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Parking tickets sound like a debt that you could easily eliminate, right, because it’s just a bill for a parking ticket. You didn’t purchase anything. It sounds like it’s unsecured. There’s no property they can take back or repossessed if you don’t pay. However, parking tickets are a fine to the government or municipality and by that fact, they are determined to be non-dischargeable.
In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, you have a window of time of approximately 3 or four months where if you have parking tickets, your license will not be suspended during that period of time. However, if you don’t make arrangements to pay off that debt during that window of time and you receive a bankruptcy discharge, it is then that the creditor can then come after you for those non-dischargeable parking tickets. Coming after you can involve suspending your license, getting a judgment against you and possibly picking you up on a body attachment if you don’t appear in court several times.
Under Chapter 13 bankruptcy law, the parking tickets are paid through the Chapter 13 repayment plan. Again, Chapter 13 will allow you to repay the debt in full or less than in full. However, if you pay less than in full, please be aware that you are going to owe the amount that wasn’t paid through your Chapter 13 once your case is over. If you really want to play it safe, make sure that you are paying back 100% of your parking tickets through your Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. If you are filing a Chapter 7, do your best to pay off the debt owed to the parking tickets within that 110 day period or enter into some form of installment payment plan with the creditors so that after your bankruptcy case, your license will not be suspended and you will not be subject to a boot on your car.
Typically student loans are going to be non-dischargeable. A non-dischargeable debt is a debt that is not going to be eliminated in a bankruptcy case. Student loans are the type of debt that are typically non-dischargeable except for extreme hardship cases. In my 21 years of practice, I have never had an extreme hardship case+ Read MoreThe post Can my student loans be discharged in bankruptcy? appeared first on David M. Siegel.
Got an email this week from Martindale-Hubbell, publishers of the famous Martindale Hubbell lawyer directory and also Lawyers.com. They told me my clients rated me in the top one percent in client satisfaction. “Less than 1% of the 900,000+ attorneys listed on martindale.com and lawyers.com have been accorded this Martindale-Hubbell honor of distinction.” They also wanted to sell me “this commemorative wall [...]The post Virginia Bankruptcy Lawyer Robert Weed gets Martindale Satisfaction Award appeared first on Robert Weed.
Bringing you the most up-to-date news, tips and blogs throughout the web. Here’s your Bankruptcy Update for May 16, 2013 Casino commission OKs Revel’s bankruptcy plan David Oreck Talks Bankruptcy And Book Cancer diagnosis puts people at greater risk for bankruptcy
Chapter 7 bankruptcy eliminates unsecured debt such as medical bills, credit card debt, and payday loans. In order to understand whether you qualify is by reviewing your eligibility factors. The most effective way to learn if you qualify includes discussing your situation with an experienced bankruptcy attorney. Meeting qualifications of the means test and providing [...]
In America we don’t just own a house, we own a home. That is part of the America Dream. Because of that fact, Americans have a unique emotional attachment to their house. Whether to save a home becomes more than a business decision with dollars and cents, but instead an emotional decision regarding a homeowner’s past, present, and future. However, the reality is that in order to keep your home you must be able to make your payments. As the economy in America went from bad to worse many Americans were unable to save their homes.
Now that the economy is starting to improve more and more Americans are able to find work for the first time in months or years. They are now in a position to save their home from the delinquent payments that they have missed. However with large delinquencies and mortgage companies that are more interested in the bottom line than the American Dream, many with the means to save their home do not have the know how.
For individuals who find themselves facing foreclosure, there are a few options that can be used to help save their home. First, individuals can negotiate a forbearance agreement with the mortgage company, placing the delinquent payments on the back end of the loan. Second they can negotiate a mortgage modification that lowers their interest rate, spreads the loan out up to 40 years and reduces their payments, all while bringing the mortgage contractually current. Finally individuals can file for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy protection.
