In Pennsylvania, a juvenile is anyone who is under the age of 18. If your son or daughter has been charged with a misdemeanor or felony offense, it’s important to know the procedural hearings he or she will undergo in juvenile court. The criminal defense lawyers at Young, Marr & Associates invites you to read […] The post What to Do If Your Child Is Arrested in Pennsylvania appeared first on .

Your credit score reflects your financial habits over the years, taking into account factors such as missed payments, credit utilization, and the length of your credit history. Your credit score is financially important, because it is used by banks and lenders to determine what types of loans and credit cards you qualify for. Having a […] The post Can I Rebuild My Credit After Filing Bankruptcy in Pennsylvania? appeared first on .

  A not uncommon issue in chapter 13 cases is what happens when debtors are paying 100% to unsecured creditors but are not committing all their disposable income to the plan in the process.  The chapter 13 trustee's often object, requesting that interest be paid to the unsecured creditors when debtors do not commit all disposable income to the plan.  A bankruptcy court in  Indiana had the opportunity to rule on this issue in IN RE: GEORGE M. McKINNEY & EUGENIA L. McKINNEY, Debtors., No. 18-70417-BHL-13, 2018 WL 4378655 (Bankr. S.D. Ind. Sept. 13, 2018).    The means test showed debtors with a $1,369.31/month disposable income, which would require up to $82,158.60 over the 60 month plan.  However, only $17,116.96 in unsecured claims filed timely.  The plan proposed to pay $850/month over the life of the plan, sufficient to pay unsecured claims in full, but did not propose to pay interest on such claims.  The trustee argued that §1325(b)(1) requires debtors to either pay all their projected disposable income into the plan, or to pay the present value of all unsecured claims, which would include the payment of interest.  The debtors counter that they are only to pay unsecured claims in full as of the effective date of the plan, citing the same statute.  Section 1325 reads   (b)(1) If the trustee or the holder of an allowed unsecured claim objects to the confirmation of the plan, then the court may not approve the plan unless, as of the effective date of the plan—      (A) the value of the property to be distributed under the plan on account of such claim is not less than the amount of such claim; or     (B) the plan provides that all of the debtor’s projected disposable income to be received in the applicable commitment period beginning on the date that the first payment is due under the plan will be applied to make payments to unsecured creditors under the plan.  The bankruptcy court notes that courts and treatises appear to be equally divided on the issue, noting numerous cases both requiring interest:  In re Rhein, 73 B.R. 285 (Bankr. E.D. Mich. 1987); In re Parke, 369 B.R. 205 (Bankr. M.D. Pa. 2007); In re Hight-Goodspeed,486 B.R. 462 (Bankr. N.D. Ind. 2012); In re Deluna, 2012 WL 4679170 (Bankr. W.D. Tex.); In re Braswell, 2013 WL 3270752 (Bankr. D. Or.); In re McKenzie, 516 B.R. 661 (Bankr. M.D. Ga. 2014); In re Sampson-Pack, 2014 WL 1320371 (Bankr. D. Md); In re Barnes, 528 B.R. 501 (Bankr. S.D. Ga. 2015); In re Cheatham, 2017 WL 5614910 (Bankr.M.D. Fla.); and see, 3 Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice, § 75.10 and not requiring interest ,In re Eaton, 130 B.R. 74 (Bankr. S.D. Iowa 1991); In re Ross, 375 B.R. 437 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 2007); In re Stewart-Harrel, 443 B.R. 219 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. 2011); In re Richall, 470 B.R. 245 (Bankr. D.N.H. 2012); In re Coay, 2012 WL 2319100 (Bankr.D.C. Ill.); In re Edward, 560 B.R. 797 (Bankr. W.D.Wa. 2016); In re Gillen, 568 B.R. 74 (Bankr. C.D.Ill. 2017); In re Eubanks, 581 B.R. 583 (Bankr.S.D.Ill. 2018); and see, 5 Colliers on Bankruptcy, § 1325.06(3)(B).  The issue revolves around interpretation of the phrase 'as of the effective date of the plan.'  Normally the code uses the phrase in the term 'the value, as of the effective date of the plan, of property to be distributed... (e.g. 11 U.S.C. §§1129(a)(7), 1225(a)(4), 1325(a)(4), etc).   This language is uniformly interpreted to require a present value analysis of the proposed payments.  However, when the phrase 'as of the effective date of the plan' is moved it arguably reflects an intentional legislative distinction, reflecting the different justifications for paying interest.  Unlike secured creditors, or even unsecured creditors in a solvent chapter 7 estate, unsecured creditors in a chapter 13 have no right to immediate payment in full at the front end of the case.  Given the lack of a forced deferral of a pre-existing payment right, there is no entitlement to interest.1   Indeed, placement of the phrase 'as of the effective date of the plan' outside of §1325(b)(1)(A) may have been to prevent courts from misconstruing such section as requiring a present value requirement.  The only interpretation of such placement as applied to both subsections (A) and (B) is that the date as of which the court is to determine whether either (A) or (B) is applicable and satisfies the trustee's objection.   The contrary interpretation would lead to the anomalous result of paying interest to general unsecured claims even though §1322(a)(2) allows for deferred payment of priority claims without interest.  Based on this analysis the court overruled the trustee's objection and allowed confirmation of the 100% plan without interest to unsecured creditors. 1 Gillan, 568 B.R. at 79↩Michael Barnett hillsboroughbankruptcy.comMichael Barnett, PA506 N Armenia Ave.Tampa, FL 33609-1703813 870-3100

