Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Las Vegas | Black & LoBello Bankruptcy

Can I Have Money in a Bank Account When I File Bankruptcy?

On April 8, 2010, in Bankruptcy Attorney in Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 7 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Services Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Individual Bankruptcy Las Vegas, Personal Bankruptcy Las Vegas, Uncategorized, chapter 13, by Randy Creighton

To begin, we must first recognize that there are two common types of consumer bankruptcy cases, Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, because each chapter deals with this issue differently. In a Chapter 7 all of the debtor’s property is placed into an estate which is controlled by the bankruptcy trustee. While no property physically changes hands (at least not at the beginning of the case), the trustee and bankruptcy court have broad legal power over your property. Nonetheless, an individual is allowed certain exemptions, which are found in state law. Nevada has at least 33 exemptions available. If the value of your equity in the property is below the exemption amount, then you will be entitled to keep the property. The most commonly used exemption for money in a bank account is 21.090(z) whoch exempts any personal property not otherwise exempt, including, without limitation, the judgment debtor’s equity in any property, money, stocks, bonds or other funds on deposit with a financial institution, not to exceed $1,000 in total value.

Take for example that you have $5,000 sitting in your checking account on the day you file bankruptcy. That money is property of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy estate and is no longer yours to control or use. However, you will be allowed to keep $1,000.00 but the Trustee can seek to receover the remaining $4,000.00.

During a Chapter 13 bankruptcy the debtor retains possession and control over his or her property, and is free to use any funds in the debtor’s bank account. An accounting is performed and the debtor’s property is classified as either exempt or non-exempt. Non-exempt property is not taken from the debtor (as is often the case in a Chapter 7), but the Chapter 13 debtor is required to pay unsecured creditors a sum equal to the amount of non-exempt equity. For instance, if there is $5,000 in the debtor’s bank account, the debtor may only be able to exempt a portion of the entire sum, or possibly $1,000.00. The non-exempt portion must be paid to the creditors through the debtor’s Chapter 13 plan (over three to five years).

Cash in a bank account can be a problematic issue for a debtor. Avoiding these problems is the joint responsibility of the debtor and the debtor’s bankruptcy attorney. Timing is critical to minimizing your financial exposure. An experienced bankruptcy attorney can help you maximize the benefits of the bankruptcy laws and navigate around any pitfalls.

If you have any questions please contact us.

Randy M. Creighton, Esq.

Tagged with: annual fees • Attorney • bank • bankruptcy • bankruptcy laws • bankruptcy protection • chapter 13 • chapter 7 • debt discharged • discharged • Las Vegas • Las Vegas Bankruptcy Lawyer • lawyer • secured cards • student loans

How Bankruptcy Can Help With Foreclosure

On April 7, 2010, in Bankruptcy Attorney in Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 7 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Services Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Individual Bankruptcy Las Vegas, Mortgage, Uncategorized, by Randy Creighton

If you are facing foreclosure and cannot either short sale your home or agree on a loan modification, bankruptcy may help.

The Automatic Stay: Delaying Foreclosure

When you file either a Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy, what is called the automatic stay springs into effect. The automatic stay immediately requires your creditors to cease their collection activities immediately, no excuses. If your home is scheduled for a foreclosure sale, the sale will be legally postponed while the bankruptcy is pending–typically for three to four months. However, there are two exceptions to this general rule:

Motion For Relief From The Automatic Stay. If the lender obtains the bankruptcy court’s permission to proceed with the sale (by filing a “motion to lift the stay”), you may not get the full three to four months. But even then, the bankruptcy will typically postpone the sale by at least two months, or even more if the lender is slow in pursuing the motion to lift the automatic stay.

Foreclosure notice already filed. Unfortunately, bankruptcy’s automatic stay won’t stop the clock on the advance notice that most states require before a foreclosure sale can be held (or a motion to lift the stay can be filed). For example, before selling a home in Nevada , a lender has to give the owner at least three months’ notice. If you receive a three-month notice of default, and then file for bankruptcy after two months have passed, the three-month period would elapse after you’d been in bankruptcy for only one month. At that time the lender could file a motion to lift the stay and ask the court for permission to schedule the foreclosure sale.

Also, and very important, the automatic stay is IMMEDIATE. So, for example, say a foreclosure sale is scheduled for 10:00 a,m, January 31, 2010. If the homeowner files for bankruptcy at 9:59 a.m. the foreclosure sale is null and void, or in simpler terms, you keep your house and the lender must re-foreclose after submitng the Motion For Relief From The Automatic Stay.

How Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Can Help

If you’re behind on your mortgage payments with no feasible way to get current, the only way to keep your home is to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Unlike Chapter 7, Chapter 13 bankruptcy lets you pay off the “arrearage” (late, unpaid payments) over the length of a repayment plan you propose–five years in some cases. Assuming you make all the required payments up to the end of the repayment plan, you’ll avoid foreclosure and keep your home.

Also, unlike Chapter 7. Chapter 13 may also eliminate the payments on your second and/or third mortgage.

How Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Can Help

The situation migt be that you will have to give u your home no matter what. In that case, filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy will at least stall the sale and give you two or three more months to work things out with your lender. Options include a Short Sale.

Saving money. During a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you can live in your home for free during at least some of the months while your bankruptcy is pending–and perhaps several more after your case is closed. You can then use that money to help secure new shelter.

Canceling debt. Chapter 7 bankruptcy will also cancel all the debt that is secured by your home, including the mortgage, as well as any second mortgages and home equity loans. So, if you were to obtain a Short Sale you do NOT have to worry about any deficiency amounts.

Chapter 7 Will Not Cancel the Foreclosure

With all this debt being cancelled, you may be wondering why the foreclosure on your home won’t be cancelled too. The trouble is, when you bought your home you probably signed two documents (at least)–a promissory note to repay the mortgage loan, and a security agreement that could be recorded as a lien to enforce performance on the promissory note.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy gets rid of your personal liability under the promissory note, but it doesn’t remove the lien. That’s the way Chapter 7 works. It gets rid of debt but not liens–you’ll still probably have to give up the house under the lien since that’s what provided collateral for the loan.

Tagged with: Attorney • bankruptcy • bankruptcy laws • bankruptcy protection • chapter 13 • chapter 7 • debt discharged • debt elimination • discharged • lawyer • secured cards

9 Warning Signs You Need To File Bankruptcy

On April 6, 2010, in Bankruptcy Attorney in Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 7 Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Chapter 7 Las Vegas, Good Bankruptcy Attorneys in Las Vegas, Individual Bankruptcy Las Vegas, by Randy Creighton

Bankruptcy is a serious matter that can affect your credit rating for up to ten years. There are many factors that come into play when making the decision to file for bankruptcy. If you have any of the following signs, schedule a consultation today to go over your options:

1. You are unable to make routine minimum payments required for credit cards and loans. This is a clear sign you are in severe financial distress that should not be ignored.

2. After a thorough and HONEST examination of your income and expenses, you determine that you spend more than you earn on a regular basis. This means that you have been accumulating debt each month with no end in sight. In addition, while you cannot pay down your debt, each month the debt gains interest – making the debt more expensive as you add on to it. This is a vicious cycle and it’s called “financial suicide”. This type of spending has to come to an end or your credit score is going to die miserably.

3. You are over your limit or at the limit on your credit cards. A sign of good financial health is to have under thirty percent of the credit limit on your credit cards and loans. If you are teetering at the limit, unable to pay down the debt this can lead to trouble.

4. You are unable to pay each bill every month and therefore skip bills for one to two months at a time and are facing notices for collection on a regular basis, or even worse, you are using your credit cards to pay for basic life necessities.

5. You are not making enough money. Are you making enough money to cover your expenses each month while contributing to a savings account or an emergency fund? This can lead to financial distress and bankruptcy.

6. You receive countless phone calls from credit card companies and collection agencies that are seeking bills for collection. When creditors are calling, it can be detrimental to the credit report – as collections are the worst thing that your credit report can face. If you are unable to afford these payments then it may be time to consider bankruptcy.

7. You are afraid to speak to your significant other about money issues or avoid the topics altogether. This can be a sign of financial disarray and should not be ignored. Ignoring the problem can only make it worse as time passes.

8. You have no idea about all the accounts on your credit report. You are unsure about which debts are paid – or even how much you owe to creditors.

9. You have thought about bankruptcy or were considering filing with a bankruptcy attorney. When you have had these thoughts, chances are that meeting with a bankruptcy attorney is the next logical step.

If you said yes to any of the above signs, schedule a consultation with an experienced bankruptcy attorney who can help you decide if bankruptcy is right for you, and if so, what type of bankruptcy best suites your individual case.

New Credit Card Rules 2010 And The Effect

On April 4, 2010, in Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 7 Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Chapter 7 Las Vegas, by Randy Creighton

At the end of February, some key changes to the way that the credit card industry bills and charges interest went into effect as part of new legislation signed by President Obama. Although touted by the President and by supporters of legislation in Congress as a significant step forward in protecting consumers, this legislation is, in fact, a very minor step forward from the previous credit card billing and financing status quo.

