Bankruptcy Mastery

Becoming a better bankruptcy lawyer

BankruptcyMastery Chosen One of Best Blogs of 2013

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Bankruptcy Mastery was selected one of the 100 top Blawgs of 2013 by the American Bar Association! I'm blown away. Mastery serves such a distinct segment of the law world that I never expected that anyone beyond bankruptcy lawyers, and new bankruptcy lawyers at that, would notice. But someone did notice (thank you whoever nominated this site). Now, the ABA has opened voting for the top … [Continue reading...]

Bankruptcy Rules And Forms Change

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

The only thing constant is change, we're told. So, here are the important changes to the rules of bankruptcy procedure and the official forms effective December 1. Bankruptcy rules Rule 1007  now permits the provider of the personal financial management course to notify the court of the debtor's completion thereof.  The debtor is relieved of filing the declaration if the provider files it. … [Continue reading...]

The 50 State Treasure Hunt

By Filed Under: Before filing

treasure map

Joint bank accounts present one of the most vexing problems for a bankruptcy lawyer. Too often, your client is a signatory on an account containing someone else's money. The parties think a joint account is a convenience; often it's a hedge so that the client can care for a parent or other dependent person should the other become incapacitated. It becomes a lot less convenient when your … [Continue reading...]

What You Need To Know About Conversion Of Bankruptcy Cases

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Sometimes, the most challenging questions for a bankruptcy lawyer come up well after  the case is filed. New assets are disclosed Values are greater than expected Income falls Illness intervenes Catastrophic debts arise For whatever reason, your initial choice of chapter is now problematic. That's when you have to understand which way to go, now.  You need to understand … [Continue reading...]

Do You Believe in Magic Exemptions?

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice, Exemptions

I commend to you 11 U.S.C. 522(c). For therein lies a magical tool even for the client who has non dischargeable debts. It boils down to this: exemptions, like diamonds, are forever. Once an exemption is allowed in a case that isn't dismissed, that property is forever beyond the reach of creditors whose claim arose before filing. The exceptions to the rule are narrow:  non … [Continue reading...]

What No One Told Me About Adversary Pleading

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

When I learn something new about bankruptcy after 30 years of practice, I don't know whether to be ecstatic or scared witless. But learn something I did when I read the ABI Journal's article on FRBP 7008(b). In short, FRBP 7008(b) requires that claims for an award of attorneys fees in an adversary complaint must include a separate cause of action for the fees. Rule 7008. General … [Continue reading...]

Keeping Watch Over Chapter 13 Claims

By Filed Under: Chapter 13

Do you remain on watch in your client's Chapter 13 after confirmation? The attorney for the couple in my office yesterday apparently thought she was off duty after confirmation. As a result, the debtors paid more than $30,000 to the wrong creditor, the mortgage arrears weren't paid, and their case is on the verge of dismissal four years into the case. What went wrong What counsel … [Continue reading...]

Time Can Be On Your Side

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Lucky us. Not. We have a  new, multipage model Chapter 13 plan in several Bay Area divisions.  It exalts mathematic precision over the intentions of the plan. Have the wrong number for the fixed monthly payments to particular creditors, and the money is distributed, willy-nilly, to unsecured creditors.  (There are other idiocies that I will surely complain to you about later.  This one … [Continue reading...]

Fleshing Out Incorporation Before Bankruptcy

By Filed Under: Business bankruptcy

Miss Manners

As Miss Manners might say, you, Gentle Reader, have a secret fan. A fairy god-lawyer, so to speak. She's my law partner who watches the new bankruptcy lawyers around us, and pokes me:  "You've got to tell them ...." Fill in the blank for the topic du jour.  Renee thinks there's more you should know than I've deigned to write. Well, this week she said, "You've got to tell them … [Continue reading...]

I Assume, Redux

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

If there are 50 ways to leave your lover, there must be 150 ways that your bankruptcy client can get it wrong. And at the end of the day, you risk taking flak for the screw up. Fair or not. So I'll share this week's dust up in my office and maybe we all can refine our approach to clients. In the beginning Clients operated a small corporation that wholesaled a product they had custom … [Continue reading...]

Chapter 7 Risks Everything For Operating Business

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

padlock

Shut the business down, the Chapter 7 trustee told debtor's counsel. Or get an order allowing continuing operation. My addition to the litany: bring a motion to abandon. Why order shutdown? The debtor was a partner with his parents in a restaurant that they wanted to continue to run. Yet somehow, no one had considered the position of the bankruptcy trustee who is charged with managing the … [Continue reading...]

Neat Bankruptcy Skill: Severing Spouses

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Every time I contemplate severing a joint bankruptcy case, the traditional Anglican wedding service echoes: Those whom God has joined together, let no one put asunder. Then I excuse myself, since it was either the attorney or the debtors that elected a joint case, not the Almighty. And I proceed to make two bankruptcy cases where there appeared before to be only one. Why divide … [Continue reading...]

Jazz Up Your Bankruptcy Practice

By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice

Meet me in New Orleans. That's where the bankruptcy action will be at the end of October. It's NACBA's 2013 Fall Workshop But early-bird sign up is over at the end of this week, September 6th. Three tracks With longer sessions for more in-depth treatment, the workshop is organized into three tracks Fundamentals Evidence, Mortgages, and Secured Claims Office Management You can bounce … [Continue reading...]