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Debt

What Is the ‘Statement of Intention’ and When Do Debtors File One?

I wrote about the bankruptcy form called the “Statement of Intention for Individuals Filing Under Chapter 7” (usually “Statement of Intention” or “SOI” for short) back in August in a post about post-bankruptcy non-recourse debts. The SOI form debtors use played a prominent role, so I’d like to expand on it. The SOI only appears …

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NY Fed: ‘Household Sector Remains Vulnerable to Severe Price Declines’

In February, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Liberty Street Economics blog published five posts on housing and homeownership. I won’t discuss the findings from every post, nor write five in response, but I will hit on the major points that might be salient to New York bankruptcy. In its first post, the Fed’s …

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How Do Debtors Prioritize Their Debts?

When debtors have too few funds to pay too many debts, they don’t try to distribute their money among all their debts. Rather, they prioritize some debts over others. The insight, courtesy of a blog post at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Web site, can help debtors and New York bankruptcy lawyers determine …

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Nondischargeable Debts the Bankruptcy Code Won’t Tell You About

A few years ago I wrote about the debts that are excluded from a discharge order in a chapter 7 New York bankruptcy. There are, however, a handful of debts that are not only nondischargeable but also not specified as such in the Bankruptcy Code. True, they are rarely seen, but debtors might want to …

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The ‘Lock-In Effect’ Revisited: Underwater Homeowners Stuck in Communities

If a homeowner’s equity goes negative, will the homeowner feel stuck and unable to find better work? Or, will the homeowner search for new work elsewhere and take the loss? It’s an important question in New York bankruptcy because if the so-called “lock-in” effect is real, homeowners would probably be better off in the long …

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Joint, Nondischargeable Debts: Few Options for Separated Couples

Late last year, The Boston Globe ran an article touching on a difficult topic in New York bankruptcy: joint, nondischargeable debts. Normally, if a debt is jointly owed and dischargeable, then it’s unlikely to raise problems in bankruptcy, whether the borrowers are married or not. Once it’s discharged, the lender may demand payment from the …

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CFPB Survey: 70 Million Americans Contacted by Debt Collectors Yearly

About the same time as the U.S. Supreme Court chose to decide if the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) covers bad-debt buyers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a press release reporting on a survey of more than 2,000 consumers regarding their recent contacts with debt collectors. The survey is the first of …

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U.S. Supreme Court to Decide If FDCPA Covers Bad-Debt Buyers

Federal law gives debtors two weapons against creditors, bankruptcy and the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). The two do not always share an easy relationship, as evidenced by the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case deciding whether chapter 13 debtors have FDCPA claims against creditors with stale debts, but generally where one law can’t protect …

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Do Chapter 13 Debtors Have FDCPA Claims Against Creditors With Stale Debts?

It’s a question that came up in 2015, and the answer isn’t favorable to debtors in New York bankruptcy. When debtors file in chapter 13, creditors file proofs of claim because they usually expect to receive disbursements from the bankruptcy estate. In New York, it’s almost certain. The rub, though, is that sometimes creditors file …

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