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A Chapter 13 bankruptcy can be filed by an individual or a joint case husband and wife. Chapter 13 cannot be filed by a corporation. In order to file for Chapter 13, an individual must complete several prefiling requirements. The most important requirement is the taking of a credit counseling session. The credit counseling session+ Read MoreThe post Who can file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy? appeared first on David M. Siegel.
The class of 2013 has just replaced the class of 2012 for the title of the most indebted class in American history. With the way student loan burdens are increasing, the class of 2013 will inevitably lose their title to next year’s senior class.
In 2013, graduating seniors left college with an average debt load of $30,000. That’s nearly double the amount that students graduated with 20 years ago. A recent study reveals that if you factor in credit card debt and money borrowed from family during school, students are really graduating with an average of over $35,000.
A separate study released Thursday by Fidelity Investments painted a bleaker picture. The class of 2013 carried an average of $35,200, Fidelty’s study found, which includes credit card debt and money owed to family members. Half of all graduates with debt said in the survey that they were surprised at how much they accumulated.
Given that student loan collections bureaus are among the most aggressive debt collectors out there, graduating seniors are in for a rude shock once they leave school and are unable to find jobs to pay the monthly minimum payments.
Given how difficult these loans are to discharge in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, student loan lenders must be ecstatic to find themselves in an almost risk free business. While these lenders may be happy, the overall picture young Washington and Oregon local graduates is obviously pretty bleak. Beyond our graduates and their families, the student loan problem has repercussions for all of us. First, the student loan dollars are almost all paid to the federal government or to out of state lenders so repayment dollars leave the Pacific Northwest. Second, experts believe that the student loan expansion will significantly burden the housing market. Young people will be so caught up in trying to fulfill their student loan obligations that they will be unable to participate in the housing market. A weak housing market, as anyone who has lived through the last decade will tell you, is the last thing we need.
Contact our offices immediately if you are struggling to meet your student loan burden and the creditors are calling. Though it is extremely difficult to discharge these loans, except under certain very narrow circumstances, there is relief worth discussing under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. I will look forward to hearing from you.
The original post is titled Crushing Burden of Student Loans in Oregon and Washington , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .
What will bankruptcy do to my credit? This is probably the question most often asked by our clients and potential clients when they are considering bankruptcy. While each client will have a different experience based on their individual circumstances, the question to the answer remains the same. It is absolutely possible to rebuild your credit […]
A common question that people considering bankruptcy may have is whether or not a judgment that has been entered against them will be discharged through their bankruptcy. The short answer is that in many cases the answer is yes, but there are some circumstances that won’t discharge the debt. For example, let’s say someone has […]
Getting your bankruptcy case filed can be a problem if you don’t know where to do so.
Lots of people call me up and ask me to file a case in Los Angeles because they work there and it’s easier for them to get to the court. This, of the fact that they live in Orange County.
Or they live in New Jersey but want to file in New York because it’s a quicker ferry ride to the courthouse than it would be to drive to Newark.
If only it were that easy.
Venue In Bankruptcy Case
If you file bankruptcy in the wrong court, your case may get transferred or thrown out entirely.
In order to prevent that, you’ve got to file your case in the proper venue.
Venue, in case you’re not someone who kicks back by reading legal dictionaries, is the technical term for the place where the bankruptcy will be filed. Each state has at least one bankruptcy court, and each court is divided up into divisions.
For example, California has four districts – aptly named as Northern, Southern, Eastern and Central. Within each district there are multiple divisions.
Los Angeles County is in the Central District of California, which contains the following divisions:
Santa Barbara
Santa Ana
Riverside
Los Angeles
San Fernando Valley
Your ZIP code determines the division in which your case should be filed. You can use the Court Locator to figure out where you need to be.
Venue Based On You
You can file a bankruptcy case in any district in which you have been domiciled, had a residence, principal place of business or principal assets for 180 days immediately before filing for bankruptcy or for a longer part of such 180 days than in any other District.
The decision, therefore, can give you some choices. If, for example, you own a business with a principal location in Nevada but live in Louisiana, you may be able to file bankruptcy in Nevada or in Louisiana.
More important, however, is the word domicile. You probably think a domicile is the place you live, but that’s not necessarily so. In fact, a domicile is considered to be your permanent home, where you reside with the intention to remain or to which you intend to return.
For example, let’s say you are in Ohio for work but intend to return to Brooklyn once the job is done. If you can prove that intent to return to Brooklyn, you may be able to file for bankruptcy there as well as in Ohio.
Venue Based On Others
If you have a family member, a partner or an affiliate which already filed a case, then you could choose to have your case go ahead in that district. In other words, if your sister filed for bankruptcy in Wisconsin and you live in Oklahoma, you could conceivably make a case to file there.
In addition, if there’s a bankruptcy case concerning your affiliate, general partner, or partnership pending in a particular place then you could file there as well.
Finally, you could file for bankruptcy in the United States even if you don’t live here but are being sued here.
