Bankruptcy Help Is Harder To Get When you are struggling financially, you need bankruptcy help. You need to find a bankruptcy attorney that can take you from point A to point B. You want to get out of debt, you want to get a fresh start, you want to get back to a life without+ Read MoreThe post It Keeps Getting Harder To Obtain Bankruptcy Help appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Bankruptcy Means Test If you’re trying to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy, you must first qualify. One of the qualifications is that you must pass the means test. The means test is a mathematical formula designed to prohibit those from filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy if they have the ability to repay a portion of+ Read MoreThe post Making Changes To Pass The Bankruptcy Means Test appeared first on David M. Siegel.

The answer to this is no…and yes. In Arizona, wedding rings are exempt up to $2,000. This means that for both you and your spouse, you can exempt a total of $2,000 of the value of your wedding rings. For most people, this is more than enough to keep their rings safe. But what if, during better economic times, you purchased more expensive jewelry? Technically, the Trustee can have you turn over your jewelry. Does this happen often? No. Could it? It could. The post Can the Trustee Really Take My Wedding Rings?! appeared first on Tucson Bankruptcy Attorney.

Bankruptcy Petition Can Be Amended Your bankruptcy petition can be amended after you file. This is often the case when someone forgets to list a particular creditor. The creditor may not have shown up on the credit report or the debtor simply misplaced a bill from that creditor. In a chapter 13 case, the bankruptcy+ Read MoreThe post Can My Bankruptcy Petition Be Amended After Filing? appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Credit Unions If you are a member of a credit union and you have debt with that credit union, you need to be aware of certain circumstances as they relate to your bankruptcy case. Credit unions operate under different rules than ordinary banks. When you place money in a credit union account it is known+ Read MoreThe post Credit Unions And Your Bankruptcy Case appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Should You File? Let’s talk about a bankruptcy scenario that comes up from time to time. Let’s say you’re someone who is struggling with debt, you’re single, and you finally found someone you want to marry. Your future spouse does not have any debt and he or she has a very good income. The question+ Read MoreThe post Filing Bankruptcy Before You Get Married Is Typically Best appeared first on David M. Siegel.

When It Makes Sense There are circumstances where it makes perfect sense to convert a chapter 13 to chapter 7. One of the reasons why someone would want to convert their bankruptcy case is due to an inability to make chapter 13 payments. This can happen when someone loses their job, gets a divorce, becomes ill or+ Read MoreThe post Converting Your Bankruptcy Case From Chapter 13 To Chapter 7 appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Sometimes a dismissed Chapter 13 is all your need. Chuck and Inez came to see me today about Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I had put Inez in a Chapter 13 in December 2011 when their house was days away form foreclosure.   The Chapter 13 was dismissed six weeks later. BUT, that short Chapter 13 had […]The post Dismissed Chapter 13 by Robert Weed appeared first on Robert Weed.

The Best Way To Cure Mortgage Arrears There is only one way that you can cure or catch up on mortgage arrearages with the help of the bankruptcy system. That way involves the filing of a chapter 13 bankruptcy case. Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a unique way to save a home that’s either in foreclosure,+ Read MoreThe post Curing Your Mortgage Arrears With Chapter 13 appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Why would a Chapter 7 trustee shut down a proprietorship business with no value? That question comes up again and again from newish bankruptcy lawyers who can’t imagine that a trustee would demand the closing of the debtor’s business. After all, goes the argument, the debtor needs to make a living and the business has no non-exempt value. The trustee’s  insistance on closing the business is more understandable when you hear this nightmare. The postman, the pit bull and the priority claim Our Chapter 11 debtor had a rental property leased to a tenant with a pair of large dogs.  During the pendency of the case, the dogs bit the postman. The postman sued the debtor in possession along with the tenant on the grounds that the owner was liable for injury incurred on the property. Assuming a verdict in favor of the postman, not only is the bankruptcy estate liable, but the claim is a cost of administration, payable ahead of the prepetition creditors. Not a good state of affairs for the debtor in possession who is supposed to be operating as a fiduciary for his creditors. Granted, I don’t know if the estate was adequately insured nor how liability was allocated among the defendants in the dog bite case. I do know, from representing a creditor in the case upon conversion to Chapter 7, that there was far too little money in the estate to make a dent in the claims of prepetition creditors, even before an administrative tort claim. Proprietorships in Chapter 7 Apply the lessons of that premises liability case to your typical, self employed debtor. Let’s assume the debtor is a hairdresser whose only business assets is a market rate lease on a beauty shop, and her tools of the trade. Consider the liability of the estate should the trustee permit continued operation of the shop.  A customer trips over the debtor’s pet Chihuahua, who accompanies the debtor to work each day, and cracks her head in the fall. Or, the customer suffers an adverse reaction to hair products. One can well imagine that the bankruptcy trustee, the nominal owner of the business and its assets upon filing of the Chapter 7, will be named as a defendant in the resulting suit. And if the suit is successful, the judgment becomes an expense of administration, with priority equal to the trustee’s commission, and ahead of the prepetition creditors. No Chapter 7 trustee wants to have to explain that state of affairs to his boss or to the creditors. Incorporate or file Chapter 13 My rule in situations where the prospective debtor has a proprietorship that she wants to continue to operate is simple: Either incorporate the business in advance of filing Chapter 7 or file Chapter 13. In Chapter 13, the continued operation of the debtor’s business is expressly authorized.  The debtor can continue to make a living and get a discharge of debts at plan completion.  Image courtesy Flickr and Darwin Bell