, according to the Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.
In this case, In re Krivohlavek, No. 08-6047 (8th Cir. BAP May 22, 2009), the appeals [...]

A secured creditor, or its non-attorney representative, may now send account statements and the like to a debtor without first seeking stay relief, so long as the communication does not demand payment or threaten foreclosure or case dismissal.
The secured creditor may also discuss or negotiate a mortgage modifcation with debtor’s counsel, but not directly with [...]

In Lumb v. Cimenian, 2009 WL 427836 (1st Cir.BAP Me. Feb. 23, 2009), the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel held that actions taken post-discharge against the non-debtor spouse of a chapter 7 bankruptcy debtor can violate the discharge injunction of 11 U.S.C. section 524.  According to the appeals court, this decision is the only known [...]

The Bankruptcy Law Network’s Jed Berliner recently scored an impressive victory in the case of In re Panek, No. 03-46692 (Bankr.D.Mass. March 5, 2009). Attorney Berliner, on behalf of his client, Panek, sued Delta Management Associates, Inc. and others for violating the automatic stay and the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act for withdrawing money [...]

When you file a bankruptcy case, your creditors must stop calling you. If you are careful to give creditors notice at the right place, you can make them stop bothering you. And if they don’t you can make them pay dearly.

Congress is debating a change to Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code to allow homeowners with “negative equity” in their homes to reduce the amount owed on their mortgages to the amount of their home’s value. This is the “cram down” legislation, which has failed on many occasions due to the the banking industry’s [...]

Three bankruptcy filings in 12 months seems a bit much, yes?  But it happens.  Perhaps there was carelessness by the filer or an attorney, or perhaps there was misplaced hope that a Chapter 13 case could succeed but then a sudden loss of income occurred.
There is no automatic stay, which means no automatic protection, against [...]