Start the new year with a new skill set: Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. I’m doing a four hour class on Saturday, January 9th in Mountain View looking at the basics of Chapter 13 bankruptcy, with an emphasis on how to craft a plan that’s confirmable. We’ll talk about the best interests of creditors test, how to…
One of the mysteries of the universe (well, sorta) was answered for me this month when the UST’s office wanted to adjust the taxes incurred on the B-22 for taxes as they were projected to be in the future. My position has been that current income is the only part of the means test calculation…
Remember the maxim that all politics are local? All of bankruptcy law is local, too, despite the fact that it’s federal law, since bankruptcy looks to state law to determine property rights. What happens to those property rights in bankruptcy is a matter of federal law. My friend David Leibowitz’s statement that in a community…
A family of three in San Mateo County needs $63,871 a year to meet its basic living needs at a minimal level, according to research by the Center for Women’s Welfare. CWW developed the Self Sufficiency Standard to measure the income necessary to meet minimal living standards more precisely that the federal poverty standard whose…
Save January 9, 2010 (can you believe that date?) for a workshop on Chapter 13 basics, with an emphasis on drafting Chapter 13 plans. We’ll gather at the Computer History Museum (101 and Shoreline) in Mountain View at 9:30 for a four hour exploration of Chapter 13. The room will be set up to allow…
A bipartisan group of Representatives is planning to offer an amendment to the Wall Street reform bill being debated on December 9th that would allow bankruptcy judges to approve changes to mortgages on the family home. Currently, lenders are protected from plan terms that change the terms of loans secured by personal residences. Judges can…
Homeowners should be walking away from underwater houses in droves, according to the analysis of University of Arizona law professor Brent White. And they shouldn’t feel guilty about it either. White’s argument is that until borrowers make clear headed economic, rather than emotional, decisions about paying for underwater houses, the banks will not be moved…
