Author Archives: doug

Longtime Massachusetts bankruptcy lawyer Joseph Braunstein has died

By doug | Published: November 6, 2013

According to an article by Michele Richinick in the Boston Globe, Joseph Braunstein, who was a bankruptcy attorney in Massachusetts for 55 years has died. Attorney Braunstein died in Florida in September, 2013 of a heart attack. He was 84 years old. In recent years, he was best known as a bankruptcy trustee handling cases […]

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Will Obama care affect bankruptcy filings?

By doug | Published: October 9, 2013

Now that October 2013 has rolled around, the start-up of Obamacare, or more formally the ACA, is imminent. Or is it? As of this writing, the federal government is in shut-down mode, as budgets have not been passed, and threats to stalemate the health care changes are thick as thieves. New Orleans bankruptcy attorney Kevin […]

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Mass. debtors may be able to keep more after bankruptcy

By doug | Published: October 3, 2013

Massachusetts bankruptcy debtors who need to use the state-specific Massachusetts list of exempt property got some good news recently from Judge Hoffman, whose ruling in the Sutherland case may have effectively doubled the wild card exemption under state law. The Sutherland case was reviewed here previously, where another aspect of the case looked at the […]

Posted in Bankruptcy News, Exemptions | Comments closed

Is a motorcycle an automobile in Massachusetts?

By doug | Published: September 24, 2013

Practicing bankruptcy law in Massachusetts means you are always learning new things. A question that cropped up recently: Does a Harley – Davidson motorcycle count as a debtor’s automobile? And a little more broadly — is a motorcycle a vehicle? These questions were one of the subjects in the Sutherland case, decided on July 16, […]

Posted in Bankruptcy News, Exemptions | Comments closed

Debtors with primarily business debts may still need to provide evidence of income to bankruptcy trustees

By doug | Published: September 19, 2013

Bankruptcy cases often resemble ticker tape parades: lots of paper flying in all directions. Debtors with primarily business debts — that is, more than 50% of their debt total is from a failed or failing business — get a break when they file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy: they can skip the means test, meaning they […]

Posted in Means Test, Practical tips | Comments closed

Whoops! “I filed bankruptcy, but forgot there was a lien on my house!”

By doug | Published: August 26, 2013

What happens if you file a bankruptcy case, then years later you go to sell or refinance your house and discover there is a lien from one of the creditors still on it? Well, it may be possible to reopen the case and file a motion to have the lien removed. This motion would be […]

Posted in Practical tips, Real estate | Comments closed

Converting a bankruptcy to Chapter 7 offers chance to eliminate more debt

By doug | Published: August 8, 2013

Bankruptcy debtors involved in a Chapter 13 case often find the payments too much, or life throws them a curve, and they are forced to abandon their payment plans. The usual strategy in this situation is to convert the case to Chapter 7 (a few cases are even converted back and forth several times). Once […]

Posted in Chapter 13, Chapter 7, Practical tips | Comments closed

Would a bankruptcy trustee take your Beanie Babies?

By doug | Published: August 6, 2013

Would a trustee be interested in seizing your Beanie Baby collection if you went ahead and filed a bankruptcy case? While the answer is almost certainly “no,” one of the Massachusetts trustees asks every debtor who comes before him if they own Beanie Babies or similar collectibles. The point is not that there is a […]

Posted in Just for fun | Comments closed

Zillow printouts start to gain acceptance in bankruptcy courts

By doug | Published: August 1, 2013

Back in 2010, Massachusetts bankruptcy court judge Melvin Hoffman went out on a limb and trashed the use of Zillow.com printouts as an improper way to value real estate in a bankruptcy case. At the time, Hoffman’s opinion in the Darosa case was the only published comment from a bankruptcy judge in the United States […]

Posted in Practical tips, Real estate | Comments closed

Bankruptcy laws can stop debt collectors cold

By doug | Published: July 11, 2013

National financial columnist Michelle Singletary today reported on a slew of alleged abuses by a debt collection firm that has led to one of the biggest fines ever levied by the Federal Trade Commission — $3.2M against the collection firm Expert Global Solutions. Singeltary’s article contains a litany of the most maddening debt collection abuses […]

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