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§362 of the Bankruptcy Code is simple.  Sort of.  To seek relief from stay, one must be a party in interest. However, determining who qualifies as a party in interest is bewildering the Bar and leading to accusations of perceived dealing from the bottom of the deck.

Throughout the United States, sloppy recordkeeping is causing confusion amongst ...

Without getting into politics, here is a link to President Obama’s 2009 federal tax return.

Taxes are increasing, but it looks as though the Obama’s are walking the walk. They paid $1.8 million in federal taxes last year along with $163,000 in Illinois state taxes.

Here is an interesting news story out of Tennessee.

Landlords are using an obscure law to evict people “suspected” of selling drugs. Once the police department notifies the landlord that the tenant is a suspect, the tenant can be evicted after three days. A normal eviction process takes about 30 days.

So this morning my partner is on the phone with Chase Bank, attempting to negotiate the terms of a loan modification. Our client has a high enough income to qualify for a loan modification, but Chase was acting horribly evasive.

The initial phone call to Chase went nowhere. Finally, we ask to speak to a supervisor or manager. The response is something I expect from JiffyLube, not from a major financial institution – “uhhh, there are no managers in the office right ...

Whether or not bankruptcy filers can keep any individual piece of property depends on many factors, including how much property is owned and what exemptions are available to cover the property.

Volumes are available on the subject, so here’s a summary in response to your general question. In 2005 Congress amended the bankruptcy laws, imposing a “means test”. If your household’s average monthly income over the last 6 calendar months is less than the census bureau’s statistics for current monthly income ...

A bar (or any business) can’t have a minimum charge for credit/debit cards. Here’s the story.

Filing bankruptcy creates the bankruptcy estate, which is where creditors go to recoup money owed. The bankruptcy laws in this country allow for people to have certain property “exempt” from the bankruptcy estate; these are things that will not be used to pay off creditors. Each person filing bankruptcy has to make a very important choice: Do I choose the federal exemptions or the state exemptions?

As you might expect, state exemptions differ from state to state (for example ...

Our friends over at Mcleod Law Offices have this interesting read from a former client who “shares her perspectives on her journey into, through and out of bankruptcy.”

An Ohio man says he bulldozed his $350,000 home to keep a bank from foreclosing on it.

This story is a sad testament to how desperate many Americans find themselves.

Commencement of a bankruptcy case creates an “estate.” It is against this estate to which the debtor’s creditors must look. The estate consists of all property interests of the debtor at the time of case commencement, subject to certain exclusions and exemptions. In the case of a married person in a community property state, the estate may include certain community property interests of the debtor’s spouse even if the spouse has not filed bankruptcy. The estate may also include other ...