There are, to be sure, some improvements worth noting in the new legislation—but not without some accompany areas in which there is a distinct lack of improvement:

Credit card issuers can no longer raise interest rates on existing balances. This is why your credit card issuer may have raised your interest rates earlier this year, regardless of your payment history. They were slipping one in while they still could, or, in some cases, canceling the card. What the legislationdid not do is set a rate ceiling for new customers or for debt incurred for future purchases.
Credit card issuers can no longer impose a fee upon you when you exceed your credit-limit. However, card issuers can still charge all kinds of other fees, including annual and “inactivity” fees.
Card issuers are now required to apply your payments to the part of your balance with the highest interest-rate first. Previously, if you had a cash advance balance on your card with a high interest rate, that would be the last place the card issuer would apply your latest payment. Now, it is required to be the first. However, some bad news if you are among the many paying only the minimum payment each month: when you make only the minimum monthly payment, card issuers are still inexplicably allowed to apply this payment to the lowest rate debt on the card!
Your due-date must now be the same date every month,you must receive your bill at least 21 days before the bill is due, and a practice known as “double-cycle billing,” in which the card issuer uses an average daily balance over 2 months to calculate your interest rate, is now prohibited. You may have also seen on your most recent statement or two a disclosure revealing the amount of time it would take you to pay off the balance making only the minimum monthly payment and how much you’d need to pay monthly to eliminate your debt within 3 years.
Card issuers are now required to give you 45 days’ notice before making certain account-changes, such as interest rate hikes, charging allowed fees, and other things. However, card issuers are still allowed to close your account or lower your credit-limit for any or no reason at all without any advance notice.

Source: USA Today.

In short, the legislation does take some positive steps forward, but, in my opinion, it doesn’t go far enough in protecting consumers from credit card issuers’ most egregious practices. While it is important that card issuers are now required to give you the information you need to be a better consumer and to make sound financial decisions, what is plain is that, when you click that link on your online statement that tells you how long it will take you to pay off your balance, you will see that your debt is not going anywhere anytime soon as a result of these new laws.

However, other solutions remain viable, which would include bankruptcy. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy can still force card lenders and other debt purveyors into a court-ordered payment plan, and a Chapter 7 bankruptcy can still liquidate most debts entirely.

If your debt-load is keeping you from caring for your family, from keeping a roof over your head, or from getting to the place you need to be in life, please contact me.

When Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Is The Best Option

On March 31, 2010, in Bankruptcy Attorney in Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 7 Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Help Las Vegas, Personal Bankruptcy Las Vegas, by Randy Creighton

I hear this statement on a daily basis. “I do not want any part of a chapter 13. I am only interested in filing a chapter 7.”

I think anyone who knows anything at all about bankruptcy would concur that, all other things being equal, a chapter 7 filing is a more attractive scenario. Unfortunately, there are many people who either don’t qualify for a chapter 7, or who have circumstances that make a chapter 13 filing necessary.

Here are some good reasons to file for Chapter 13:

When You Cannot File for Chapter 7

You will not be allowed to file for Chapter 7 if you cannot meet some new requirements imposed by the 2005 revisions to the bankruptcy laws. Under these new rules, you cannot file for Chapter 7 if both of the following are true:

Your current monthly income over the six months prior to your filing date is more than the median income for a household of your size in your state (go to the website of the United States Trustee, www.usdoj.gov/ust, and click “Means Testing Information” to see the median figures for your state).
Your disposable income, after subtracting certain expenses and monthly payments for debts you would have to repay in Chapter 13, exceeds certain limits set by law. These calculations are commonly referred to as the “means test” — if you have the means to repay a certain amount of your debt through a Chapter 13 repayment plan, you flunk the test and are ineligible for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The means test can get fairly complex and, to make matter worse, Congress has its own definitions of “disposable income,” “current monthly income,” “expenses,” and other important terms which, in some cases, can make your income seem higher than it actually is.

In addition, if you have received a Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge within the last eight years or a Chapter 13 discharge within the last six years, you may not file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

When You Are Behind On Your Mortgage or Car Loan

If you want to make up the missed payments over time and reinstate the original agreement, you can in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. For example, if you are six (6) months behind on your mortgage payment of $2,000.00, within thirty (30) days of filing your bankruptcy petition you would have to come up with $12,000 in a Chapter 7 to stay in your house, however, in a Chapter 13 you do NOT have to come up with any money for missed payments. The missed payments are repaid through the Chapter 13 plan.

When You Have A Second Mortgage You Want To “Strip”

In a Chapter 13, if the value of your home is less than the amount you owe on your first mortgage you can “strip,” or in lay terms, eliminate your second mortgage. So, say the value of your home is $175,000 with have a first mortgage of $200,000 and a second mortgage of $150,000, in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy you completely eliminate the second mortgage and only pay on the first mortgage.

