https://www.marketwatch.com/story/as-yellow-taxi-drivers-struggle-city-announces-six-month-pause-on-new-licenses-2020-09-17 Originally appeared on MarketWatchTaxi drivers struggling to make ends meet have demanded medallion debt forgiveness and limits on ride-share apps   Helicopters circled and horns blared in solidarity as a fleet of yellow cabs shut down traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge on Thursday, the latest effort by the city’s beleaguered taxi drivers to draw attention to their cause and demand debt relief for their high-price medallion loans. “Seventy percent of the drivers are not working. The taxi fleets have most of the taxis in storage,” said Sergio Cabrera, a longtime cabdriver and member of advocacy group Yellow Taxi United. “In 21 years of driving, I’ve never seen it like this.” With anger among taxi drivers hitting a breaking point, the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) planned to announce a six-month pause on new licenses for for-hire vehicles, a move that could stem the tide of new competition, including from disrupters Lyft LYFT, +0.94%   and Uber UBER, +1.80%  . A formal announcement is expected on Friday. But the move does little to address drivers’ main demand for debt relief. The city’s yellow-cab drivers felt the full force of the blow when the coronavirus pandemic hit New York, with trips plummeting 84% from their pre-COVID levels by early April. And while there’s been a slow trickle of returning passengers over the past several months and new relief efforts by the city’s TLC, drivers say it’s still not nearly enough to sustain business as usual — or to pay back expensive medallion loans. With Manhattan still largely devoid of office workers and tourists, Cabrera said, drivers are turning to the outer boroughs for fares. “In the outer boroughs where the average people live, there is much more movement,” Cabrera said. “Manhattan is not busy, it’s not functioning the way it should be. I don’t know when it’s going to come back.” The strain on the city’s taxi drivers is compounded by years of tightening margins and spiraling debt, as competition from apps like Uber and Lyft has flooded city streets, and declining values of the high-price medallions required to operate have left many drivers hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. In 2018, then-taxi commissioner Meera Joshi characterized a spate of driver suicides as "an epidemic" in the industry. “COVID is just the latest problem,” said Carolyn Protz, a driver and member of Yellow Taxi United as well as the NYC Taxi Medallion Owner Driver Association. “Our problems as medallion owners go back much longer.”Members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a union representing both yellow cab and Uber/Lyft drivers, had staged Thursday’s slowdowns on the Brooklyn and Queensboro bridges to draw attention to demands for debt forgiveness for medallion owners. Representatives of alliance did not respond to multiple requests for comment. As with many issues facing small-business owners in the pandemic, city officials say that further support and bailout money should come from the federal government and financial institutions. rather than local government agencies already facing budget cuts and potential layoffs. “The city is obviously in a financial crisis. There’s not a current opportunity for a traditional bailout for medallion owners who are indebted to banks,” TLC Commissioner Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk told MarketWatch. “It would require federal action and some regulation for banks that may have taken advantage of medallion owners who find themselves with higher interest and untenable loans.” Last week, it was reported that Connecticut-based investment firm Marblegate Asset Management LLC has recently forgiven $70 million worth of medallion debt, and in some cases capped individual owners’ debts at a ceiling of $300,000. The average driver-owner carries $600,000 in $600,000 in medallion debt, according to the TWA, and over the past decade, medallion prices had been inflated from around $200,000 to as high as $1 million, an investigation from the New York Times found last year. Advocates say it’s a helpful step, but more aid is needed. “Even the amount that they’ve lowered the debt, it’s an undoable amount of money to make those payments on a monthly basis,” said Cabrera, the cabdriver and advocate. “Most of the banks have a forbearance going on medallion payments right now, so that has helped. But we need massive debt relief. We need the city to step in.” At the height of the pandemic, the TLC launched the Get Food NYC food delivery program, paying licensed taxi drivers to deliver meals to vulnerable New Yorkers. More than 20,000 drivers have participated in the delivery of over 100 million meals since March, according to city data, collectively earning close to $40 million, Jarmoszuk said. “We have a lot of problems, we cannot deny that,” Jarmoszuk added. “These things did not happen overnight. It could have been far worse, but we were able to put supports in place to lessen the blow. Solutions [will take time] but they will happen.” Still, drivers are concerned about their debt, and what the industry will look like on the other side of the current crisis. “My concern is for the future, after COVID,” Protz said. “Going forward, there need to be many less for-hire vehicles [on the road].”  “I’m in the Bronx by the [Bronx Terminal Market],” Cabrera said. “I’ll sit here until a call comes through or someone comes out of the mall. The days are long. The income is not where it needs to be to make any kind of payment on what I owe.”

