Author Archives: doug

September — the best time for teachers to file for bankruptcy

By doug | Published: September 7, 2012

Teaching — a good paying government job with lots of benefits, time off, and job security, right? Why would a teacher need to file for bankruptcy? Sure, and there’s no stress, too! Right . . . The fact is teachers file bankruptcy cases at about the same rate as the general population, for myriad reasons […]

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Bankruptcy rules allow debtors to pay filing fees in installments

By doug | Published: September 6, 2012

People who need to file for bankruptcy often struggle to do it; not just with the emotional decision to file, but it sometimes takes a mighty effort to pay for both a lawyer and the court’s filing fee — the latter stands at $306 for a Chapter 7 case as of this writing. Massachusetts bankruptcy […]

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Battle over church’s bankruptcy underscores definition of payment on time

By doug | Published: September 5, 2012

Bankruptcy litigation between Boston’s Charles Street AME Church and its principal creditor, OneUnited Bank is simmering past the boiling point according to news reports in the Boston Globe. The church filed a bankruptcy case earlier this year to avoid foreclosure on its historic building in the heart of Boston’s black community. In August, a lawyer […]

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What’s up with Massachusetts’ HomeCorps program?

By doug | Published: September 4, 2012

The latest government program for easing out of the foreclosure mess — at least for Massachusetts residents — is called HomeCorps, and it is being run out of the Attorney General’s office, with the funds provided by the state’s share of settlement money from the big banks over their recent lending practices. HomeCorps got up […]

Posted in Bankruptcy News, Foreclosure | Comments closed

What’s missing from the new Massachusetts foreclosure law

By doug | Published: August 8, 2012

Massachusetts has another shiny new foreclosure prevention law on the books this month — the second new one in two years, but perhaps the biggest feature of this piece of legislation is what isn’t in it. Mandatory mediation for homeowners seeking mortgage modifications. Under the original proposal of the state Senate, before a residential foreclosure […]

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Yet another new Massachusetts foreclosure prevention law hits the books

By doug | Published: August 6, 2012

Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick signed into law new legislation on foreclosure rules on August 3, 2012. For those of you counting, this is the second major change in Massachusetts foreclosure law in the last two years. The ink isn’t really dry on the new law yet, so its hard to even find the exact wording […]

Posted in Bankruptcy News, Foreclosure | Comments closed

Bankruptcy court litigation favors contractors over homeowners

By doug | Published: July 23, 2012

If you hire a contractor to remodel your house, and the workers show up on expensive Harley-Davidson motorcycles, that’s a good sign that the company is solvent enough to finish the job, right? Wrong. And it led to a long bout of ultimately losing litigation when the contractors filed for personal bankruptcy. Massachusetts chief bankruptcy […]

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Stripping liens in bankruptcy court . . . or maybe avoiding them

By doug | Published: July 20, 2012

If you are a debtor in bankruptcy court, stripping could be a very profitable thing . . . stripping off liens from your property, that is. But it might not be the only bankruptcy strategy to get rid of pesky liens. Avoidance could work well, too. California bankruptcy law guru Cathy Moran has written a […]

Posted in Practical tips, Secured loans | Comments closed

Are you allowed to keep credit cards after filing bankruptcy?

By doug | Published: July 19, 2012

In the old days, some trustees asked bankruptcy debtors to cut up their credit cards right in front of them at the meeting of creditors in the bankruptcy case. You don’t see much of that anymore. As with so much of our lives, technology has changed the game. As Jacksonville attorney Chip Parker sets out […]

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Should your bankruptcy lawyer be working for a debt-relief group?

By doug | Published: July 18, 2012

Here’s a situation that I see coming up more and more in Massachusetts lately, sometimes with some ugly results: debtors who turn to “non-profit” debt-relief groups who “provide” them with a lawyer who prepares a bankruptcy case for them. So what’s wrong with that, you ask? First, the quality of the representation is usually extremely […]

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