When You Have a Debt That Cannot be Discharged in Chapter 7

Tax obligations, student loans, or other debts that cannot be discharged in Chapter 7 can be included in your Chapter 13 plan and paid off over time.

When You Have a Sincere Desire to Repay Your Debts

You can benefit from the protection of the bankruptcy court if creditors are coming after you. The Chapter 13 process also provides the formal structure and deadlines that can you might find helpful in order to follow through on your good intentions.

When You Have Nonexempt Property You Want to Keep

When you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you may keep only exempt property defined as property protected from creditors under state or federal law. You must give your nonexempt property to the bankruptcy trustee who can sell it and distribute the proceeds to your creditors.

In Chapter 13, however, you don’t have to give up any property. Instead, you repay your debts out of your income. Therefore, if you have nonexempt property that you do not want to part with, Chapter 13 might be the better choice.

When You Have a Co-Debtor on a Personal Debt

If you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, your co-debtor will still be on the hook which means your creditor will undoubtedly go after the co-debtor for payment. If you file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the creditor will leave your co-debtor alone, as long as you keep up with your bankruptcy plan payments.

If you would like to speak with a qualified bankruptcy attorney who can help you decide if bankruptcy is right for you, and if so, whether Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy is right for you, please contact us.

What Happens If I Forget to List a Creditor in My Bankruptcy Petition

On March 30, 2010, in Bankruptcy Attorney in Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 7 Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Filing Bankruptcy in Las Vegas, Personal Bankruptcy Las Vegas, by Randy Creighton

When you are filing for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, it’s all too easy to forget to list a creditor or to discover, after the petition has been filed, a creditor that you did not even know existed, or leaving off the creditor was a simple error. No big deal. It happens. I try to avoid such error with my clients by obtaining the most recent credit report before filing their petition but, on occasion, certain creditors, such as medical debts, are not reported to credit bureaus. Just because a debt is not reported to a credit bureau does not mean you do not owe them any money.

As long as the error or omission is caught early enough in the bankruptcy process, it is a simple matter to add a missed or missing creditor to a filed petition. The court charges a $26 fee for such amendments, but it is worth the cost.

Further, it goes without saying that all debts and creditors must be disclosed. When you file your bankruptcy petition, you sign and testify under the penalty of perjury that you have listed all of your assets and debts. At the 341 Meeting of Creditors you likewise will swear under oath that you have completely disclosed all of your assets and liabilities.

It is, thus, very important to work closely with an experienced attorney who will take the time, and not send this task to his paralegal, to talk with you to discuss your individual situation. As part of filing bankruptcy with Black & Lobello

If you are a Nevada resident and are considering filing for bankruptcy please contact us.

Tagged with: Attorney • bankruptcy • chapter 13 • chapter 7 • discharged • Las Vegas • Las Vegas Bankruptcy • las vegas bankruptcy attorney • las vegas chapter 13 bankruptcy • las vegas chapter 7 bankruptcy

Can the Chapter 13 trustee dismiss my case if I’ve missed a couple of payments?

On March 28, 2010, in Bankruptcy Attorney in Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Las Vegas, Bankruptcy Information in Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Law Las Vegas, Chapter 13 Help Las Vegas, Filing Bankruptcy in Las Vegas, Individual Bankruptcy Las Vegas, Las Vegas Bankruptcy Help, Personal Bankruptcy Las Vegas, chapter 13, by Randy Creighton

Probably. If you miss a couple of payments the Trustee will likely argue that your plan is no longer feasible — that you cannot make the payments and therefore your creditors aren’t getting paid and protected through bankruptcy.

Your best shot is to remember that old scout creed about being prepared. You’ll have to show the court that you can get back on track with your plan, or propose an amended plan with payments that are feasible for you and provide a sufficient amount to your creditors.

If the court agrees with the trustee and dismisses your case, you’ll owe your creditors the current balance on your debts — that is, what you owed at the start of your bankruptcy case, less the amounts you paid through your repayment plan — plus the interest that stopped accruing while you were in bankruptcy.

But the key is to be in constant contact with your attorney. If you cannot make a payment it is always better to call your attorney to have him or her work out the issues with the Trustee.

If you have any questions please contact us.

Randy M. Creighton, Esq.

Tagged with: Attorney • bankruptcy • bankruptcy laws • bankruptcy protection • chapter 13 • chapter 7 • debt discharged • discharged • experience • Las Vegas • lawyer • Nevada

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Can I Have Money in a Bank Account When I File Bankruptcy?