Bankruptcy Mastery

If you're interested in improving your practice and profitability then you'll likely be interested in this. Jay Fleischman and I are presenting a live, intensive one-day workshop November 11,2011 in Phoenix. There are only 50 seats in our room and a number are gone already. Details are here, but the executive summary is that the program will cover getting clients, getting the clients to give … [Continue reading...]

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 relative to the benefit to be received.  You must … [Continue reading...]

  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 + 13 approach was nicknamed Chapter 20. With BAPCPA came the … [Continue reading...]

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 "including" the car in the bankruptcy.  The client didn't want to entangle the … [Continue reading...]

  When credit is a commodity, family are friends, and creditors are not, strange things happen. Trouble is, our clients don't think the happenings are strange.  Bankruptcy lawyers end up moving lots of "stuff" to get to the real story. Street law Arkansas bankruptcy lawyer Kathy Cruz uses the marvelous phrase "generally accepted people practices" to describe the kinds of transactions … [Continue reading...]

This rant is for clients, and for bankruptcy lawyers who have to "adjust" the expectations of clients. The trigger was an attorney who asked if he could file a Chapter 13, strip a lien, and then convert the case to Chapter 7, preserving the lien strip.  No, I said, why do you ask?  The client was  resistant to committing to a multi-year plan that might require increased payments if his income … [Continue reading...]

Which bankruptcy schedule does this go on?  Can't tell you how many questions I field about where on the official bankruptcy forms to schedule some asset. Is the timeshare real property or personal property?  What do you do with the claim, the chose in action, the car titled to debtor but paid for by someone else. I have a secret to share.  It doesn't matter. That is, it  matters naught  … [Continue reading...]