Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina) affirmed the bankruptcy court’s decision to dismiss the debtors’ Chapter 7 case based on the totality of the circumstances under 11 U.S.C. § 707(b). The court noted that the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act [...]
Means Testing
A federal appeals court has added its voice to the growing number of cases which hold that a debtor who converts a chapter 13 case to chapter 7 is still subject to section 707(b)’s income eligibilty standards for filing chapter 7. Left unanswered, however, is the question of what time period must used for the means test’s [...]
The shocking realization is that your spouse might have to contribute to your Means Test-required payments even if you file alone. You aren’t happy about this at all. ”But they’re my debts. Why should my husband or wife have to contribute?” Because that’s the law. Your income includes all regular contributions to the household expenses [...]
I’m a big fan of Home Depot. I love the rows of lumber, the acres of tools and doo-dads. Honestly, it makes me feel macho just being there. It’s as if I could go out and build a home like Michael Landon in Little House on the Prairie. I mean, just look at all the [...]
Filing bankruptcy if you have a business can be different from a typical consumer case. First of all, if 51% of your debts were incurred for your business, you won’t have to file the means test! Thus, you avoid the problem of having too much income to qualify for a Chapter 7. Fortunately, it is [...]
Bankruptcy is in the Bible. In fact, there are plenty of blog posts here on Bankruptcy Law Network about what the Bible says about debt. Kurt O’Keefe’s “Is Filing Bankruptcy a Sin?” is just one of many posts. Most of these posts discuss the Bible and the morality of bankruptcy or apply particular Biblical principles [...]
