We recently wrote a post describing a MERS defeat in Oregon Bankruptcy Court, and MERS (an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Services, Inc., an electronic registry) is in the news once again. This has not only been a hot topic in Oregon, but people around the nation have been attacking MERS as
Many states have their own personal income tax. Generally these states also have laws that require a taxpayer to submit a copy of the IRS audit report if the federal liability is adjusted due to a reallocation of income or deductions on a previously filed return. The failure to do so may cause bankruptcy discharge problems
Debtors often ask us what will happen to their home if they file for bankruptcy protection. Fortunately, federal bankruptcy law and most states provide for what is often called a “homestead exemption”. A homestead exemption acts as a shield against the claims of certain creditors. It does this by protecting up to a specific dollar amount in real property.
Debtors often have property subject to a lien when they file for bankruptcy. In order to keep the property debtors can often sign a reaffirmation agreement. A reaffirmation agreement is a new contract between the debtor and secured lender. The contract is the debtor’s promise to continue making future payments in exchange for the lender’s promise to
A debt discharge is the goal of consumer debtors when they file bankruptcy. In Chapter 7, a discharge may not be available to everyone. To ensure that potential filers were not abusing the system, Congress created a Mean’s Test that debtors must “pass” in order to invoke Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief. When computing the Mean’s Test formula, there are several steps to
In my view, there is no question that they are – and that lay counselors in these programs who advise otherwise do not understand the bankruptcy process. Steps 8 and 9 of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous (copied verbatim by most other 12-step programs) are, respectively (8) Made a list of all persons we had harmed,