 This post was originally intended to be about the bankruptcy jurisprudence of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. That would have been a very short post. She has been on panels which issued seven per curiam unpublished opinions in bankruptcy matters, none of which were very remarkable. Instead, I will look at three of her opinions dealing with consumer financial services and cases where she did not rule for law enforcement or employers,  traditional favorites of conservatives. While most of her writing is workmanlike, she occasionally reaches for a memorable turn of phrase. The Consumer Protection Decisions In determining a case under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Judge Barrett lamented that the provision in question was "enough to make a grammarian throw down her pen." Gadelhak v. AT&T Services, 950 F.3d 458 (7th Cir. 2020).  She succinctly stated that: We'll save the intense grammatical parsing for the body of the opinion—here, we'll just give the punchline. We hold that "using a random or sequential number generator" modifies both "store" and "produce." The system at issue in this case, AT&T's "Customer Rules Feedback Tool," neither stores nor produces numbers using a random or sequential number generator; instead, it exclusively dials numbers stored in a customer database. Thus, it is not an "automatic telephone dialing system" as defined by the Act—which means that AT&T did not violate the Act when it sent unwanted automated text messages to Ali Gadelhak. While Judge Barrett may have wanted to throw down her pen, she did follow the grammar. However, the statutory language did not keep her from ruling against an FDCPA plaintiff who alleged a technical notice violation. In Casillas v. Madison Ave. Associates, 926 F.3d 329 (7th Cir. 2019), a debt validation notice failed to state that any requests for validation must be made in writing. The consumer did not attempt to make a written or verbal request for validationbut did file an FDCPA class action. Judge Barrett wrote that under the Supreme Court's Spokeo decision that a plaintiff cannot claim "a bare procedural violation, divorced from any concrete harm, and satisfy the injury-in-fact requirement of Article III." Judge Barrett also wrote an opinion affirming a summary judgment for the defense in a case under the FDCPA and FCRA in Walton v. EOS CCA, 885 F.3d 1024 (7th Cir. 2018).  This was a case about verification of a debt to ATT in the amount of $268.47. When ATT sent the debt to the debt collector, it transposed several of the digits in the account number. The clever consumer wrote to the debt collector stating that she did not "own (sic) AT&T any money under the account number listed above." The debt collector responded that it had verified that her name, address and the last four digits of her social security number matched the debt report it had received from AT&T. The debt collector reported the debt to two credit reporting agencies but indicated that it was disputed.   The consumer filed two complaints with the credit reporting agencies. In the second, she stated that the account number was incorrect. At that point, the debt collector deleted the trade line. The consumer sued under FDCPA contending that the debt collector failed to verify the debt with the original creditor and under FCRA asserting that it failed to reasonably investigate the disputed information. Judge Barrett went to the dictionary to see what the term "verification" meant but then noted that the "question here is what the debt collector is supposed to be verifying." The consumer argued that the debt collector was required to verify the original debt while the debt collector argued that it was required to verify that the notice it provided to the consumer matched the information it had received from the creditor. Judge Barrett agreed with the debt collector. Judge Barrett also ruled that the debt collector properly investigated the dispute made to the credit reporting agencies. The first dispute asserted that the debt was not hers. The debt collector properly verified that the information that it received from the creditor identified the account as belonging to the consumer. When she clarified that the account number was wrong, the debt collector deleted the trade line.  These opinions demonstrate that Judge Barrett has a passing familiarity with the three major federal consumer protection statutes and that she appears to take these issues seriously. Judge Barrett Does Not Always Rule for the Authority Figure In the classic film, School of Rock, Jack Black's character tells his young charges that the purpose of rock and roll is to stick it to the man. Although Judge Barrett is a conservative judge, there are definitely opinions in which she has been willing to stick it to the man. This was the most interesting thing that I found in examining her slight judicial record of less than one hundred published opinions.  