Bankrate.com offers five tips to help debtors find affordable attorneys to help them file bankruptcy. The post quotes a range of fees, and then goes on to note that many attorneys offer payment plans, or that some or all of those fees may be paid through a Chapter 13 plan. I had the [...]

As unlikely as it may seem, it is possible to refinance your home while you are in Chapter 13. Like selling your home while in Chapter 13, refinancing your home while in Chapter 13 requires bankruptcy court approval, which takes time and planning. Most lenders who are willing to do such financing are [...]

Katie Porter at Credit Slips writes about a potential pitfall of the credit counseling requirement imposed under BAPCPA.  While many credit counselors are consumer oriented, there are those who push plans funded by the credit card industry.  That became clear when Professor Porter reviewed a plan prpared by an agency described by a consumer debtor [...]

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has found that a web-based software provider was a bankruptcy petition preparer and was engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.  The decision was based to a large extent on the relative sophistication of its operation:
The court found that several features of the software and how it was presented [...]

When I read Jonathan Ginsberg’s post about a client who made a mistake that will delay filing his bankruptcy, I was reminded of a similar situation that came up with some of my clients.  Jonathan’s client made the mistake of transferring credit card balances to take advantage of lower interest rates, when the balances could [...]

Carmen Delutri wrote this about how she handles the initial consultation with prospective clients. Her procedure is remarkably similar to mine, and most other debtor’s lawyers do something similar. Some may request a little less information, some a little more, but the process is roughly the same, and that’s for good reason. [...]

Well, this is interesting. It seems that, instead of the usual borrower’s claims against the mortgage servicer, the claim in Super Future Equities, Inc. v. Wells Fargo, et al., is that the mortgage servicers are handling matters in such a way as to benefit themselves, rather than the underlying mortgage holders (and, incidentally, the [...]

Credit Slips notes that when Carissa Byrnes Hessick appeared as a guest blogger on Prawfsblawg, her post on closing on a house, and the comments to that post, amount to a mini-debate on pros and cons of reading contracts before you sign them.  Professor Hessick was greeted with astonishment when she and her husband actually [...]

The South Carolina Bankruptcy and Consumer Blog had this disturbing post, reporting a series of events taking place among various lenders over several states. The sequence of events goes like this:

Client faces foreclosure
Client wisely begins investigating Chapter 13 as a solution
Client gets phone call from lender - “Don’t fret, we’ve got it under control. There [...]

Many years ago, a colleague was in a meeting with an elderly woman, who needed to file bankruptcy. He meticulously and thoroughly discussed the process of filing bankruptcy with her, and thought he had covered everything. Then, as she was walking out the door, she stopped and said, “Okay, but I don’t want [...]