The Chattanooga Free Press reports that Chapter 13 debtors in Tennessee pay more back to creditors than much larger states like Texas, California or New York. As of September 30, 2008, Tennesseans had paid back over $558 million in active Chapter 13 cases. Texas Chapter 13 filers were second on the list, paying back $528 million, with Georgia third at $412 million.
Unlike most states, Tennessee debtors file a higher percentage of Chapter 13 cases. Here, 56% of debtors in 2008 filed Chapte... Read Full Story
*Note: For those unfamiliar with the bagel reference, you can find the explanation in this NY Post article along with some additional modern bankruptcy cultural history in this NY Observer article.
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The U.S Federal Reserve anticipates that in FY2009, the economy may shrink by a figure anywhere between 0.5% and 1.3%. It may be attributed to increase in unemployment, crisis in the housing market and credit crunch. Owing to the subprime mortgage crisis, incidence of foreclosure and bankruptcy have increased manifold. In fact, one of the reputed subprime lenders BNC Mortgage LLC, a subprime lending unit of Lehman Brothers had to close down.
The economic slowdown in United States and in the h... Read Full Story
The Associated Press reports that the Federal Reserve Bank will be offering a "relief plan" to qualified homeowners whose loans were guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Under the Fed's new foreclosure prevention effort, homeowners may get a reduced interest rate, longer loan term or a lower total mortgage amount. The Federal Reserve policy statement is set out in general terms at the Federal Reserve web site.
It is unclear exactly how the Fed's policy will be imple... Read Full Story
One of the more interesting features of Chapter 13 law is something called the "co-debtor stay." Set out at Section 1301(a) of the Bankruptcy Code, the co-debtor stay disallows collection action on consumer debt against co-debtors of the person filing for bankruptcy. A typical scenario - you file Chapter 13 and include a debt to Best Buy for a new television. Your mother co-signed the loan with you. Your Chapter 13 protects your mother from collection efforts for as long as you ... Read Full Story
The Los Angles Times recently ran a feature story about payday loans - those short term, high interest loans that service customers who need a cash advance in advance of their regular paychecks to cover emergency expenses. According to the story, Cleveland is where W. Allan Jones founded Check Into Cash, the granddaddy of modern payday lenders, which cater to millions of financially strapped working people with short-term loans — at annualized interest rates of 459%.
As attorneys and ... Read Full Story
Not surprisingly, the financial strains that drive clients to our office also create problems in marriages. Clark and Washington regularly meets with clients who are separated from their spouses or who are actually going through a divorce.
Recently we met with a client who wanted and needed to file for bankruptcy, but who had just paid his divorce lawyer a $7,500 retainer. Despite the pressing need to file bankruptcy, we advised our client to wait until 90 days had passed from the date th... Read Full Story
As much as it would be nice to believe that everything about bankruptcy is predictable, in fact, there are many gray areas where your treatment depends as much on the parties involved as the situation itself.
One such situation arises if you file Chapter 7 but do not enter into a formal written reaffirmation with your mortgage company. Reaffirmation, as you may know, is the process by which you renew your contractual obligations with your lender. In the case of mortgage debt, if you do not ... Read Full Story
Much has been written about the 2005 changes to the United States bankruptcy laws, very little of it being positive - at least from the perspective of the struggling families who find themselves seeking counsel with a Clark and Washington attorney discussing bankruptcy options.
One trend we have noted has to do with the unforgiving nature of many of the requirements now set forth in the law. For example, the credit counseling and financial management education requirements of the law are gen... Read Full Story
Although most people who end up filing for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 need to do so because of an immediate crisis like a foreclosure, wage garnishment or even harassing phone calls, our attorneys and paralegals usually do get questions about how long a bankruptcy will remain on the debtor's credit reports.
Credit reporting agencies are private companies and each of the three major agencies has its own policies. The Fair Credit Reporting Act provides that a bankruptcy can remain on your cr... Read Full Story
