You most certainly can stop bill collectors from calling you once you hire an attorney to handle your debt situation.  Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, creditors are prohibited from contacting you once they are made aware of the fact that you have representation.  If creditors violate this Act, they can be sued in+ Read MoreThe post Can I stop bill collectors from calling me? appeared first on David M. Siegel.

How soon after bankruptcy can I buy a house again? Sooner than most people think.  And for some, it just got even better.    That’s because of a new policy from the Federal Housing Administration, announced by FHA Commissioner Carole Galante. Under that new policy, some people can get approved to get an FHA backed [...]The post How soon after bankruptcy can I buy a house again? appeared first on Robert Weed.

You want to file your bankruptcy case right now.  Maybe you even found www.filenow.com.  If you did, your lawyer has a problem.  Your lawyer’s problem now is your problem. If your bankruptcy attorney has been disbarred, you may feel lost and abandoned. Perhaps you’ve paid a large fee.  But a disbarred lawyer can’t file your Chicago bankruptcy case. It’s not right to charge you more for legal services than you agreed to pay.  A bankruptcy attorney must give you a contract which describes what he or she will do for you. And then he or she must perform these services.  There should be no extra charges for your bankruptcy case unless you agreed to them in writing. And a bankruptcy lawyer in Chicago should handle all normal aspects of your chapter 7 bankruptcy from start to finish for the agreed upon flat fee. For most chapter 13 cases in the Northern District of Illinois, you’ll sign a form contract called the “Court Approved Retention Agreement.”  This is the only agreement allowed if your lawyer wants to receive a $4,000 flat fee for your chapter 13 case.  There can’t be any side deals or side agreements if your lawyer wants a $4,000 flat fee. What can you do if your Chicago bankruptcy lawyer has been disbarred or convicted of a crime? You can find an ethical, competent, highly acclaimed Chicago bankruptcy attorney at Lakelaw. For example, David Leibowitz is board certified by the American Board of Certification as a consumer bankruptcy attorney and a business bankruptcy attorney even though this is not required to practice law in Illinois.  He has been retained as an expert witness in legal malpractice cases concerning consumer bankruptcy.  He chaired of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Consumer Bankruptcy Committee for two years.  Now he is coordinating editor of the Consumer Corner column of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Journal. He has been selected to write on bankruptcy ethics by Bloomberg Law for its soon-to-be-published bankruptcy treatise. If you have been victimized by a disbarred Chicago bankruptcy attorney, or an Chicago bankruptcy lawyer convicted of a crime, Lakelaw will take over your case at a reduced fee. And we’ll try to recover unearned fees for you too. And as always, David Leibowitz will represent you with care, kindness, courtesy, respect, professionalism and dedication, just as he has for thousands of clients for almost 40 years.

Insider PaymentsYou got a large chunk of money and paid the loan from your Mom or other family member and now are ready to file bankruptcy. Or you have a high balance in bank accounts prior to filing a bankruptcy so you are going to take the money out and pay back a loan to a family member right? Wrong. There is a section of the bankruptcy petition where these sorts of payments must be specifically listed. You are going to disclose them on your petition but the money is already gone anyways so nothing the trustee can do about it right? Wrong again.The bankruptcy petition asks about these sorts of payments to insiders for the reason that they can do something about it. The section of the petition that is dedicated to these sorts of payments is known at the Statement of Financial Affairs. The Statement of Financial Affairs requires that you list any payments to family members or friends in the past year. In addition to listing that the payment was made, you must also list the name and address of the person the payments were made to, the amount(s) of the payment(s) and the date(s) of the payment(s).Why do you have to list this information? These payments are known as insider payments or preferential payments. The trustee can reverse any payments made to insiders. However, you can avoid the trustee from contact your family member and taking the money from them. You can settle with the trustee yourself sometime for a fraction of the amount paid to your family member. Sometimes the trustee will even allow you to pay the preferential payment amount to the trustee over several months in some sort of payment plan. What if you do not want the trustee to contact your family member but you need more than a few months to pay the money to the trustee? You can pay the amount to your unsecured creditors over the life of the bankruptcy through a Chapter 13.So what do they do with money when they collect it back from your family member or receive the money from you? The trustee notifies your creditors that asset with be recovered and given them a chance to file a proof of claim with the court. Once the deadline to file proof of claims has passed, the trustee disburses the money on a prorate basis to your creditors.

Refund Anticipation LoansThese loans are some of the highest cost loans that exist. A borrower pays anywhere from 40% to 700% depending on the lender and loan amounts. While this seems like a great option when you are on a tight budget, it may be just the opposite. You are due $4,500 for tax refund. You want your money 4 weeks earlier that it would normally be received so you obtain a refund anticipation loan. You have just now handed over $1500 so that you can have $3,000 only a few weeks earlier! Doesn’t seem worth it to me at all.Luckily for those tempted by this bad financial option, the refund anticipation loans may no longer offered as there will be nobody to back the loans. The FDIC just ordered the underwriters who back these loans to stop backing these controversial loans. The FDIC’s argument is that the loans themselves are “unsafe and unsound.” The loans are now even more so unsafe and unsound because the IRS no longer provides bank it debt indicator. This debt indicator was a tool used by the loan providers used to determine whether a taxpayer, soon to be borrower, had outstanding tax liabilities that could be garnished from a tax refund which would result in the loan provider not being paid back the loan from the expected tax refund if it is not received.People who are in support of refund anticipation loans state that the one-time fees help deliver money quicker to those people who always live paycheck to paycheck. The refund anticipation loan supports argue that if these refund anticipation loans are not available to these people that live paycheck to paycheck that they would simply just seek the money from other sources with possibly even higher interest rates and fees.Refund anticipation loans however should become less necessary as IRS has started offering direct deposit options for tax refunds often within 7 to 14 days. The IRS’s program offering depositing refunds onto prepaid debit cards should also decrease consumers needs to refund anticipation loans. The ultimate decision as to whether you really need a refund anticipation loan may depend on your specific situation but it should be cautioned that you will have a significantly larger sum of money to help with your situation if you can simply wait a few more weeks. Couldn’t you wait a few more weeks in order to receive an extra $1,000+?

