S is for Strip in my Bankruptcy Alphabet.? Bankruptcy lawyers delight in stripping liens from people’s homes. In any chapter of bankruptcy, a debtor can void judgment liens that have attached to assets that would otherwise be exempt. In Chapter 13, tax liens and other statutory liens can be stripped off the asset if there…
Car lenders who finance car loans including the excess debt on a trade in lost some of their protected status in bankruptcy when the Supreme Court declined to review a? 9th Circuit decision;? Californians? will continue to benefit from the debtor friendly decision in Penrod, arising out of a San Francisco bankruptcy case. At issue…
When a Chapter 13 trustee complains that the means test is not easy to administer when only one spouse files, should I be sympathetic?? Here’s what I said recently at ConsiderChapter13.org on that issue. Come on, Madame Trustee, get over it. What is there about BAPCPA that leads you to expect that it or its…
Can you afford to cram down a mortgage when cram down is permitted? Mortgages on a debtor’s home are protected from cram down in Chapter 13 by 1322(b)(2).? Mortgages on any other kind of real estate can be reduced to the value at filing of the collateral securing the debt as of the date of…
Spending every dollar they make, and then some, is often how our Chapter 13 clients got into financial trouble. Yet Chapter 13, as practiced, validates the practice of continuing to spend 100% of each month’s income during the life of the plan. In doing so, we squander the chance to use Chapter 13 to teach…
I sat in a courtroom last week and watched dozens of? Chapter 13 cases get dismissed, often because the debtor had not taken seriously the requirement that all their tax returns be filed within 45 days of the commencement of the case. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that? folks who didn’t take filing tax returns…
