Bill's Blog

Notices from the IRS

Bankruptcy effect on mortgages

Judgments in bankruptcy

Discharging a second mortgage or home equity line of credit in bankruptcy

Discharging student loans in bankruptcy

THE AUTOMATIC STAY When a bankruptcy is filed, all debt collection efforts must stop. The Bankruptcy Court Clerk issues a court order called the automatic stay. It is an injunction or a restraining order. This order is issues as soon as your case is filed. It stops a foreclosure on your home, ...

You get a letter handed or mailed to you by the County Sheriff's Officer. The letter contains a writ of execution and a Notice of Foreclosure sale for your home or condo. The sheriff's notice of Sheriff's Sale sets a date, time and place for the sheriff to auction off your home. Depending on the ...

Bankruptcy can stop foreclosure at least temporarily and, perhaps permanently, if you can successfully complete a Chapter 13 repayment plan while making regular mortgage payments. The Chapter 13 sections of the Bankruptcy Code say that you can try to save your home by filing a Chapter 13 case BE...

How experienced bankruptcy lawyers can help businesses, individuals and families get through financial storms

          If a person filed a Bankruptcy case and is entitled to inherit money or other property, they may lose the money or property to a bankruptcy trustee to be used to pay the trustee's fees and their creditors. This risk of loss continues for any money or other property the bankruptcy filer ...

Mistakes to Avoid Before You File Bankruptcy

Divorce, debts and bankruptcy discharges. When can you get relief from the debts coming out of your divorce?

A mortgage foreclosure is a law suit filed in the New Jersey Superior Court asking the Court for the legal right to have real property (whether a home, commercial property or vacant land) auctioned off to the highest bidder by the county sheriff. Borrowers/home owners who face a mortgage foreclos...

If you have received a foreclosure notice such as a letter from your mortgage lender or court papers such as a Summons and Complaint in Foreclosure you should not ignore these important documents even though you might not be able to resume making your mortgage payments or catch up on missed payme...

My clients are often surprised to learn that the Chapter 13 bankruptcy laws may be used to remove a second or third mortgage from their homes. The process is called “lien stripping,” “cramming down,” or “lien avoidance.” Many homes are worth less money than is owed on first or second mortgages. ...

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was passed by Congress in part “to eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors…and to promote consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses.” (§ 802. Congressional findings and declarations of purpose ...

My last post described your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The general types of debt collection practices that are prohibited by this law include harassment, abuse, misrepresentation and deception. Did you know that a debt collector must send you a written notice st...

Desperate for small amounts of quick cash, many people take out pay day loans. These are relatively small cash advances of $500 to $2,000 borrowed over the internet or by telephone from lenders who are usually outside of New Jersey, and sometimes even outside the United States, and come due on th...

If a court officer or a creditor has seized money in your bank account AND you can prove those funds came from social security payments or other protected payments, a state court judge may well order the funds given back to you. Even after it has been paid to a debtor, money obtained from social...

Tax season will soon be upon us. The April 15, 2016 deadline falls on a Friday. I am not a tax lawyer or an accountant. Often, when I meet with someone they are surprised when I tell them that their income tax debt may be discharged in a bankruptcy case. Accountants are also surprised to learn ho...

Chapter 13 debt limits are set by the federal Bankruptcy Code. Congress requires these limits for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy cases to be adjusted (usually upward) every three years based on the Consumer Price Index. The current figures were established in 2013, and the next Chapter 13 debt limit adjus...

There are times in life where nothing seems to go right. One problem after another lurks in the near future. Each one has something to do with just not having enough money to handle everything you need to cope with. You feel like “the goalie on the dart team.” Then you get pulled over by the pol...

I am a believer in “self-help” and telling my clients in business or thinking of starting a business where the potential risks are. Part of being successful in any business is not stepping on what I call the “land mines” in the path of having a profitable business or at least one that does not cr...

In my last post I described the first three things that lawyers want you to know about starting a new business: 1) Keep your business finances separate from your personal finances; 2) Be wary of giving personal guarantees; and 3) Talk to your accountant and insurance advisor. Now we turn our focu...