I do not have money so how do you expect me to pay you?The easy answer is that you may not be able to afford not to pay an attorney to file a bankruptcy for you. While it often seems odd to perspective clients that there are fees involved, it honestly may be cheaper than the alternatives. Sounds crazy right? Not so. Here are scenarios where not filing a bankruptcy will cost you more money than filing bankruptcy:You took out a payday loan for $500. Due to the high interest on these loans, you know owe them $250 bi-weekly for four pay periods for a total of $1000. If you provided your bank account information to them when the loan was received or if you provided postdated checks at the time the loan was received, they are going to take their money regardless of whether you go in to make the scheduled payments.  In this scenario, over the next two months you will be paying them $1000. In some cases, this is likely enough to pay all or most of the fees involved in a bankruptcy.You have credit cards or medical bills piling up and you are struggling to stay current even on the minimum monthly payments for all of them. You are slowly getting farther and farther behind and the creditors are being to call inquiring about payments. You keep promising payments but are unable to follow through with making them. Eventually the debts are sent to collections and the phone begins to ring even more from collection agencies attempting to collect payment. If no payments are received or the requested amounts are not received they likely will file a lawsuit against you in state court. You will receive a summons to appear in court. If you appear you may be able to ask for a continuance to buy you some time and the next court day whether you appear you not you will likely receive a judgment. Once the creditor has obtained a judgment they can appear to the court for a garnishment or a bank levy. If they garnish your check they can take up to 25% of your paycheck every pay period until the debt is paid off while occasionally having to renew the garnishment and adding their attorneys fees to your balance owed. If the creditor puts a levy on your bank account there will be a returned date listed and on that return date any funds in the account will be sent to the creditor.As listed above, having unpaid delinquent debt may actually cost you more money than the fees involved in a bankruptcy. If you are struggling to stay afloat contact a bankruptcy attorney today to discuss your options.

I am not eligible for Chapter 7 yet so I will file Chapter 13 and then convert when I am eligible for Chapter 7 discharge. Unfortunately no. Discharge eligibility is determined at the time a bankruptcy case is filed. At the time of the case is filed, using the date that the case was filed, it is determined whether the debtor or debtors is/are eligible to receive a bankruptcy discharge. Given that there are different time limits depending first on which chapter of bankruptcy you filed previously and depending second on which chapter of bankruptcy you are filing under now, a debtor may be eligible for discharge under one chapter of bankruptcy and not eligible for discharge under another chapter of bankruptcy. The most common reason that a debtor is not eligible for discharge is due to a previous discharge. This can almost always be overcome by the debtor waiting to file until the time limit has passed based on the chapter of bankruptcy they filed previously and the chapter of bankruptcy they are filing under now. The guidelines are as follows:If you filed a prior Chapter 7 and now want to file a Chapter 7, you must wait 8 years to file from the filing date of the first petition.If you filed a prior Chapter 13 and now want to file a Chapter 7, you must wait 6 years to file from the filing date of the first petition.If you filed a prior Chapter 7 and now want to file a Chapter 13, you must wait 4 years to file from the filing date of the first petition.If you filed a prior Chapter 13 and now want to file a Chapter 13, you must wait 2 years to file from the filing date of the first petition.So, you need to file again but have not reached the time limit to receive a discharge. Yes, you can still file a Chapter 13. You can be in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy without receiving a discharge. However, you cannot simply convert to a Chapter 7 when the time limit has passed because again, eligibility was determined on the day the case was filed. You are not out of luck. You can dismiss the Chapter and file a new separate Chapter 7. Because this is a whole new bankruptcy eligibility for discharge is then determined by the new filing date. 

  Bankruptcy laws provide for you to exempt property from the bankruptcy process that is necessary for you to get a fresh start. In handling your bankruptcy case, we will need to take into consideration how long you have lived in Arizona to effectively plan your property exemptions.   Some states will allow you to […]The post Planning Your Exemptions In Bankruptcy appeared first on Tucson Bankruptcy Attorneys Trezza & Associates.

  Bankruptcy laws provide for you to exempt property from the bankruptcy process that is necessary for you to get a fresh start. In handling your bankruptcy case, we will need to take into consideration how long you have lived in Arizona to effectively plan your property exemptions.   Some states will allow you to [...]

  When you have decided to file bankruptcy there are certain issues that need to be determined prior to your filing. As your Arizona bankruptcy attorneys, we will discuss the strategies involved in filing that will be of the most benefit to you and your spouse or family, if applicable. Should Both Spouses File Bankruptcy? [...]