Bankruptcy Mastery

The finality of plan confirmation was a two edged sword for the debtor's lawyer defending a relief from stay motion. You win, for now, the judge told him.  But the train wreck is coming. The lender's lawyer complained, unsuccessfully it turned out, that the mortgage payment had increased from the payment at confirmation.   The plan simply provided a number that reflected the mortgage payment … [Continue reading...]

It was community property that garnered me my first hug from Doug Jacobs. Or rather, it was the absence of community property that did it. Confusion in custody determination and acquisitions is a common scene here. You see, Doug had described his dilemma with his case involving an elderly couple who had a home with lots of equity (that's what tips you off to the age of this story) on a list … [Continue reading...]

Usually my posts here have a message or a lesson imbedded. This one doesn't, unless readers can help me find it. But it was a prickly case that resolved well, for unanticipated reasons.  Perhaps, there's a lesson lurking somewhere here. The clients were well above median income:  a high tech engineer and a stay at home mom with two children under 9. The major creditor was the … [Continue reading...]

When an inexperienced Chapter 13 practitioner asks how much a plan has to propose to pay, I envision the Carnac the Magnificent routine from the Johnny Carson show. Carnak, in turban and robes, puts the sealed envelope with the question to his forehead, provides an answer, then opens the envelope to read the question.  The results were uniformly hilarious. Not so when a bankruptcy lawyer … [Continue reading...]

Loan modifications and the relative casualness with which they are documented scare me. Given the glaring problems that loan servicers have in accounting for payments made by borrowers and expenses charged to loans,  the idea that those same people at the servicer  are making good records about modifications seems naive. Consider that the same people who lose your loan modification … [Continue reading...]

Bankruptcy lawyers find themselves thrown under the proverbial bus time and again. Clients contradict themselves, trustees speak poorly of us during hearings, and even judges from time to time have been known to call us on the carpet for perceived shortcomings. Sometimes we're caught in a position due to an unforeseen turn of events. Other times, we end up stepping under the bus because we … [Continue reading...]