Blogs

Many people that come to see us about bankruptcy are concerned about losing their property.  There is a misconception that, upon filing for bankruptcy protection from one's creditors,  the court will take your home, car, and furniture.  The truth is that, in the vast majority of bankruptcy cases filed by individuals, absolutely no property is taken or sold by the court.

There are certain time limitations on filing repeated bankruptcies. However, there is almost never a time that you cannot file a chapter 13 bankruptcy if you are facing a financial hardship and need the benefit of the automatic stay in order to stop your creditors from pursuing you with garnishments, foreclosure, repossession or other harassing collection efforts. (See my blog post of 9/24/2012 for further explanation of the automatic stay).

If a veteran receives an adverse Regional Office (RO) decision from the VA Regional Office denying his or her VA claim in whole or in part, the first initial step in the appeal process is to file a Notice of Disagreement (NOD). For any appeal, the filing of a Notice of Disagreement (NOD) is mandatory and cannot be avoided if the Veteran wants to proceed with appellate review of his claim.

When going through any sort of financially trying times, it is perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed. From large amounts of credit card debt, impending foreclosure, or expendable income slowly being eaten away, money-related stress is seemingly everywhere these days.

Even when the decision to file for bankruptcy has been made, money-related stress doesn’t completely disappear. It is important to keep everything in perspective, though.

After the emotional and financial turmoil of going through a divorce, there is nothing more frightening than being faced with the possibility that your ex-spouse may be able to avoid his or her financial responsibilities to you by seeking bankruptcy relief. The good news is that, for the most part, this will not be true. However, there are some exceptions to this general rule.

In this blog, we have covered a few tips to help individuals reduce their debt burdens and the stress that inevitably comes along with it.

It is no mystery to anyone reading this that debt is undesirable. While it is sometimes necessary, the truth is that paying interest to an individual or bank that lent you money is essentially throwing money down the drain.

A common bankruptcy myth is that it takes seven (7) years after filing bankruptcy before you can get new credit. This is simply untrue. Any kind of bankruptcy can be reported on your credit for up to ten (10) years but this does not mean that you can’t obtain new credit during the ten (10) year period. In fact, most of our clients receive letters shortly after they receive their bankruptcy discharge with offers of new credit. Many automobile dealerships advertise that they will finance a car purchase following a bankruptcy discharge.

In today’s world, ‘debt’ is a 4-letter-word. For the vast majority of the people who hear the word, it brings to mind stressful feelings, and possibly painful memories.

It would be fantastic if we were all able to live a life completely free of debt, but it is often a necessary evil. Buying a house almost always requires being approved for a loan from the bank, and the same usually goes for buying a new car.

Technically, the provision for the automatic stay that applies to every bankruptcy case that is filed is found in 11 USC §362. This is the Unites States Bankruptcy code. The practical effect, however, of the automatic stay is of utmost importance to anyone seeking relief from creditor harassment, repossession of personal property or foreclosure of real property. This provides a huge relief to people who file for any chapter of relief under the bankruptcy code.

A largely unknown problem with applying for Social Security Administration (SSA) disability benefits while drawing unemployment benefits is the competing oaths claimants swear: for disability it is that they can’t work at all; for unemployment it is that they can work but can’t find a job.