A recent potential client called the office and wanted to get started with a filing.  At the meeting, we talked about a greater likelihood of Chapter 13 based upon the income of the debtor and his spouse.  Today, the talk came up about Chapter 7 once again.  Here is what I do in these situations:+ Read MoreThe post Everyone Wants A Chapter 7 It Seems appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Oftentimes, when someone comes to see me for bankruptcy advice, they are already thinking beyond the process and into regaining credit.  The trouble with this line of thinking is serious.  Firstly, the client should be mostly concerned with getting out of debt.  After all, the excessive debt is the reason for the consultation in the+ Read MoreThe post The Obsession With Credit Before Filing For Bankruptcy appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Can I keep my car in Chapter 13?  Yes, you can keep your car through Chapter 13.  If your car is paid in full, it will just increase the amount that you have to pay back to your creditors based on the equity in your car.  If you have a car that’s worth $10,000, you’re+ Read MoreThe post Three Big Questions About Chapter 13 appeared first on David M. Siegel.

What is a Chapter 13 bankruptcy?  A Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a reorganization of your debt or a repayment plan through the federal government of anywhere from 3 to 5 years.  Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a very complicated process; much more complicated than Chapter 7 so an attorney is definitely something you should acquire before+ Read MoreThe post What People Want To Know Most About Chapter 13 Bankruptcy appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Meet me in New Orleans. That’s where the bankruptcy action will be at the end of October. It’s NACBA’s 2013 Fall Workshop But early-bird sign up is over at the end of this week, September 6th. Three tracks With longer sessions for more in-depth treatment, the workshop is organized into three tracks Fundamentals Evidence, Mortgages, and Secured Claims Office Management You can bounce between tracks to pick the things most relevant to your practice. Hallway magic California transplant Jay Fleischman coined the phrase “hallway magic” to describe the unscripted learning that goes on between workshop sessions.  It is, truly, magic. Exchange ideas, rants, challenges with others in the hallways, and you learn something unexpected. Sit, not with your friends, but with new faces, and you expose yourself to new ways to approach clients, judges, and the puzzle of making a living serving those who are broke. (My kids could never understand how that worked.) Maybe I drop in on Rachel Foley‘s track and see what ideas are floating around Office Management. Professional growth required I was sworn in to the California bar 35 years ago.  While a bunch of my classmates at Hastings never practiced, or gave up law almost as soon as they started practice, I’ve continued to find law challenging and satisfying for decades. In large part, I think that’s because I fell into bankruptcy law, where you deal with the overlay of federal bankruptcy law over state law rights. Interesting things happen in the interstices. But it takes events like the workshops to step away from bankruptcy law at the particular level and see issues new ways.  I am always blown away at how often I see a new connection, a new complexity, or a new strategy when I go to a seminar. Think you’ve mastered the law, and you are heading for a trainwreck. Commit So, do something, now. Check out the Workshop agenda.  Register. If your membership has lapsed, renew.  You have to be a NACBA member to attend. There are travel discounts. Plan how you’ll spend the savings on your early-bird registration. See you there. Image courtesy of NASA and Flickr.    

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+?