Background The bankruptcy process can provide a fresh financial start for consumers who cannot pay their debts, either because of insolvency or insufficient income to meet creditor demands. Personal bankruptcy generally works in one of two ways: liquidating assets to pay one’s debts under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code or establishing a repayment plan under Chapter 13 …
President Biden signed the Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment and Technical Corrections Act yesterday, and congressional leaders pat themselves on the back. According to Senator Chuck Grassley, one of the Senate bill’s sponsors, the new law will remove some hurdles to the bankruptcy process and “assist small businesses and working families to weather financial hardship and emerge …
Bankruptcy filings continued a steep two-year-long fall that coincided with the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Filings fell 16.5 percent for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2022. According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the March 2022 annual bankruptcy filings totaled 395,373, compared with 473,349 cases in the previous …
A pet peeve of mine is people who try to make the claim bankruptcy is a moral failure. Now, I get it, if someone takes out credit with the intention of defaulting, that’s one thing. But a recent story about Amazon Delivery Companies by Vice serves as a great example of why bankruptcy can be …
Q: What happens if you don’t file bankruptcy but still have credit card debt or loans at the bank? A: You owe them. Q: A collection agency sent my debt to a lawyer with a court date do I have to acknowledge it? A: No, but you will then lose by default. Q: Do I …
Martha Standish took out student loans when she was in her late 40s to get an undergraduate degree in accounting. Later she took out a Parent Plus Loan to help her daughter with college expenses. Eleven years after graduating, Standish filed an adversary proceeding in a Kansas bankruptcy court seeking to discharge about $30,000 in …
Bankruptcy filings fell sharply for the 12-month period ending Dec. 31, 2020, despite a significant surge in unemployment-related to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Annual bankruptcy filings in the calendar year 2020 totaled 544,463, compared with 774,940 cases in 2019, according to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That is a decrease of …
I am still amazed when I read uninformed posts about why people are going bankrupt claiming there is no more stigma about bankruptcy. That is not true. People are going bankrupt because creditors are not allowing people to repay their debts with as much enthusiasm as the banks had when the person was borrowing the …
I was reading Adam Levitin’s piece on CNBC on the forces at play that is hanging a giant financial anvil over consumers. The Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act (CBRA) probably has a good chance of being considered because the wave of people about to hit a financial wall is enormous following the pandemic. Think about this …
A logical and commonsense reform bill for bankruptcy was proposed by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and David Cicilline (D-RI). If it should be considered and become law but I would be surprised since strong forces will be at play to gut it. And …