utomatic Stay. Upon filing bankruptcy, whether Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 13, an automatic stay is imposed preventing creditors from taking ANY collection action against you: telephone calls, letters, lawsuits, garnishments, repossessions, foreclosures, all stopped. Automatically. No judge even looks at the paperwork. Although there is no paper anymore, all bankruptcy courts now use electronic…
It is expensive to be Batman, and, high expenses can lead to bankruptcy. In The Dark Knight Rises, bad investments lead to the bankruptcy of, well, it is not clear. Is it Wayne Industries? Or Bruce Wayne personally? It comes up at a board meeting, which makes it look like corporate bankruptcy. But, later on,…
image by: Dreamstime Bankruptcy attorneys file bankruptcy, themselves, both Chapter 13 payment plan bankruptcies, or Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcies, more often than we get million dollar fees. But, what is news? Over a billion (yeah, B as in Billion) in attorney fees, on a bankruptcy case? Yah, you betcha. “These fees are higher than my…
G Is For Guilty image credit: Dreamstime Most of us have been taught to pay our bills. If you borrow money, you should pay it back. We get mad at our “friends” who don’t pay us back. Whether it is money for furniture, a truck, a car, a boat, a house, a vacation, a student…
DETROIT BANKRUPTCY COURT This is it! Home of the Detroit, Michigan bankruptcy court. Nothing marking it other than the address: 211 West Fort. The initial, usually, only, court date is held here on the third floor, for both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 creditor meetings, or, 341 hearings. Well, for certain counties in the Eastern…
S is for Step Plan image by: dreamstime image by: dreamstime Chapter 13 bankruptcy is difficult enough to understand. The Chapter 13 plan is the point of a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. Chapter 13 is a payment plan bankruptcy case, as opposed to Chapter 7 or “straight” or “liquidation” bankruptcy. Clients always ask: How does the…
Michigan bankruptcy clients forget creditors all the time. Or, don’t even know they owe some body money, especially medical bills, which often show up months later. Some people panic: I already had my bankruptcy hearing, is it too late? How much trouble am I in? Will I have to pay this bill?
photo credit: dreamstime What the hell is Chapter 11? Just the name gives most people a headache. OK, maybe not as much of a headache as if you work for a company that files Chapter 11 bankruptcy, or, if a company that owes you money files under Chapter 11. Most Chapter 11 bankruptcies are filed…
Creditors may not all look like this. OK, probably none of them do. But that is what some of them make us think they are, on their way to bashing our heads in if we don’t fork over the loot. Loot that we don’t have. The bankruptcy code defines creditor as: (A) entity that…
DISCLAIMER: NOTHING IN THIS POST IS MEANT AS TAX ADVICE, CONSULT A PROFESSIONAL Some of my clients were about to pay income tax because of 1099-C forms received on rental properties they had abandoned. I was stunned. These people were bankruptcy clients, who had already filed Chapter 7 and received discharges. So they no longer…
