If you have a commercial lease in bankruptcy, it pays to reject it quickly according to the Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.
When a business or individual with a lease on commercial real estate, like a store or (in this case) farmland, files bankruptcy, the debtor or trustee has the right to assume or reject the [...]

Banks and credit unions love to have automatic payroll deductions from their customers.  It helps them guarantee as long as you work, you pay them.  What happens when you file bankruptcy?
The bank or credit union should think twice about continuing to “accept” these payroll deductions.  That’s the lesson from a recent Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate [...]

Using revocable living trusts to avoid probate has become more popular recently.  But the impact of such trusts in bankruptcy makes some relatively simple cases much more complex - especially in states that recognize tenancy by the entirety.
A tenancy by the entirety (TBE) is an ancient way of owning property between a married couple.  In [...]

The current recession is sending a lot of large companies into bankruptcy, and a lot of employees are affected.  If you have a claim of some kind against a bankrupt employer, you have more hoops to jump through.
The most important thing to be aware of is the automatic stay.  When a person or a company [...]

A recent Missouri case held that when drafting a chapter 13 plan for a bankruptcy debtor who is behind on home mortgage payments, the plan may not provide for direct payment of the regular, ongoing monthly mortgage payments by the debtor to the mortgage bank.  Instead, ongoing monthly mortgage payments must be made to the chapter [...]

Bankruptcy law allows a trustee to recover payments made to creditors on the eve of bankruptcy, even if the payment was made with borrowed money the debtor never touched, according to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The situation is very typical.  A consumer carrying too much debt gets an offer to transfer balances from one [...]

More bankruptcy courts are demanding mortgage servicers prove they are entitled to collect on a mortgage loan note before foreclosing.  The fight over standing to appear in court runs deeper than technicalities and tactics to stall a lender.  It is a matter of fundamental rights.
A Missouri state appellate court recently joined the chorus of tribunals [...]

A terrible recession ought to be a great time for bankruptcy lawyers.  With so many people and businesses in financial trouble, bankruptcy lawyers certainly have a lot of demand for their services.
Bankruptcy lawyers are told their business is “counter-cyclical” — meaning that we are at our busiest when the economy is down.  But interestingly, that’s [...]

Settling your debts through negotiation sounds like a good idea short of bankruptcy.  It rarely works out that way if you have a lot of debt compared to your current income.
Most debt negotiators operate on a specific idea:  You will save up the money to make a settlement offer to each lender in turn until [...]

The bankruptcy means test could be a new source of pain for consumers as the recession deepens.  The 2005 Congress tied everyone together in a community and, perversely, elected to punish consumers who live in the hardest-hit communities more.
In a nutshell, BAPCPA dictates that consumers with average income over the prior six-months which is greater [...]