Judge Barrett has ruled against the employer in several cases involving discrimination on the basis of sex. Judge Barrett affirmed a judgment against Costco for failing to prevent a hostile work environment when a customer relentlessly stalked and harassed a female employee. While Costco argued that other unsuccessful Title VII plaintiffs had alleged far worse conduct, Judge Barrett found that the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find in the EEOC's favor.  EEOC v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 903 F.3d 618 (7th Cir. 2018).  In a male on male sexual harassment case, Judge Barrett affirmed the jury verdict. Where male employees grabbed another man's buttocks and genitals and reached down his pants among other actions, there was sufficient evidence to conclude that he was harassed based on sex where there was no evidence that female employees were subject to the same treatment. (He was also told to go back to Africa which would indicate racial discrimination as well). Smith v. Rosebud Farm, Inc., 898 F.3d 747 (7th Cir. 2018). These decisions show a willingness to uphold jury verdicts based on evidence. However, they also show a lack of judicial activism to protect employers from being sued.  Judge Barrett was also unwilling to reverse a district court's determination that a detective was not entitled to qualified immunity in a Section 1983 case. The detective contended that even though he lied in his probable cause affidavit, his lies were not material. Judge Barrett wrote that "when the lies are taken out and the exculpatory evidence is added in" there was not sufficient evidence to arrest a man for the murder of his mother.  The fact that he had a key to his mother's apartment, checked on her and stood to inherit was not enough to establish probable cause. Rainsberger v. Benner, 913 F.3d 640 (7th Cir. 2019).  In another case, the DEA arrested a suspect and then went to search his apartment. A woman wearing a bathrobe let them in. The agents did not ask her who was or why she was there until partway through the search.  Judge Barrett reversed the trial court's decision not to suppress the evidence obtained during the search. She wrote that "A bathrobe alone does not clothe someone with apparent authority over a residence, even at 10:00 in the morning." United States v. Terry, 915 F.3d 1141 (7th Cir. 2018). Judge Barrett also ruled that a defendant was entitled to a new sentencing hearing before a different judge after the judge refused to recuse himself.  The judge had previously been a prosecutor in the same U.S. Attorney's office which was prosecuting the defendant. It came to light that the judge had had over 100 ex parte communications with the U.S. Attorney's office about other cases. As a result, the Chief Judge removed the judge from any cases involving his former office. The defendant raised the judge's failure to recuse for the first time on appeal because the ex parte contacts were not disclosed until after sentencing. Judge Barrett wrote that "Allowing Atwood's sentence to stand would undermine the public's confidence in the fairness of this sentence and in the impartiality of the judiciary." United States v. Atwood, 941 F.3d 883 (7th Cir 2019). There are other similar cases that I could discuss as well. To me, this second set of cases demonstrates that Judge Barrett displays judicial independence in cases where business and law and order advocates might have preferred a different result. The decisions appear to be carefully thought out and correct. If Judge Barrett is a dangerous idealogue, she has not provided her critics with evidence in this handful of cases.   

If you are dealing with growing financial debt, then it is natural to wonder about the potential of filing bankruptcy to help fix your financial situation. A successful bankruptcy can help alleviate your financial woes, but it should not be your first option. You should hold off filing for bankruptcy until you address the following […] The post Five Important Questions to Answer Before Filing for Bankruptcy appeared first on .

Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Announces They Don’t Chase Underground Debt Collectors “We are unable to send your complaint to the company for a response.” That’s what the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau told Chuck Sterling. “The company is not in our complaint system.” Chuck, a former client, received an email today, threatening to “take him into […] The post Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Won’t Chase Underground Debt Collectors by Robert Weed appeared first on Northern VA Bankruptcy Lawyer Robert Weed.

