The grounds for setting aside reaffirmation agreements are limited after the time to rescind has expired. Reaffirmation agreements are not favored by bankruptcy courts and are strictly construed based on conventional contract principles. 1 …

Some have described the term "Market Rate of Interest" as being similar to pornography: You can't define it, but you know it when you see it. The courts have been struggling with the application of market rate of interest to undersecured cl…

The Religious Liberty and Charitable Donation Protection Act of 1998 ("Religious Liberty Act") was the latest move in the battle between the Supreme Court and Congress over a debtor's right to tithe in bankruptcy. The Act directly targets a…

Tying approval of a debtor's reaffirmation of mortgage debt to the reaffirmation of other unsecured debt violates the automatic stay, according to a recent decision in the First Circuit. In re Jamo, 262 B.R. 159 (1st Cir. BAP 2001). The rem…

Financing the American Dream, subtitled "A Cultural History of American Credit," takes a hard look at the effect that consumer credit facilities have on the social values in modern American culture. The author, an assistant professor of his…

A fundamental distinction exists between a consumer chapter 7 case and a chapter 13 case. This distinction pervades the way each case proceeds through the judicial system. A chapter 7 case is static: non-exempt assets held by a debtor at th…