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When a lender sends a homeowner a notice of its intent to foreclose, it is natural for the homeowner to contact the lender for assistance. Unfortunately, I know of many people who relied on the lenders’ promises of assistance only to be disappointed when their home...
In the recent case of In re James Matson & Kevin Mabry, 2014 WL 1678989 (Bankr. E.D. Wis. 4/29/14), the bankruptcy court denied a creditor’s motion to dismiss or bifurcate the debtors’ Chapter 13 case filed in Wisconsin, which does not permit same sex marriages....
The current monthly income analysis form (CMI) allows certain deduction for vehicle expenses depending on how many vehicles a debtor owns. If the debtor owns a vehicle that is more than six years old and has been driven at least 75,000 miles, the IRS in its Manual...
A recent article in the Washington Post, “The Trap of Payday Loans” (March 26, 2014) highlights the very serious problems that consumers face with payday loans. Although payday loans may fill a very important need for people in a financial bind, they can also lead to...
A recent law review article by Professor John Pottow of the University of Michigan School of Law has drawn attention to the fact that seniors are filing for bankruptcy at increasingly alarming rates. In his article “The Rise in Elder Bankruptcy Filings and the Failure...
People who have filed for bankruptcy and received their discharge are often shocked when they continue to receive threatening letters and phone calls from their creditors. Some creditors even go so far as to sue on these discharged debts, are awarded judgments and...
The short answer is no, they cannot. In a recent case, Fernandez v. Chang, 2014 WL 32201(Bankr. D. Md. 1/6/14), the Bankruptcy Court ordered debtor’s counsel to disgorge all fees collected post-petition and also awarded the debtor compensatory and punitive damages....
We are bombarded by the advertisements on television and radio by so called “debt resolution” services or “debt settlement” programs. The basic idea for all of these companies is the same: they promise to put you into a repayment program and settle your debts for...
Homeowners now have another tool to avoid the foreclosure of their homes, thanks to rules recently enacted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) (www.consumerfinance.gov). Due to the miserable experience many distressed homeowners have had with their...
With budgets tight these days, people considering filing for bankruptcy are often looking to save a few dollars by either filing their bankruptcy case themselves or by hiring a “petition preparer,” who is not a lawyer, to fill out the forms for them and file the case...