COVID-19 Debt: Measures You Can Take to Manage Your Finances The COVID-19 pandemic has caused sweeping economic changes. Many people have lost their jobs, and others have had their jobs put on hold or had their salaries reduced. A lot of people are not able to make ends meet, and they are relying on sources like credit cards to get them through it. Unfortunately, what we’re likely to see once this is all over is a surge in bankruptcy filings. The best thing you can do now is to make some changes to your finances to weather the storm and hope that things will improve soon. Here are a few measures you can take now to try to reduce your financial problems: File for Unemployment If you are among the many who have lost their jobs during the pandemic, you should file for unemployment benefits as soon as possible. There is a delay in processing these claims because of the overwhelming number of cases and because of the restrictions on people in the workplace. File for benefits as quickly as possible so you can start getting the financial assistance you need. You won’t get the full salary you once enjoyed, but you’ll get some money that can help you (hopefully) stay afloat and avoid incurring more debt. Negotiate with Creditors You may be doing a good job of restricting your credit card use during this time, but you may have a large credit card balance from before your financial troubles began. You may be able to negotiate new payment terms with your creditors, such as a lower interest rate or a temporary lower monthly payment. Some creditors may be more willing to work with you than others. Just be polite and persistent. As a last resort, you can always gently remind them that if they don’t work with you, the next notice they may get may be from a Gilbert bankruptcy attorney. Seek Forbearance on Student Loans If you are still paying student loans, you should call your loan provider and ask for a deferral. Most student loan providers are quite willing to defer loan payments six months or more or to lower your payment. If you get to the end of the six months and find that you are still struggling, call and ask for another deferral. You can use the money to pay for other bills. However, know that you shouldn’t just stop paying your student loans. You will not be able to discharge them in a bankruptcy, and the government will come to collect. Failing to pay your loans will also destroy your credit, while getting a forbearance will not. Prioritize Payments You may find that even with your best efforts, you just aren’t able to pay all your bills each month. If that’s the case, you should prioritize your payments so that the most important bills are taken care of each month. Of course, your rent and your mortgage should be the top priority. If you are renting and fall behind, you can be evicted quite easily. If you are paying a mortgage, the bank can move to foreclosure proceedings quickly. You can file Mesa Chapter 13 bankruptcy to rescue your home from foreclosure, but it’s better to take proactive measures before things reach that stage. Credit cards should be at the bottom of your list of priorities for payments since these are unsecured, and creditors cannot seize your assets to satisfy the debt. Credit card debt can also be easily discharged through a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in Mesa. Know that if you are struggling right now, there are many other people who are struggling with you. Do what you can to weather the storm by making some of the changes to manage your finances. Know also that debt relief is available through bankruptcy if and when you need it. Talk to a bankruptcy attorney at My AZ Lawyers about what kind of debt relief is possible through bankruptcy protection. We handle both business and individual bankruptcies, including Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. We’ll help you understand the options and how you can get maximum debt relief. We serve clients throughout Phoenix, Mesa, Tucson, and Glendale. Call us today to talk with a bankruptcy lawyer and to learn more. Arizona Offices: Mesa Location: 1731 West Baseline Rd., Suite #100 Mesa, AZ 85202 Office: (480) 448-9800 Email: info@myazlawyers.com Website: http://myazlawyers.com/ Glendale Location: 20325 N 51st Avenue Suite #134, Building 5 Glendale, AZ 85308 Office: (602) 509-0955 Tucson Location: 2 East Congress St., Suite #900-6A Tucson, AZ 85701 Office: (520) 441-1450 Avondale Location: 12725 W. Indian School Rd., Ste E, #101 Avondale, AZ 85392 Office: (623) 469-6603 The post COVID-19 Debt: Measures You Can Take to Manage Your Finances appeared first on My AZ Lawyers.