If you’re a college graduate in Pennsylvania, and you’ve been struggling to stay current on your student loan bills, bankruptcy might offer a solution. However, bankruptcy can only eliminate student loan debt under specific circumstances, which means you will need to meet strict criteria to qualify. To learn more about getting rid of debt in […] The post Can I Discharge My Student Loans in Bankruptcy in Pennsylvania? appeared first on .

Many potential bankruptcy filers are, at first, quite hesitant to file a bankruptcy, mostly out of fear that they may lose their home and other assets. While the concern is quite legitimate and, in some cases, even a real possibility, it is a question that we are usually able to answer before a person even […] The post Can You Keep Your House with Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in Pennsylvania? appeared first on .

You have been paying your bills late. Deciding strategically each month which bills get paid. Then it all catches up with you. Maybe you had to miss extra days of work unexpectedly or lost your job. Whatever the reason, you are no longer able to make the monthly minimums. Then the calls start. First, it is one or two calls a week. Then it is every day, multiple calls each day. You waiver between just putting your phone on silence, afraid to answer the next call, to being scared you will miss an important call regarding a job application, your loved ones, or kids’ school. You wish you could just pay off all your bills and stop the calls. However, unless you win the lottery or get the huge promotion, you know that will not happen soon. Should you change your phone number? Block every call you do not recognize? What can you do to stop the creditors from harassing you? Keep reading for the 5 best ways to get creditors to stop calling you. The post The 5 Best Ways to Get Creditors to Stop Calling You appeared first on Tucson Bankruptcy Attorney.