Plan Your Venue Wisely
As you can tell, you may have some options as to where your bankruptcy case is filed. Different places have different benefits – not only convenience, but also exemption choices.
If you’ve got a choice, make it a wise one.
How To File Bankruptcy: Where Your Case Is Filed 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.
Medical debt continues to be one of the most common reasons why people file personal bankruptcy. Yet, recent studies may provide evidence that rising drug costs are partly to blame. Medical debt related to unpaid bills is one matter, but for those who are dealing with a medical illness, the rising cost of medicine is [...]
A recent article by the New York Times reviewed a study of whether medical bills for cancer patients cause more bankruptcies. The researchers found that “cancer patients were twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as people without cancer.” The study was conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
The effort determined based on “court records and information from the regional cancer registry” that younger people with cancer experienced the highest bankruptcy rates. In a comparison of all cancer patients versus people without cancer, the cancer patients were 2.65 times more likely to go bankrupt than people without cancer. In addition, there was a significant discrepancy between younger cancer patients and older cancer patients (sixty-five or older). The younger patients had 2-5 times higher bankruptcy rates than the older cancer patients. The study authors believe this discrepancy is due to Medicare and Social Security as a possible mitigating factor that is decreasing the risk for the older group.
Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly 60% of debtors report medical debt at the time of filing for bankruptcy, with medical bills being one of the major causes of people filing for bankruptcy. The report noted that “the financial burden of cancer can be substantial for patients and their families” with as much as “$1.3 billion of the $20.1 billion spent on cancer care” coming directly from the patients. The financial burden worsens if the patient is unable to work during treatment. Research suggests that from 40% to 85% percent of cancer patients stop working during initial treatment.
The fact remains that medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcies, but whether or not the specific medical condition can be associated with filing for bankruptcy is still being researched. According to ThinkProgress’s evaluation of this study, “Americans who have access to health insurance aren’t necessarily safe from bankruptcy, since high cost of treating cancer can still put an untenable strain their finances.” A majority of people who file for bankruptcy due to medical debt have some type of health insurance. The insurance just does not cover all of the costs of care.
People facing high health care costs should consult with their doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, and community resources about lowering medical bills. For the truly needy, many doctors and hospitals will substantially reduce a medical bill, accept affordable monthly payments, or both. Many drug companies offer expensive medications at a substantial discount for those who could not otherwise afford them.
If medical bills become overwhelming, though, bankruptcy is one way that often works to discharge the debts. Bankruptcy stops bill collectors from trying to collect medical debts. And, medical bills can be included in the bankruptcy discharge so that the patient will never have to pay them.
One precaution though. While hospitals generally have to provide emergency care, they do not have to agree to provide non-emergency care. Doctors, too, do not have to continue to provide medical services. So, if you leave a doctor unpaid, you may expect the doctor to refuse to provide you future medical services after a bankruptcy. For that reason, some bankruptcy debtors work out payment arrangements with their essential doctors and continue to pay them even after the bankruptcy case is filed. Potential bankruptcy filers considering these issues should consult with a qualified bankruptcy attorney.
The post Do Medical Bills from Cancer Increase the Risk of Filing Bankruptcy? appeared first on AKB.
According to news reports
coming from literally hundreds of outlets, comedian Sinbad has filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The source of this report is the web site TMZ.com – and news outlets from major news networks to gossip web sites are re-writing and re-reporting the TMZ story.There’s only one problem with the TMZ story – it is not factually correct. There is no way that Sinbad could qualify for Chapter 13 given the type of debts he owes.If, as has been reported, Sinbad owes American Express $374,979 and Bank of America, $32,199, his unsecured debt exceeds the jurisdictional limits for Chapter 13. If you consider IRS debt of more than $8 million, Sinbad far exceeds the jurisdictional limits for Chapter 13.1I am guessing that Sinbad actually filed Chapter 7, which means that any hard assets or intellectual property he owns could be at risk. This element of the story could be an interesting read but we may never know.While the type of bankruptcy that Sinbad has filed may not make much difference to most readers, the inaccuracy of the news reports does underscore an important point. First, you should not accept at face value anything you read in the newspapers or online about bankruptcy. Despite this glaring inaccuracy, it appears that dozens of news outlets simply accepted what they read on an entertainment web site (TMZ).And TMZ is not alone. Inaccurate information about bankruptcy exists all over the Internet. For example, Nolo.com which is a widely used and respected web site about legal topics, currently has posted on its web site the following paragraph:Under the Georgia exemption system, homeowners may exempt up to $10,000 of their home or other property covered by the homestead exemption. You can also apply $5,000 of any unused portion of the homestead exemption towards any property you own. This is commonly referred to as a wildcard exemption.For example, let’s say your house is worth $100,000. If you have a $90,000 mortgage on the property, then you have $10,000 of home equity. If you file bankruptcy, your equity will be fully exempt under the Georgia homestead exemption. This means that your creditors can’t touch your equity and you can keep your home.Unfortunately, this information is completely inaccurate – Georgia changed its exemption limits in 2012 – now an individual can exempt $21,500 of equity in real estate. 2 If you were relying on the Nolo.com site or another site that gets its information from Nolo, you would be relying on bad information to make your decision about filing bankruptcy.3Secondly, just because a news report is repeated over and over as fact does not make it so. Law school teaches aspiring lawyers to critially read and consider every word of a document. This is why contracts and other legal documents are so long and complex. The news media deals with sound bites. The TMZ staffer who put out the Sinbad story threw in “Chapter 13″ without knowing any better and now this misstatement has been spread all over the world.So, whether you are considering bankruptcy or any other legal matter, do your research and ask questions. Talk to a lawyer and do not rely on what you read on any web site because that information could be wrong.