COVID-19 Debt: Measures You Can Take to Manage Your Finances The COVID-19 pandemic has caused sweeping economic changes. Many people have lost their jobs, and others have had their jobs put on hold or had their salaries reduced. A lot of people are not able to make ends meet, and they are relying on sources like credit cards to get them through it. Unfortunately, what we’re likely to see once this is all over is a surge in bankruptcy filings. The best thing you can do now is to make some changes to your finances to weather the storm and hope that things will improve soon. Here are a few measures you can take now to try to reduce your financial problems: File for Unemployment If you are among the many who have lost their jobs during the pandemic, you should file for unemployment benefits as soon as possible. There is a delay in processing these claims because of the overwhelming number of cases and because of the restrictions on people in the workplace. File for benefits as quickly as possible so you can start getting the financial assistance you need. You won’t get the full salary you once enjoyed, but you’ll get some money that can help you (hopefully) stay afloat and avoid incurring more debt. Negotiate with Creditors You may be doing a good job of restricting your credit card use during this time, but you may have a large credit card balance from before your financial troubles began. You may be able to negotiate new payment terms with your creditors, such as a lower interest rate or a temporary lower monthly payment. Some creditors may be more willing to work with you than others. Just be polite and persistent. As a last resort, you can always gently remind them that if they don’t work with you, the next notice they may get may be from a Gilbert bankruptcy attorney. Seek Forbearance on Student Loans If you are still paying student loans, you should call your loan provider and ask for a deferral. Most student loan providers are quite willing to defer loan payments six months or more or to lower your payment. If you get to the end of the six months and find that you are still struggling, call and ask for another deferral. You can use the money to pay for other bills. However, know that you shouldn’t just stop paying your student loans. You will not be able to discharge them in a bankruptcy, and the government will come to collect. Failing to pay your loans will also destroy your credit, while getting a forbearance will not. Prioritize Payments You may find that even with your best efforts, you just aren’t able to pay all your bills each month. If that’s the case, you should prioritize your payments so that the most important bills are taken care of each month. Of course, your rent and your mortgage should be the top priority. If you are renting and fall behind, you can be evicted quite easily. If you are paying a mortgage, the bank can move to foreclosure proceedings quickly. You can file Mesa Chapter 13 bankruptcy to rescue your home from foreclosure, but it’s better to take proactive measures before things reach that stage. Credit cards should be at the bottom of your list of priorities for payments since these are unsecured, and creditors cannot seize your assets to satisfy the debt. Credit card debt can also be easily discharged through a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in Mesa. Know that if you are struggling right now, there are many other people who are struggling with you. Do what you can to weather the storm by making some of the changes to manage your finances. Know also that debt relief is available through bankruptcy if and when you need it. Talk to a bankruptcy attorney at My AZ Lawyers about what kind of debt relief is possible through bankruptcy protection. We handle both business and individual bankruptcies, including Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. We’ll help you understand the options and how you can get maximum debt relief. We serve clients throughout Phoenix, Mesa, Tucson, and Glendale. Call us today to talk with a bankruptcy lawyer and to learn more. Arizona Offices: Mesa Location: 1731 West Baseline Rd., Suite #100 Mesa, AZ 85202 Office: (480) 448-9800 Email: info@myazlawyers.com Website: https://myazlawyers.com/ Glendale Location: 20325 N 51st Avenue Suite #134, Building 5 Glendale, AZ 85308 Office: (602) 509-0955 Tucson Location: 2 East Congress St., Suite #900-6A Tucson, AZ 85701 Office: (520) 441-1450 Avondale Location: 12725 W. Indian School Rd., Ste E, #101 Avondale, AZ 85392 Office: (623) 469-6603 The post COVID-19 Debt: Measures You Can Take to Manage Your Finances appeared first on My AZ Lawyers.