Which option is right for any individual client involves a fact specific analysis that focuses on the individual circumstances of each specific home owner. If a loan modification can resolve all of the financial instability that was caused by the prolonged unemployment it may very well be the best option for the client. However, if there is additional debt and financial instability the home owner may find themselves in a situation where a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy could reduce or eliminate unsecured debt, strip off and release second or third mortgages and bring the first mortgage contractually current over a period of 3-5 years. Only a qualified bankruptcy attorney with knowledge of both mortgage modification and Chapter 13 Restructuring options can best advise you on a way forward.
By John Clark
A report this week from Detroit’s emergency manager says the downtrodden city is completely broke and may soon have to file for bankruptcy, according to the Associated Press.
The report, a 41-page analysis that aimed to portray a realistic picture of the city’s finances, said Detroit is on the verge of financial collapse, which would lead to lost paychecks for city workers, deep service cuts, and the loss of pension benefits.
And Kevyn Orr, the city’s emergency manager, believes that Detroit’s only remaining option could eventually be a trip to bankruptcy court.
Detroit May Soon File for Municipal Bankruptcy
As the city teeters on the brink of financial collapse, Orr has been given the unenviable task of negotiating deals with Detroit’s numerous creditors.
But James McTevia, a financial expert in Detroit, believes that Orr may head to bankruptcy court when he “gets his back against the wall and he can’t meet payroll.”
If such a dire scenario does happen, Orr would be left with few options besides seeking the protection of a bankruptcy judge.
And the report released this week does not bode well for Orr’s attempts to avoid bankruptcy. Sources say Detroit had a staggering $162 budget shortfall as of April 26, and that the deficit will likely approach $390 million in the next two months.
Orr noted in his report that the data could change as his team gathers more information, but said that “continuing along the current path is an ill-advised and unacceptable course of action if the city is to be put on the path to a sustainable future.”
Detroit Sets New Standard for Financial Irresponsibility
According to sources, Detroit is the largest city in the United States to be forced into state control, and the city’s financial collapse led to the extreme solution of placing a single person in charge of its money.
Sources say Orr controls how Detroit spends its budget, as those decisions have been removed from the control of Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council.
The two sides, however, seem to be cooperating, as a recent statement released from Bing’s office says that Orr’s conclusions are “consistent” with the administration’s own findings.
Sources also note that Detroit’s financial woes started well before Bing, a former professional basketball star, took office.
Nevertheless, Bing is now the captain of a sinking ship. In Orr’s words, the city’s operations have been rendered “dysfunctional and wasteful after years of budgetary restrictions, mismanagement, crippling operational practices and, in some cases, indifference or corruption.”
In Oregon, homeowners who want to challenge a non-judicial foreclosure can now opt for mediation. They pay two hundred dollars in order to meet with a housing counselor, then sit down with both a state-sanctioned mediator and a representative of the bank. While Consumer advocates anticipate many homes will still be foreclosed, the hope is that those who are still capable of making mortgage payments will be able to renegotiate their loans. This modification to the foreclosure process is currently available only in non-judicial foreclosure. For a variety of reasons, lenders have in the last year or so shifted to initiating judicial foreclosure through the courts.
It is hoped that changes to Oregon’s mortgage mediation program allowing the mediation option in judicial foreclosure will be enacted by the 2013 Oregon legislature.The state senators who negotiated the foreclosure mediation program have said they want to expand mediation requirements to judicial foreclosures, since more lenders are going through the courts.
IF you are in the midst of a judicial foreclosure, there is no need to go it alone. Contact the Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm at 503-232-5303 or 206-674-4559. We would be more than happy to help.
The original post is titled Mediation and Oregon Judicial Foreclosure? , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .
The automatic stay in bankruptcy may feel like a children’s game, but the protections it offers are serious business.
You file for bankruptcy with the expectation that your creditors are going to buzz off. They can’t call, write or in any way ask you to pay a pre-bankruptcy debt.
There are some exceptions to the rule, but for the most part you’re persona non grata.
But as with anything else, there are rules to follow when it comes to the automatic stay.
