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If you are engaged and looking to get married should your wait until before or after you get married to file bankruptcy? Like a lot of things in bankruptcy, it depends. Main thing to consider: What is your spouse-to-be’s financial situation like? If your future spouse has a lot of their own debts, you may [...]

The filing of a bankruptcy, in most cases, creates the automatic stay of 11 USC §362 (and sometimes §1301). The automatic stay bars a creditor (with a few exceptions) from taking any collection action against the Debtor or property of the Debtor without Bankruptcy Court permission. Many people underestimate the breadth and depth of the [...]

The best thing you can do if you have a tax issue, haven’t filed your taxes and are looking at filing bankruptcy, is to file those taxes. If you are going to get a refund, your bankruptcy attorney needs to know how much you’re going to get so that he/she can plan for it. If [...]

Feeling guilty about filing bankruptcy? Don’t be. Do you think any of the large companies who file bankruptcy feel guilty about filing bankruptcy? Bankruptcy is a financial decision and has no bearing on your morals or character. The large credit card issuers have profits in the billions of dollars. That’s right, billion with a B. [...]

If you have been following the Casey Anthony bankruptcy, the latest report is that her Chapter 7 trustee wants to sell her book rights. This brings up interesting questions: What is an asset, and is it worth anything? In a previous post, I discussed that an asset is just about anything that can be converted [...]

Fox News’s Three Tips to Preventing Personal Bankruptcy If it were this easy, I’d be unemployed

We often file bankruptcy for people wanting to surrender their real estate. Old advice was to move out right away. Now, our current advice is to stay in the property as long as possible or put in tenants and generate some income. Zombie deeds are properties that debtors have surrendered but the mortgage holder refuses [...]

Former Baseball Star Lenny Dykstra was sentenced to 6.5 months in Federal prison for bankruptcy fraud. What did he do to merit a prison sentence? He destroyed or sold off 400k worth of property without Court permission. Upon filing a bankruptcy petition, EVERYTHING you own or have an interest in becomes property of the bankruptcy [...]

Swore under penalty of perjury that your bankruptcy schedules are true and correct? What does your Facebook or other social media pages saying about you? Trustees are starting to look at your social media pages to identify assets or bad behavior. Massachusetts Bankruptcy Attorney Michael Goldstein writes about it in his blog entry Trustees watch [...]

If you are thinking about filing bankruptcy, these are some things NOT to do. It will make your life and your attorney’s life much easier if you follow these rules. 1. Don’t leave out any assets when preparing your petition. Our job is to make your bankruptcy as easy as possible for you and to [...]