Expert Bankruptcy & Debt Relief Insights

The Toys R Us bankruptcy, along with the bankruptcy of its sister store Babies R Us and parallel bankruptcy proceeding in Canada for its Canadian subsidiary, shocked the market. Not so much because a store with a strong brick and mortar presence filed for bankruptcy, but because its sheer sales numbers were not enough to…

Stereotypical California story: 70-year-old man divorces his fifth wife. He lives in Beverly Hills and works as a top executive at a large entertainment company and has done so for a number of years. He is very active but recently cut back on his working hours so he can spend time enjoying life. He is…

Discharge Injunction Violation Perhaps you are a consumer who is facing mountains of debt. The debt load does not allow you to rest. You cannot eat, sleep, or perform normally routine activities because you are overwhelmed by debt. Some days you prefer to just stay in your bed because of the debt. You borrowed money…

Government statistics demonstrate that bankruptcy filings fell by 0.7% last year, marking the smallest 12-month decline since 2010. Based strictly on these numbers, bankruptcy filings are up. During the recession and its immediate aftermath, bankruptcy filings soared. As the economy moved in a different direction and things improved, bankruptcy filings saw a steady decline. 2017…

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…

In 1996, Oakland native and rap superstar M.C. Hammer, whose real name is Stanley Kirk Burrel, filed for bankruptcy. His bankruptcy petition claimed that he had assets of approximately $1 million and liabilities of at least $10 million. He owed over a million dollars to Winterland Records and had liabilities to two different Bay-area lawyers.…

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…

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war…

Government statistics regarding bankruptcy filings demonstrate an interesting trend. The trend shows a four-year downward direction and an overall downward trajectory. This table represents filings between 2014 and 2017: Year Total Bankruptcy Filings Business Bankruptcy Filings Consumer (Personal) Bankruptcy Filings 2017 796,037 23,443 772,594 2016 819,159 25,227 793,932 2015 879,736 25,046 854,690 2014 1,000,083 30,113…

There are features of Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy that are similar and some that are quite different. A significant similarity is the automatic stay under Section 362 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, or Code, wherein a bankruptcy filing stays, or stops, creditors from taking collection action against the debtor. When this…