Doesn’t every elder’s story about the past begin, “When I was your age…”? It’s not the age of your body but the age of your bankruptcy practice and the state of the practice in general that interests me today.  I literally fell into bankruptcy law;  the lawyer in the office next to mine not only […]

I get a surprising number of questions about objecting to  claims in a bankruptcy case:  how? when? Too few bankruptcy attorneys are asking “why?“ The answer to the “why” question must be that objecting to the claim furthers the client’s objectives or prevents a negative outcome.  Put another way, the cost of objecting must be […]

Over at MoneyHealthCentral, where Jay and I write for consumers about money , I did a piece this morning on how Labor Day marks a transition in my mind about the year.  It provokes resolutions about how life shall be going forward. The transition is largely in my head these days.  My boys no longer […]

  A debtor’s right to strip off a wholly unsecured lien is not dependent on the debtor’s eligibility for a discharge, says the 8th Circuit BAP.  Hurray for Chapter 20. Before 2005,  a debtor was entitled to file Chapter 13 immediately following a Chapter 7 and address whatever debts had survived the 7.  The 7 […]

The drafters of the 1978 Bankruptcy Code knew something about the lives of real people and some of the generally accepted people practices.  They included two priceless provisions that allow debtors to protect co obligors with the debtor through the Chapter 13  plan. Co debtor Stay How often have our clients drawn on family or […]

Proposed: the word “included” shall be stricken from the vocabulary of any bankruptcy lawyer. A relatively innocent question from a young lawyer set me off (again).  The car, driven and paid for by an offspring, was titled to the prospective debtor who was the only borrower on the loan.  The lawyer asked how to avoid […]