How to Overcome Your Spending Habits after a Bankruptcy We live in a consumerist society. It’s very easy to get caught up in a cycle of spending, even beyond what you can afford. Credit is easy to come by, and we are inundated with ads that tell us that our lives are not as happy or fulfilling as they could be if we don’t have certain products in our lives. Many of us also tend to spend for the lives we want and think that we will one day have, rather than recognizing the realities of our current limitations. All that spending can eventually lead to overwhelming debt. Fortunately, bankruptcy is a viable legal option to give you the debt relief and the fresh start that you need. Mesa Chapter 7 bankruptcy is particularly useful for dealing with credit card debt as it can discharge it all. However, even if you get that fresh start through bankruptcy in Mesa, you are going to need to deal with your spending habits unless you just want to spend yourself into another financial crisis in a few years. Here are a few things you can do to help you overcome your poor spending habits after filing for bankruptcy in Mesa: Create a Hard Budget Start your journey to creating a more healthy financial future by setting a hard budget for yourself. Be realistic when listing out all your expenses and income for each month, accounting for every last coffee you buy on the way to work and every last fast food run you make because you aren’t in the mood to make dinner. Once you see where your expenses and your income meet up, you can make adjustments if needed. Cut back on your recreational spending, like for eating out, or cut services that you don’t need. (Do you really need four streaming sites, or will just one do?) Once your budget is in place, stick to it. Create a little savings that you can dip into when you have a financial emergency or you just feel like splurging on a special item. Identify Your Reasons for Spending For some people, spending is just a bad habit. It can even be a compulsion. The term “retail therapy” exists for a reason. Many people buy things because they’re bored. Some people buy things because they’re stressed out or feeling anxious about a situation. Other people buy things to cover up or assuage some insecurities they feel. Before you can overcome your spending habits, you need to identify your reasons for them. Then you can search for other outlets for dealing with those feelings. For example, you might spend time with friends when you are bored instead of browsing Amazon. Or you might build a vision board when you are dreaming of your future life instead of starting to buy things for it. Learn to Identify Wants and Needs Most of the time, people with money problems are buying too many things that they just want – but may feel like they need. For example, you may feel like you “need” an above-ground pool to occupy your kids during the summer, but really, you just want one. They can run in the sprinkler or visit a community pool instead. Once you get better at distinguishing between wants and needs, you can gain greater control over your spending urges. You’ll be able to recognize alternatives on purchases, and you’ll save your money for the things you really need, so that your money can have a bigger impact. Go to Debtors Anonymous For some, spending is an addiction, just like drinking alcohol, taking drugs, or gambling. People get a high from it, and breaking that feeling can be hard. Fortunately, there is help for it, just like with any addiction. Debtors Anonymous is a 12-step program that can help you break your unhealthy spending habits. Visit debtorsanonymous.org for a list of questions to determine if you meet the criteria for attending and to learn more about the program. Don’t let bankruptcy be a false start. Once you file for bankruptcy in Gilbert, let that be your second and last chance to have a more healthy financial future. Use these tips to break your unhealthy spending habits so that you don’t find yourself on the phone with a Gilbert bankruptcy attorney again in just a few years. If you find yourself struggling with your spending and the accompanying debt, it may be time to call My AZ Lawyers to learn about the benefits of bankruptcy. Our bankruptcy attorneys can help you understand the pros and cons of Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy for your finances. Our goal is to help you get the maximum debt relief you need so that you can create the life you want. We serve clients in Glendale, Tucson, Mesa, Phoenix, and the surrounding areas. Call us today to talk with a bankruptcy lawyer about your options. Arizona Offices: Mesa Location: 1731 West Baseline Rd., Suite #100 Mesa, AZ 85202 Office: (480) 448-9800 Email: info@myazlawyers.com Website: https://myazlawyers.com/ Glendale Location: 20325 N 51st Avenue Suite #134, Building 5 Glendale, AZ 85308 Office: (602) 509-0955 Tucson Location: 2 East Congress St., Suite #900-6A Tucson, AZ 85701 Office: (520) 441-1450 Avondale Location: 12725 W. Indian School Rd., Ste E, #101 Avondale, AZ 85392 Office: (623) 469-6603 The post How to Overcome Your Spending Habits after a Bankruptcy appeared first on My AZ Lawyers.