- Section 109(e) of the Bankruptcy Code provides that Chapter 13 debtors may have no more than $383,175 of unsecured debts. Sinbad’s credit card debt alone totals more than $407,000. ↩
- Click here to read the Georgia exemption statute. ↩
- Nolo.com offers a lot of useful information about the law to consumers but a site this massive can be hard to keep updated. ↩
The post Sinbad Bankruptcy? News Reports Get it Wrong appeared first on theBKBlog.
Divorce is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy. The question is always whether it is better to file bankruptcy before a divorce or after a divorce. There is no right answer, because it depends on your individual situation. I have previously written about the benefits of bankruptcy before divorce. However it might not be possible for you to file bankruptcy before your divorce or you might not need bankruptcy until after your divorce. Additionally, there may be issues of legal strategy where it makes more sense for you to wait until the divorce is complete to file bankruptcy.
A few reasons to wait to file bankruptcy until after the divorce is if you have an ex-spouse who will not cooperate with you, if the divorce is contentious, or if you need the divorce to be completed quickly. Bankruptcy before divorce usually works best during an amicable or agreed divorce process where you still have enough of a relationship to work with your spouse.
The biggest reason to wait until after a divorce is complete to file bankruptcy is when you do not know how much the divorce will cost. During a contentious divorce, you may have large legal expenses that are difficult to predict with any certainty. This means that while you are paying your legal fees, you are getting behind on other bills. There are limits to the number of times that you can file a bankruptcy, so filing bankruptcy too early can really hurt you.
If you file bankruptcy after your divorce, you need to make sure that you understand a few key concepts and that you make sure your divorce is properly structured:
- Certain Debts Cannot Be Discharged: A domestic support obligation such as alimony, maintenance, or child support cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. You cannot avoid child support, because it is awarded based on a statutory formula and the best interests of the child standard. However, you can control the amount of alimony and maintenance that you pay. In particular, watch out for the other side’s attorneys’ fees. If you have to pay the other sides’ attorneys’ fees try to avoid having those attorneys’ fees classified as alimony or maintenance obligations.
- Certain Debts Can Only Be Discharged In Chapter 13: A non-support obligation that arises out of a divorce decree can only be discharged in a chapter 13. Examples of non-support obligations are an agreement to pay certain debts and attorneys’ fees that are not classified as alimony or maintenance obligations. If you have to agree to make payments to your ex-spouse, you want them to be classified as non-support obligations. Even though a chapter 13 costs more than a chapter 7, it is still preferable to spending the next several years paying off debts from your divorce.
- Don’t Plan On Discharging Your Own Family Law Attorney: It is a very bad idea to go into a divorce with the plan that you will run up a large bill with your own attorney and then put them into bankruptcy. You should be honest with your family law attorney about what you can afford. It is important to create a solid groundwork for your relationship with your family law attorney. It is also important that you maintain that relationship so that I can work with them during the bankruptcy process.
- Be Careful With Credit Cards: It is fine to use credit cards to pay your family law attorney; however, you must make a good faith effort to repay those credit cards before you try to file bankruptcy. Credit card companies track usage patterns before bankruptcy filings. If they see you put a huge legal bill on the credit card and then file bankruptcy a month later, that credit card company will cause problems for you. If you have used credit cards to pay your attorneys’ fees or to cover living expenses, then we can work on strategies for timing your bankruptcy to avoid problems with the credit card companies.
- Be Aware Of Your Ex-Spouse – It is always vital that you are completely honest on your bankruptcy petition; but this is twice as true if you file bankruptcy after a divorce. Angry ex-spouses are known for contacting bankruptcy trustees and trying to cause trouble. Fortunately, I have a very solid petition preparation process; and, I know how to deal with angry ex-spouses who are trying to cause trouble for a client.
If you have recently gone through a divorce, bankruptcy may be an important part of your road to financial recovery and getting rid of the baggage from divorce.
Chapter 13 bankruptcy is reorganization through a Chapter 13 trustee. The reason why many people will file Chapter 13 is to save a home that has gone into foreclosure. Now, the reason why the home fell into foreclosure could be several; in many cases, someone has lost their job, fallen behind on their bills and+ Read MoreThe post What are the most common causes of Chapter 13 bankruptcy? appeared first on David M. Siegel.
Updated daily, this blog will keep you informed on the latest bankruptcy news! 
Learn more about how Bankruptcy works and what you need to know.