Notice, Notice, Notice
The law provides that the only way a creditor or collector can get in trouble for violating the automatic stay is if they have notice of your bankruptcy filing.
Without notice, the creditor can’t get in trouble – it’s chalked up to an “oops” moment.
Your goal, then, is to be sure the creditors and collectors have notice of your filing. When I file a bankruptcy case for one of my clients, here are the steps I take:
- read the bill to find out the name and address of the creditor;
- if the creditor has an official mailing address to receipt of bankruptcy notices, use that on the bankruptcy schedules;
- if the creditor does not have an official mailing address to receipt of bankruptcy notices, call customer service and get a good address for the creditor if I don’t already have one;
- list every one of the creditor’s addresses I can find – including, if need be, the corporate headquarters;
- list all debt collectors that have ever been involved with each debt;
- review the credit report to list all debts shown there; and
- pick my client’s brain to find out any other possible creditors – and list them.
This is imperfect, but it’s the best means I’ve found for giving notice of the bankruptcy filing. Once the case is filed, the clerk will automatically send notices to listed creditors, collectors, and anyone else listed on the schedules.
Creditors Who Keep Calling Get Whacked
If a creditor has notice of your bankruptcy filing, they can’t claim they made a mistake.
If a creditor contacts you after notice, their actions are automatically assumed to have been intentional.
You have the ability to sue for violations of the automatic stay. You can get money for damages as well as for your legal fees.
That’s right, the creditor pays your lawyer.
Most important, however, is the fact that you can get the creditor to stop contacting you. The money’s nice, but the critical piece of the puzzle is the peace of mind you get when the phone stops ringing and the letters stop coming.
Image credit: madabandon
How To Handle Creditors Who Call You After You File For Bankruptcy was originally published on Consumer Help Central. If you're seeing this message on another site, it has been stolen and is being used without permission. That's illegal, a violation of copyright, and just plain awful.
I’ve been practicing bankruptcy law for a while now, and I’ve been surprised at how many very good bankruptcy lawyers either give bad tax advice or incomplete tax advice. I’m also surprised at how many of these good lawyers send clients out the door, because the client has a tax issue that can’t be solved in bankruptcy.
Tax debt is one of the most common and complicated debts that our clients face. It is also one of the least understood. Every bankruptcy lawyer can recite the tax discharge rules off the top of their head; but that isn’t enough. Tax resolution should be part of every bankruptcy lawyer’s tool kit. Understanding tax resolution is a sound business practice and a sound professional practice for bankruptcy attorneys. If you don’t have a proper understanding of tax resolution you are losing out on a major source of business, client service suffers, and you increase your malpractice risk.
Some Tax Resolution Background
Tax resolution is the area of tax practice that involves tax debts. It is discrete from tax preparation and tax planning. Generally, people who owe $10,000 or more to the IRS will require some professional assistance with their tax debts. Most people only qualify for the basic streamlined installment plan or the voluntary repayment plan. However, another large group of people will qualify for the more extensive relief that you can obtain from a partial payment installment agreement, innocent spouse relief, or an offer in compromise.
Tax resolution is a troubled practice area. You probably recall the TV ads that promised people that they could settle their taxes for “pennies on the dollar.” Most of those companies were running boiler room operations that preyed on taxpayers’ fear of the IRS. Those companies are gone now; because the IRS and state regulators shut them down. However, there are still many fly by night operations bombarding people with direct mail or running PPC ads online.
Tax resolution is also a difficult practice area to fit under any one category. Tax preparers such as enrolled agents and CPAs can represent taxpayers in front of the IRS; however, they do not necessarily have the background in litigation and negotiation to be effective advocates. Tax attorneys are often more focused on transactional law, entity formation, and tax planning. However, bankruptcy lawyers are a great fit for tax resolution; because there is extensive overlap between the two practice areas.