How to Overcome Your Spending Habits after a Bankruptcy We live in a consumerist society. It’s very easy to get caught up in a cycle of spending, even beyond what you can afford. Credit is easy to come by, and we are inundated with ads that tell us that our lives are not as happy or fulfilling as they could be if we don’t have certain products in our lives. Many of us also tend to spend for the lives we want and think that we will one day have, rather than recognizing the realities of our current limitations. All that spending can eventually lead to overwhelming debt. Fortunately, bankruptcy is a viable legal option to give you the debt relief and the fresh start that you need. Mesa Chapter 7 bankruptcy is particularly useful for dealing with credit card debt as it can discharge it all. However, even if you get that fresh start through bankruptcy in Mesa, you are going to need to deal with your spending habits unless you just want to spend yourself into another financial crisis in a few years. Here are a few things you can do to help you overcome your poor spending habits after filing for bankruptcy in Mesa: Create a Hard Budget Start your journey to creating a more healthy financial future by setting a hard budget for yourself. Be realistic when listing out all your expenses and income for each month, accounting for every last coffee you buy on the way to work and every last fast food run you make because you aren’t in the mood to make dinner. Once you see where your expenses and your income meet up, you can make adjustments if needed. Cut back on your recreational spending, like for eating out, or cut services that you don’t need. (Do you really need four streaming sites, or will just one do?) Once your budget is in place, stick to it. Create a little savings that you can dip into when you have a financial emergency or you just feel like splurging on a special item. Identify Your Reasons for Spending For some people, spending is just a bad habit. It can even be a compulsion. The term “retail therapy” exists for a reason. Many people buy things because they’re bored. Some people buy things because they’re stressed out or feeling anxious about a situation. Other people buy things to cover up or assuage some insecurities they feel. Before you can overcome your spending habits, you need to identify your reasons for them. Then you can search for other outlets for dealing with those feelings. For example, you might spend time with friends when you are bored instead of browsing Amazon. Or you might build a vision board when you are dreaming of your future life instead of starting to buy things for it. Learn to Identify Wants and Needs Most of the time, people with money problems are buying too many things that they just want – but may feel like they need. For example, you may feel like you “need” an above-ground pool to occupy your kids during the summer, but really, you just want one. They can run in the sprinkler or visit a community pool instead. Once you get better at distinguishing between wants and needs, you can gain greater control over your spending urges. You’ll be able to recognize alternatives on purchases, and you’ll save your money for the things you really need, so that your money can have a bigger impact. Go to Debtors Anonymous For some, spending is an addiction, just like drinking alcohol, taking drugs, or gambling. People get a high from it, and breaking that feeling can be hard. Fortunately, there is help for it, just like with any addiction. Debtors Anonymous is a 12-step program that can help you break your unhealthy spending habits. Visit debtorsanonymous.org for a list of questions to determine if you meet the criteria for attending and to learn more about the program. Don’t let bankruptcy be a false start. Once you file for bankruptcy in Gilbert, let that be your second and last chance to have a more healthy financial future. Use these tips to break your unhealthy spending habits so that you don’t find yourself on the phone with a Gilbert bankruptcy attorney again in just a few years. If you find yourself struggling with your spending and the accompanying debt, it may be time to call My AZ Lawyers to learn about the benefits of bankruptcy. Our bankruptcy attorneys can help you understand the pros and cons of Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy for your finances. Our goal is to help you get the maximum debt relief you need so that you can create the life you want. We serve clients in Glendale, Tucson, Mesa, Phoenix, and the surrounding areas. Call us today to talk with a bankruptcy lawyer about your options. Arizona Offices: Mesa Location: 1731 West Baseline Rd., Suite #100 Mesa, AZ 85202 Office: (480) 448-9800 Email: info@myazlawyers.com Website: http://myazlawyers.com/ Glendale Location: 20325 N 51st Avenue Suite #134, Building 5 Glendale, AZ 85308 Office: (602) 509-0955 Tucson Location: 2 East Congress St., Suite #900-6A Tucson, AZ 85701 Office: (520) 441-1450 Avondale Location: 12725 W. Indian School Rd., Ste E, #101 Avondale, AZ 85392 Office: (623) 469-6603 The post How to Overcome Your Spending Habits after a Bankruptcy appeared first on My AZ Lawyers.

