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Under bankruptcy law, debtors are permitted to claim exemptions.  Exemptions allow a debtor to exempt or remove property from the bankruptcy estate to protect it making it unavailable to the trustee or creditors for liquidation.  Each state has its own exemption laws;  however, there are times when it is appropriate to use federal exemptions.  An attorney would need to determine what set of exemptions a debtor should claim.

Numbers have certainly increased during the last five years when it comes to identity theft. With the recent Equifax breach and the fallout therefrom, it is more important now than ever to be vigilant about protecting your identity and minimize the risks that you will be one of the ones injured by security breaches and the like. Below are a few tips to keep in mind:

When someone files chapter 7 bankruptcy and owes money on a secured debt (i.e., car note, furniture loan), they must make a decision by stating their intentions on what they want to do with the collateral securing those type loans.  The options to choose from are:

Have you been struggling with debt but are afraid to seek bankruptcy counsel? So many times people who are struggling financially only turn to Bankruptcy as a last resort, as should be the case.

Many people worry about how filing a bankruptcy case will affect their home.  As long as your case is carefully planned out ahead of time, you can typically file for bankruptcy relief without affecting your mortgage or your home.

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that in January to June of 2017, supervisory actions resulted in $14 million for over 104,000 consumers.  "The Bureau’s recent supervision work has returned $14 million to more than 100,000 consumers, and found companies deceiving consumers and violating the law," CFPB Director Richard Cordray stated.

Security clearance issues are common place in the news these days.  The news covers a lot of areas.

Mandatory arbitration provisions are once again at the forefront of policy discourse on Capitol Hill as government agency heads and members of Congress grapple with how to best balance the interests of both companies and consumers. But there doesn’t seem to be much hope for one side of the debate, as Congress is set to overturn a rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in July of this year.

Americans are drowning in student loan debt.  More than 3,000 people default on their federal student loans every day.  It takes around 20 years for the average student loan borrower to pay off their loans.  Today, there are over 44 million Americans with a total student loan debt of $1.4 trillion.  But what happens if you can’t make the necessary payments?