I just returned to Rhode Island from a weeks’ vacation in Maine.  While away, I was bombarded by a whole new batch of debt settlement commercials.
Who wouldn’t want to settle their debt for pennies on the dollar?  If you can avoid bankruptcy and still make all your debts disappear, what’s not to like?  These debt-relief [...]

The most common form of consumer bankruptcy, a Chapter 7 filing, takes about 90 days to complete.  For each case filed, the court assigns a trustee and schedules a date for a meeting of creditors.  This meeting occurs about 30 days into the process.   (And it does NOT take place in a courtroom.)
At the meeting of creditors, the bankruptcy trustee [...]

Bankruptcy is all about protecting you and your property from creditors. But do you really have to disclose ALL of your property in a Chapter 7 filing? Will anyone find out if you don’t?
Here is the short answer: YES.
In a typical Chapter 7 petition, a debtor will be asked no less than 10 times whether [...]

When a debtor files bankruptcy, part of the process requires that they list all assets (all the stuff that they own) and all liabilitlies for the bankruptcy court to review.   This rule has been in place for a long time, but under the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, the rule was emphasized.  [...]

Over the past few days, I have written two posts about special problems that arise when an MLM distributor seeks to file bankruptcy.  In the last post I spoke about the presumption of abuse problem that could arise if an MLM distributor filed a Chapter 7 immediately after losing his commission stream due to a [...]

Mrs. Brown shot her husband and complained that the decrease in family income after his death made Chapter 13 payments a hardship.  When she requested a discharge without making all the required payments, the bankruptcy judge asked the widow Brown to explain herself.  Since she was unwilling to testify under oath about the shooting, the [...]

A few days ago, I wrote Part I of a series entitled Bankruptcy and the MLM Distributor.  In that post I described my typical MLM distributor as an entrepreneurial, motivated businessperson who worked full time on his MLM business and ran into debt problems because of a sudden or unexpected change in his compensation plan, [...]

Death of the parent or dependent student discharges the obligation to pay a Federal Parent Plus student loan.  Most people learn the hard way that student loans are difficult if not impossible to discharge in bankruptcy.  The seminal case, In re Bruner, has been discussed on this site.
(Brunner v. New York State Higher Education Services [...]

Over the past couple of years I have met with several potential clients who were in the MLM (multi-level-marketing) business and were looking to file (Chapter 7) bankruptcy.   Recently I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone with another potential client in the MLM business and this conversation got me thinking about the issues [...]

Over the past couple of years I have met with several dozen remodeling contractors to discuss bankruptcy.  Like many places, the Atlanta area has experienced a downturn in home building and home renovations and building contractors of all sizes have suffered greatly.
Clients and potential clients in this profession range from the one man contractor who [...]