The short answer is, “Yes, but…” The automatic stay is one of the most important protections bankruptcy petitioners receive, so in practice, very few creditors can actually successfully argue a “motion for relief from stay,” also called a, “motion to lift the stay.” Unsecured creditors can almost never convince the bankruptcy court to lift the …
Can creditors ask the Bankruptcy Court to lift the Automatic Stay? Read More »
In bankruptcy in New York and elsewhere, not all assets are tangible property like items purchased with a credit card, or a house with a mortgage. Rather, income from third parties, such as a settlement from a personal injury settlement, also counts. Here are a few things you need to know about personal injury settlements …
Personal Injury Settlements Are Protected in New York Bankruptcy, to a Point Read More »
For some reason, New Yorkers and others often think medical debt is somehow protected from bankruptcy. This is completely untrue. “Medical bankruptcies” are sadly quite common, and worse, they grew in the last decade. The American Journal of Medicine proved as much when it published research covering medical bankruptcies between 2001 and 2007. Here’s what …
Medical Debts Are Dischargeable in New York Bankruptcy Read More »
You know the story: real estate prices rose through the 2000s, businesses prospered, and home ownership grew with the houses. Houses that the owners financed with low-interest mortgages that they thought they could easily pay off. Then the bubble burst. Unemployment soared, and the homeowners who could not afford to pay down their mortgages also …
Lessons Learned from Comparing the U.S. Mortgage System to Spain’s Read More »
This is the second post in a two-part series on the Department of Education’s Income-Based Repayment (IBR) program for federally backed student loans. Under an IBR plan New Yorkers and other Americans with eligible loans can make lower monthly payments to the government based on their disposable income if their income is too low to …
Income-Based Repayment Plans for Student Loans in 10 Points (Part 2 of 2) Read More »
Aside from mortgage debt, one of the more common problems New York debtors face is student loans. These debts can be challenging for debtors to deal with because in 1998 the federal government subjected all federally backed student debt to the undue hardship test for bankruptcy dichargeability. In 2005, it extended it to private student …
Income-Based Repayment Plans for Student Loans in 10 Points (Part 1 of 2) Read More »
The most common route for filing bankruptcy in New York is file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It’s quicker than Chapter 13 and allows people to discharge many types of debt. In some cases, though, a person may be ineligible for Chapter 7 and must file in Chapter 13, which is often called a “wage earners …
Chapter 13 Debt Limits Won’t Stymie Your New Bankruptcy Read More »
Finding a questionable or incorrect charge on a credit card statement probably happens to most New Yorkers at least once. Most people’s natural inclination is to call the creditor and try to work it out over the phone. If that doesn’t work, the law is on your side, but it’s a slow process involving the …
How to Challenge Charges on Your Credit Card Bill Read More »
Sometimes an odd situation appears in New York bankruptcies. A debtor gets everything in order, files for bankruptcy, and then discovers that one of his or her bank accounts is frozen even though the bank isn’t one of the debtor’s creditors. It’s bizarre but it can happen. One would think the automatic stay would protect …
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