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You can file a bankruptcy case on your own which is known as filing pro se. However, I would not recommend this and I would certainly never recommend it in a chapter 13 bankruptcy case. Approximately once per month, someone will come into my office who has filed a bankruptcy case on their own behalf+ Read More
The post Filing Bankruptcy On Your Own: It’s Not That Simple appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Bankruptcy Can Help Older Americans Take Control of Their LivesMany elderly live in terror of a debt collector calling.

I highly recommend this great article in the New York Times about bankruptcy and the elderly.  Everyone should understand the issues related to protecting your own or your parents’ hard earned retirement funds when faced with a financial crisis.  A good percentage of every client I meet has dipped into their retirement funds to pay off debts, only to find the debts never end – default interest, late charges, attorney and collection fees…… the list goes on and on.
“Bankruptcy can bring much-needed relief from debt brought on by medical expenses or helping needy children…”
The following is a brief clip of the entire article.
For some older Americans, bankruptcy can bring much-needed relief from debt brought on by medical expenses or helping needy children, and experts say it can be a valuable tool to protect retirement assets, after negotiating with creditors. But with reliable statistics on current bankruptcies hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests that shame at being in financial turmoil frequently prevents retirees from getting help early.
“People usually postpone bankruptcy for several years before filing,” said Deborah Thorne, an associate professor of sociology at Ohio University, who has studied older Americans and bankruptcy. “When finances head south, they should file right away.”
By spending retirement assets, Ms. Thorne said, retirees risk a downward financial spiral from which they are less likely to recover than younger people. A better strategy is to defend assets at all costs, she said.

Click here for the entire article....
The post Bankruptcy Can Help Seniors Find Peace of Mind appeared first on Diane L. Drain - Phoenix Bankruptcy & Foreclosure Attorney.

According to an article in the New York Times, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase are finally agreeing to properly identify debts that were discharged in bankruptcy.  Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have agreed to update borrowers’ credit reports within the next three months to reflect that the debts were extinguished.
There has been a fierce battle over the lawsuits, brought by Charles Juntikka, a bankruptcy lawyer in Manhattan, and George F. Carpinello, a partner with Boies, Schiller & Flexner.
Judge Robert D. Drain, who is presiding over the cases, has repeatedly refused the banks’ requests to throw out the lawsuits. In July, when he refused to dismiss the case against JPMorgan, he said, “The complaint sets forth a cause of action that Chase is using the inaccuracy of its credit reporting on a systematic basis to further its business of selling debts and its buyer’s collection of such debt.”
At a hearing in April, transcripts show, the judge criticized Citigroup for not changing the way it reports debts to the credit reporting agencies. “I continue to believe there’s one reason, and one reason only, that Citibank refuses to change its policy,” the judge said. The reason, the judge went on, is “because it makes money off of it.”
This problem has plagued close to a million people who have filed for bankruptcy protection, only to find their debts incorrectly reported.   To exacerbate the situation, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup and Synchrony Financial, formerly GE Capital Retail Finance sold these discharged debts to collectors, and did not disclose they were discharged in bankruptcy.  Why??  Because they could sell the debts for more if they failed to disclosed the were uncollectable debts.
The consequences of these debts still appearing on a credit report without any reference to the bankruptcy discharge?  People lose their jobs or cannot get a job because of this “bad” debt.  People are denied the right to rent or purchase as house, or buy a car.  Harassing calls from these debt collectors “zombie debt buyers”.  These debt buyers call without regard to the truth of the discharged debt.
It is about time someone (thank you Judge Robert. D. Drain) stood up to these greedy companies who flagrantly ignore the law because they think they are too big to be caught.  You can only hope there is a special place for these folks in the afterlife.
The post JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America Agree to Correctly Report Debts Discharged in Bankruptcy appeared first on Diane L. Drain - Phoenix Bankruptcy & Foreclosure Attorney.

On May 12, 2015 the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had filed fraud charges against ITT Educational Services Inc., its chief executive officer Kevin Modany, and its chief financial officer Daniel Fitzpatrick.
According to the SEC, the national operator of for-profit colleges and the two executives fraudulently concealed from investors the poor performance and looming financial impact of two student loan programs that ITT financially guaranteed. ITT formed both of these student loan programs, known as the “PEAKS” and “CUSO” programs, to provide off-balance sheet loans for ITT’s students following the collapse of the private student loan market. To induce others to finance these risky loans, ITT provided a guarantee that limited any risk of loss from the student loan pools.
According to the SEC, the loans were performing so poorly that ITT failed to disclose the fact that it expected to be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars on its guarantees. ITT and its management allegedly attempted to create the appearance that the company’s exposure to these programs was much more limited.
“Our complaint alleges that ITT’s senior-most executives made numerous material misstatements and omissions in its disclosures to cover up the subpar performance of student loans programs that ITT created and guaranteed,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Modany and Fitzpatrick should have been responsible stewards for investors but instead, according to our complaint, they engineered a campaign of deception and half-truths that left ITT’s auditors and investors in the dark concerning the company’s mushrooming obligations.”
According to the press release issued by the SEC:

The SEC’s complaint alleges that ITT, Modany, and Fitzpatrick engaged in a fraudulent scheme and made a number of false and misleading statements to hide the magnitude of ITT’s guarantee obligations for the PEAKS and CUSO programs. For example, ITT regularly made payments on delinquent student borrower accounts to temporarily keep PEAKS loans from defaulting and triggering tens of millions of dollars of guarantee payments, without disclosing this practice. ITT also netted its anticipated guarantee payments against recoveries it projected for many years later, without disclosing this approach or its near-term cash impact. ITT further failed to consolidate the PEAKS program in ITT’s financial statements despite ITT’s control over the economic performance of the program. ITT and the executives also misled and withheld significant information from ITT’s auditor.

This isn’t the first time the for-profit education company has run afoul of the federal government. In 2014 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed suit alleging that ITT pushed students into high-cost private student loans knowing they would likely end in default.

The post SEC Files Fraud Charges Against For-Profit College Operator ITT appeared first on Bankruptcy and Student Loan Lawyers - 866.787.8078.