Latest Legal Insights for Bay Area Residents

Prisoner’s dilemma is a subset of game theory wherein the police arrest two men and accuse those men of being involved in the same crime. The police separate the men and place them in different prison cells so that each defendant does not know what the other defendant is telling the police. The men, now…

Last March, the US saw perhaps the most egregious violation of the automatic stay when a US Bankruptcy Judge in California, Judge Christopher Klein, summed up a debtor’s interaction with Bank of America as a “Kafkaesque nightmare.” In that case, Judge Klein described Bank of America’s actions, with respect to the Automatic Stay under the…

Financial stress can take a toll on relationships. Those in the Bay area may remember a time when, typically, the husband worked a 9-5 job while the wife stayed at home and took care of the children and the house. They would go on family outings on weekends year round. Women who worked often provided…

People fall deep into debt for many reasons. It could be due to a loss of income, miscalculating future income, improper spending habits, or major life event. To provide a fresh start, the founding fathers created the bankruptcy clause in the Constitution. The bankruptcy concept was further developed over the years to include various chapters…

Internationally, many people view the United States of America as the land of opportunity, where anyone has the chance to obtain wealth. Many immigrants have come to these shores with nothing but the clothes on their backs and have succeeded at achieving the American dream. Millions of illegal immigrants have come to this country, as…

The devastating effects of divorce often intersect with bankruptcy law. Couples who reside together share certain costs, like housing, food, bills, and more. When people split and go their separate ways, such expenses are not shared, leading to an increase cost of living expenses. This increase intensifies financial stress, wherein the parties have increased living…

The 2011 United States Supreme Court ruling in the case of Stern v. Marshall has both a practical bankruptcy angle and Hollywood flair. That case concerned the longstanding litigation between Vickie Lynn Marshall, known to the public as Anna Nicole Smith, and Pierce Marshall, the son of Vickie Lynn Marshall’s former husband, J. Howard Marshall.…

Upon filing a bankruptcy case, “all legal or equitable interests of the debtor in property as of the commencement of the case” becomes the property of the bankruptcy estate. If bankruptcy estate property is to be sold, such a sale is termed a “363 sale,” or a bankruptcy sale. A 363 sale is based on…

Bankruptcy is an option for individuals struggling with mountains of debt because it provides honest debtors with a clean slate. The clean slate, in legal terms, is a discharge. The bankruptcy process provides that a debtor can discharge his or her debt so that the debtor is no longer obligated to repay certain creditors. One…

Debtors who seek a fresh start through bankruptcy will often have secured and unsecured debt. Usually, the unsecured debt is greater than the secured debt. Debtors generally have significant, unsecured credit card debt. With the advent of online lenders offering quick, unsecured debt to borrowers, those lenders will likely have hold significant claims in bankruptcy…