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January 2015

Alternatives to Chapter 13 After Discharging an Underwater Mortgage

Liens on underwater junior mortgages survive chapter 7 New York bankruptcy, which means homeowners will need to keep paying them to prevent foreclosure. Often, the response is to file a chapter 13 case after the chapter 7 one to strip the lien, but there are reasons to be cautious about taking that course of action. …

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Treasury and IRS Clamp Down On Nonprofit Hospital Debt Collections

Even after the Affordable Care Act, hospital bills are still a big enough problem that they can only be solved with a New York bankruptcy filing. Somewhat surprisingly, hospitals, even nonprofit ones that are supposed to have charitable purposes, have turned to hiring debt collectors to compel payment from patients who are behind on their …

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What Are ‘Priority Claims’?

New York bankruptcy requires debtors to pay some creditors what they are owed before others. These are called “priority claims” or “priorities” in the Bankruptcy Code. In chapter 13, for instance, creditors with priority claims must be repaid in full. Consequently, it’s important for debtors to have an idea of what these kinds of claims …

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Report Finds Refinancing an Underused Option

For homeowners struggling with high mortgage payments, there are alternatives to filing New York bankruptcy. One of them, refinancing, is underused by homeowners, according to a report that was recently published by National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). (The NBER is best known for setting the official start and end dates of U.S. recessions.) The …

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‘Avoiding’ Liens in New York Bankruptcy

Most of the time when the term “avoid” comes up in New York bankruptcy it’s used in the context of preferential transfers to creditors. That is, the debtor transfers money to a creditor he or she likes more than the others, such as a relative, and the trustee chooses to nullify (“avoid”) the transfer. The …

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It’s Possible to Receive Notice of an Adversary Proceeding in the Mail

For creditors who need help on the New York bankruptcy defense side or those who have filed a bankruptcy themselves but need to initiate an adversary proceeding against creditors or the trustee, it is in fact possible to effect “service of process” via the U.S. postal system. Usually service of process, the system of giving …

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How Can the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Help Debtors?

Supposedly, during the Punic Wars, Roman soldiers were away from homes for so long that their family farms went bankrupt and were bought up by the wealthy. Veterans crowding into Rome led to unrest as well as the failed land-reform proposals by Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Fortunately, there is a federal law in place to …

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What Happens to an Income Tax Refund in Chapter 13?

Last year, I discussed what happens to income tax refunds in New York bankruptcy, but that post doesn’t address specific concerns that chapter 13 debtors might have. Now that 2015 is here and people are looking through their tax forms (you are doing that, right?), it’s worthwhile to discuss the topic for a few reasons. …

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What Are the Benefits of a 0 Percent Chapter 13 Repayment Plan?

Nope, that’s not a typo. There is such a thing as a zero-percent chapter 13 plan. Although, it is a misnomer in that the debtor is actually going to make some payments on the plan. (Otherwise it would be absurd.) Consequently, a zero-percent plan isn’t the opposite of the more commonly known 100 percent chapter …

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