 A New Student Loan Discharge Case allowing the Discharge of $200,000 in Student Loans The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in McDaniel v. Navient, has issued a ruling allowing the discharge  of  a debtor/borrower’s $200,000 in private student loan debt, in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.An article about the case can be found at https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2020/09/02/court-allows-bankruptcy-discharge-of-200000-in-student-loans/#90f402734fd9In this email, we will review the facts of the case, the ruling and its applicability to individuals filing for bankruptcy in the SDNY and the EDNY.It is estimated that the amount of student loan debt in the United States is presently $1.5 trillion. In McDaniel v. Navient, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit affirmed a  bankruptcy court’s decision that $200,000 of a Debtor’s private student loan debt could be discharged.What are private student loans? Monies borrowed from a private bank without a government guaranty, rather than money borrowed from a government agency or subject to a government guaranty.Generally, to discharge student loan debt, a borrower files for chapter 7 bankruptcy and then commences an “adversary proceeding” (a lawsuit within the context of a bankruptcy case) seeking to discharge the student loans based on a concept known as “undue hardship”. The “undue hardship test” resulted from a bankruptcy case involving a debtor named  Brunner and the case held that in order to show undue hardship to discharge a student loan, the debtor would need to show three factors:1. That if the Debtor were required to repay the student loan, the borrower would not be able to maintain a minimal standard of living?2. That  the borrowers financial difficulties (that  prevent the borrower  from repaying the student loan)  are expected to continue into the future? and 3. The borrower  made efforts to repay the   student loan prior to  filing for bankruptcy, but were unable to do so?While the Brunner Test is  easy  to explain on paper, in practice the cost to commence and pursue this litigation is expensive and many debtor’s with student loan debt do not attempt to discharge their student loans in a chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. In the McDaniel case the  Debtor had  $120,000 in private student loans and she said  that Navient would not work with her to create  an affordable repayment schedule. Ms. McDaniel’s filed for  bankruptcy (she did not attempt to discharge her student loans) and after her case ended, Navient added additional interest and fees to her balance. She then made a motion to reopen her   bankruptcy case to have the Bankruptcy Court rule as to whether her  private student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy.The Bankruptcy Court then ruled that the monies sought to be discharged  were not “an obligation to repay funds received as an educational benefit” because the amount borrowed exceeded the cost of attendance at school. As a result the monies were not a student loan and the undue hardship did not apply and the student loans were dischargeable as regular debt in the chapter 7 bankruptcy case.Navient appealed, and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower bankruptcy court’s decision. What is the take aware for student loan borrowers in this district?First, the decision only applies to Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming (10th Circuit). However, since the decision was from a Court of Appeals, bankruptcy courts in this district may affirm or adopt the Court’s  ruling and reasoning. Second,  the ruling may only affect the dischargeability of private student loans, not public student loans and the vast majority of student loans are public.Third, the ruling may only apply to private student loans that exceed the cost of attendance at a school,  rather than all private student loans.Fourth, bankruptcy is a court of equity and bankruptcy judges are aware of the amount of student loan debt outstanding and the hardship that it causes borrowers and their families and they are sympathetic to debtor’s attempting to discharge their student loans to get the “fresh start” in bankruptcy. Fifth, the Brunner Test dates back to 1987 and its holding and applicability to 2020 have been challenged by many bankruptcy experts. Sixth, student loan debtors with the right fact patterns should consider filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy and attempting to discharge their student loans.  Jim Shenwick 

There are times when Chapter 7 cases become Chapter 13 cases. There are also times when it happens the other way around. Sometimes this is the borrower’s choice. At other times, the courts themselves force the change. Chapter 13 borrowers often convert to Chapter 7 because they find the entire process too onerous and difficult […] The post Can You Change Your Philadelphia Bankruptcy Chapter? appeared first on .