Bankruptcy Lawyers Make Great Tax Resolution Lawyers
Many lawyers assume that in order to be an effective tax lawyer you need an LLM in tax; or at the very least, a full course of tax classes in law school. That’s probably true if you want to do sophisticated transactional work or sophisticated tax planning. That couldn’t be further from the truth for tax resolution.
Yes, you need to understand the basics of taxation. However, most tax lawyers took baby tax in law school. Even if you didn’t take baby tax, a good Enrolled Agents prep course will give you the background you need in understanding things like the definition of income, allowable deductions, tax basis, pass through entities, gift tax, and the like.
The fact is that the core of tax resolution is virtually indistinguishable from bankruptcy practice. If you can fill out a bankruptcy petition and confirm a chapter 13 plan, you can setup an installment payment agreement or get an offer in compromise approved. I won’t get into the mechanics, but I was blown away by how similar the IRS’ tax resolution forms are to the bankruptcy petition. Also, you’re already familiar with the IRS expense guidelines; because, they are the basis for the means test.
But most importantly, tax resolution and bankruptcy are the same intellectual discipline. In both practice areas, you are dealing with clients who have debt problems and are under a tremendous amount of stress. The IRS is probably the most feared creditors out there, except for the maybe the mafia. However, unlike the mafia, the IRS can be very reasonable and very fair if you know how to talk to them; and the truth is, an IRS collection agent is no more difficult to deal with than a trustee or secured creditor. It’s the same conversation, just in a different context.
You’re Taking A Risk If You Don’t Understand Tax Resolution
Have you ever told a client to wait out either the tax discharge period before they could file a case or put them into a chapter 13 because they couldn’t wait? How do you handle cases where the client can’t afford a chapter 13 but can’t discharge all of their tax debt in a chapter 7? What do you do with a client who is at risk of losing property in a chapter 7, but needs to file to get the IRS off of their back? Have you ever had a client whose only problem creditor was the IRS?
These are all scenarios that every bankruptcy lawyer has faced. These are also scenarios where you run the risk of failing to get your client the best possible deal or even of committing malpractice. This is because tax resolution and bankruptcy are hand in glove with each other.
The new standards for offers in compromise mean that people with non-dischargeable tax debt may get a much better deal if they go through tax resolution, instead of filing a chapter 13. If you can get the client an offer in compromise and then follow it up with a chapter 7, you may have just saved that client thousands of dollars. Additionally, you can use an “effective administration” application for offer in compromise for a client who has non-exempt property that is either vulnerable in a chapter 7 or going to pump up a chapter 13 plan payment. However, you should also know when an offer in compromise application creates the risk of adding to non-dischargeable tax debt.
Also, have your read IRS Circular 230? Because if you haven’t, you may be surprised to find out that you are already a tax lawyer in the eyes of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility. At a minimum, you need to know how the IRS defines “covered opinion” and “reliance advice” before you answer any question about taxes in bankruptcy, particularly if the client has any unfiled tax returns or unassessed taxes.
You’re Losing Business
How many clients have come to you with unfiled tax returns and you sent to a CPA or tax preparer and then they never came back? How many clients had a tax problem that bankruptcy couldn’t fix? It happens.
I used to get clients all the time who needed tax returns prepared – very simple 1040s – and I’d tell them to get the returns prepared and then come back and we’d file their bankruptcy; and, then they’d just never come back. I used to get clients who had a tax problem but couldn’t file bankruptcy for some reason, and I’d say “I’m sorry, good luck.” I used to get clients who had spent thousands of dollars on useless tax advice, where I could have gotten them the same result or better for a fraction of the cost of what they spent on some boiler room tax resolution service.
Bottom line, a client wants a lawyer who can offer full service debt relief, including tax debts; and they’ll be impressed by a lawyer who not only provides full service debt relief but can take care of their unfiled tax returns at the same time.
Tax used to make me nervous. Now it is a central part of my bankruptcy practice. I feel like I’m a better lawyer because I can offer my clients a more complete set of services with a higher level of professional skill.
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