On the better-late-than-never front, the South Carolina legislature has amended the South Carolina exemption statute to significantly increase the amount of personal property that is exempt from creditors. Since South Carolina has opted out of the federal exemption scheme contained in the bankruptcy code, this change in South Carolina law has implications for any [...]

Completing a Chapter 13 Plan is quite an accomplishment for anyone, and it’s something to be proud of, no matter the circumstances. I recently discovered that one of my clients had not only completed her Chapter 13 Plan payments (which totaled more than $1000 per month for 60 months) but that she had never [...]

The earned income credit, created by 26 U.S.C. §32 (1994), is a refundable tax credit provided for low income workers who have dependent children and who maintain a household. The earned income credit is paid as a tax refund. In other words, if the earned income credit exceeds a person’s tax liability, the [...]

Your household size can be a critical factor in determining whether you can file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case or how much you need to pay in a Chapter 13 case.  Household size is the starting point in figuring out if you are above or below the median income for your state.  The larger the [...]

The bankruptcy court for the District of South Carolina has three divisions, holding court is Columbia, Spartanburg, and Charleston. The only location with a staffed clerks’ office is Columbia. The court in Columbia is located at 1100 Laurel Street, which is where you would go to the clerk’s office and to court. Meetings of Creditors [...]

Many Chapter 13 trustees across the country direct debtors to mail their plan payments to a post office box in another state. This is usually because the trustees use a clearinghouse bank to collect payments from debtors, and issue distributions to creditors. The banks process both receipts and disbursements for the trustee, although the latter [...]

When I sat down to write about the top ten changes in my practice attributable to BAPCPA, I realized (to my surprise) that some of those changes were positive. A fellow blogger suggested that I write about the top ten wastes of my time as a result of the bankruptcy amendments which took effect not [...]

When someone moves to a new state, how the bankruptcy laws affect them can change. The amount of time someone has lived in a state when they file for bankruptcy also affects how their property is treated in bankruptcy. Someone may move, and then find out that they would have been treated more [...]

In the current wave of foreclosures, which many experts say has not yet peaked, a new phrase has entered the lexicon–foreclosure pets. Foreclosure pets are pets that have been left behind when a home is foreclosed. In some cases it is clear that foreclosure (or eviction) was only one of a number of [...]

Citing a survey by the Commercial Law League of America (not normally a pro-consumer stronghold), Cathy Vance notes that a significant number of attorneys report curtailing their pro bono representation post BAPCPA. I have had to do it myself.
For many years, the number of people who qualify for assistance from legal services has far [...]