By Meagan Day In old age, health declines. This is obvious, but its implications for social wellbeing are enormous. In a system where the majority of people have to sell their labor for wages to survive, people’s ability to support themselves financially almost always decreases as they age. Without public assistance, therefore, old age is comfortable only for those with savings, and uncomfortable if not downright miserable for those without.This is why the United States passed the Social Security Act in 1935, which guaranteed a source of income to replace wages for all people 65 and older, along with the Social Security Act Amendments in 1965, which created Medicare, a public health insurance program for the same population. These programs are financed socially, by adjusting the tax rate schedule to accommodate them — that is, by requiring everyone in society to contribute, based on their ability to pay, for benefits that they will be entitled to after a certain age.These and other mid-century programs made it a little bit easier to grow old in America, for a while. But they have come under strain as wages have stagnated and the cost of housing and education skyrocketed, placing a greater burden on social welfare programs to achieve adequate income for people. Meanwhile, programs themselves have been systematically starved of resources or outright eliminated.Older Americans haven’t fared well. In fact, they’re filing for bankruptcy in record numbers. A new report from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project called “Graying of US Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society” contends that, while it took a few decades to fully set in, older Americans are now experiencing the consequences of the assault on the social safety net that began under Reagan and has persisted, with leadership from both parties, ever since. Running the Risk“Government is not the solution to our problem,” Reagan was fond of saying. “Government is the problem.” His election inaugurated the reign of the free-market neoliberals, who advocated supposedly leaner and more efficient market-based alternatives to socially-funded government programs. Not coincidentally, these alternatives were friendly to capitalists — lower taxes, new lucrative private markets. In 1982, Reagan established a commission made up of corporate executives whose task was to “root out inefficiency” in government spending. The Grace Commission issued “2,478 cost-cutting, revenue enhancing recommendations” that took aim at federal wages, retirement systems, healthcare programs, and a variety of federal subsidies which were deemed wasteful. The chairman of the commission, successful businessman J. Peter Grace, wrote to Reagan, “If the American people realized how rapidly Federal Government spending is likely to grow under existing legislated programs, I am convinced they would compel their elected representatives to ‘get the Government off their backs.’” One man’s “getting the Government off their backs” is another’s evaporation of opportunity. As social programs have withered, wages have stagnated, and inequality has skyrocketed, many ordinary working people have lost their financial footing and their retirement prospects have dimmed. Today, just one hundred CE Os have the same amount of money stored away for retirement as the bottom 41 percent of the American population. Meanwhile the age at which a person is eligible for full Social Security benefits has risen from 65 to 70, and the penalty for early retirement has increased up to 30 percent. Medicare recipients’ out-of-pocket costs are ballooning. Defined benefit pensions have been replaced with unpredictable and risky employee-owned 401(k)s. The list goes on. And now the chickens are coming home to roost. The Consumer Bankruptcy Project found that since 1991, the rate of Americans age sixty-five to seventy-four filing for bankruptcy has doubled. The rate for those age seventy-five and over has tripled. “The changes are so great,” they found, “that the broader trend of an aging US population can explain only a small proportion of what is happening in the bankruptcy courts. Older Americans’ reported reasons for filing strongly suggest that they are experiencing the fallout from our current individualized risk society and the corresponding shrinkage of their social safety net.” The researchers’ data backs this up, suggesting that “that financial crises associated with living in America’s high-risk society are highly correlated with older Americans’ increasing use of the bankruptcy system.” As risk and responsibility have shifted from society as a whole onto individuals to pay their own way — even when they can’t work at all — older Americans are increasingly vulnerable to financial ruin. The Means of LifeThe responses to the questionnaires collected by the Consumer Bankruptcy Project illuminate the predicament that working-class older Americans are in. When asked the reason for bankruptcy, one respondent said: All things went up in price. Retirement never went up. Had a part time job that was helping to meet monthly payments. House payment kept going up. Was fired from my part time job that I had for over 10 years without any warning. Being 67 and having back problems, not many people will hire you even as part time worker.Here we can see the complex of problems that give rise to financial difficulty in old age. Income in retirement isn’t sufficient to cover the rising cost of living, including healthcare costs and payments on debt. After a lifetime of depressed wages, many people don’t have the savings to meet their financial responsibilities, yielding need employment to supplement their income. But the aging body leads to a (real or perceived) inability to do the work needed to secure a wage. As a result, older Americans are increasingly left without much financial recourse besides personal bankruptcy — which is not a panacea, just a last-ditch effort to eliminate personal debt and stop the multiplication of costs. One path to solving this problem is to make a concerted effort to drive up wages, control living costs, and repair the social safety net, so that people enter old age with savings instead of debt, and so that older people who can’t work still have a way to sustain themselves in their final decades. The Left should pursue this approach without reservation. And there is a deeper issue, too, which requires a more radical solution in the long-term. The problem is that people are required to sell their labor to capitalists in order to have access to the means of life to begin with. What if, instead, we had a society where everyone was guaranteed a decent living just because they’re alive, not on condition of employment, and we pooled our resources and our productive capacities to make good on that guarantee? Then perhaps all people, young and old, could live with dignity.Copyright 2018 Jacobin.  All rights reserved.  

Individual consumers must always file a bankruptcy case in their name only, while married couples have the option to file a case jointly. However, this is not a requirement, and in some cases, it may not be advantageous to do so. Often times, only one spouse may have outstanding debt to deal with, while the […] The post Can I File Chapter 13 Without My Spouse In Pennsylvania? appeared first on .

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When a person has no prior criminal record, and then gets charged with a possessory drug offense, there are usually two options that they should consider as a way to resolve the case: Probation without verdict (aka Section 17) and ARD (accelerated rehabilitative disposition). Both of these programs are designed for first time offenders as […] The post Section 17 Probation vs. ARD in Pennsylvania for First Time Offenders appeared first on .