Consumer Groups Advocate for Bankruptcy Change

In light of the growing subprime mortgage debacle, three consumer groups have joined forces to push publicly for changes to the bankruptcy laws designed to help homeowners escape the foreclosure that’s becoming a crisis in this country. The groups - the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, the Center for Responsible Lending, and the Consumer [...]

Debt Traps Reach Our Troops

It might surprise you to know that personal debt has a potentially devastating impact on national security. How is that so? Well, according to Military Money, it arises in the context of men and women in the Armed Forces whose debt levels are deemed too high to risk sending them overseas! See this article by [...]

Even Creditors Don’t Like the New Bankruptcy Law

Credit Suisse just issued a 60+-page report on the impact of BARF (aka BAPCPA) on various home equity lending products. Their conclusions: BARF is bad for business.
From the summary:
We believe that the new bankruptcy law introduced on October 17, 2005 has had a profound impact on subprime borrowers. Under the new law, we find that [...]

Why You Won’t Lose All Your Property If You File For Bankruptcy Protection in SC

If I had to pick the top fear - the biggest concern that keeps people who need to file for bankruptcy protection from doing so - I’d have to say it’s this: the fear of losing property. And that’s a sad fact, since the vast majority of bankruptcy debtors in Chapter 7 won’t lose a [...]

Are Lenders Lying to Home Owners Seeking to Renegotiate?

I can’t answer the question above, obviously, but it’s the only question that comes to mind after hearing from not one, but eight different colleagues across the country reporting the same sad story:

Client faces foreclosure
Client wisely begins investigating Chapter 13 as a solution
Client gets phone call from lender - “Don’t fret, we’ve got it under [...]

Don’t Shop for A Bankruptcy Attorney on Price Alone

Most bankruptcy attorneys, except for the high-volume shops, will notcompete on price. I do not, for example. I welcome inquiries into cost,and even publicly state my starting fees ($1500 for Chapter 7, $2500for Chapter 13). But I won’t bargain or try to beat another attorney’sprice. The reason is simple: my services are valuable to the [...]