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You have been trying for years to pay off your debts, and you are getting nowhere. It is only natural to feel demoralized. Even those lab rats that press the lever multiple times, but it gives them treats less and less often, eventually give up. Of course, you are not a lab rat, and you…

When you are watching every penny, you sit at home and make financial calculations in your mind while other people are out engaging in leisure pursuits, or so the influencers on YouTube would have you believe, then you try to spend your free time on income-generating activities, or at least on doing things that do…

If you are bummed out about the fact that everyone in California has been in a foul mood for as long as you can remember, count your blessings. Try driving a few states east to Utah or Texas, where the older generations have managed to impress upon their daughters, even in these turbulent times, that…

In a perfect world, no one would need to use credit cards, but a perfect world is so far away that you have already maxed out one credit card with grocery purchases and other expenses that no one would consider luxuries, and now you are running up the balance on at least one other card.…

How bad your finances are is, at least partially, a matter of perspective. Sure, you don’t have any money left at the end of the month to put into savings. If you are so optimistic that you transfer a percentage of your paycheck into savings every payday, then you end up transferring it back into…

In what can only be described as frustrating for Bankruptcy Judges, the Ninth Circuit recently expanded the limitations on bankruptcy judge’s ability to enter final judgments in certain situations. Taking their cue from the Supreme Court’s decision in Stern v. Marshall, which held that bankruptcy courts lack certain Constitutional authority to make a final decision…

For many people who end up filing for bankruptcy, living off of credit cards had become a necessary way of life. In order to make ends meet, keep a roof over their heads, and feed their families, many would-be bankruptcy filers use credit to meet their daily needs. After living like this for years and…

Many Credit Reports Contain Costly Errors One of the most common effects of living with the constant stress of too much debt is the eventual inability to even deal with one’s financial situation. As a bankruptcy attorney, I have talked to and counseled countless clients who have told me that after a certain point they…

Every day there is more and more talk about how the economy is on the path to recovery. The recession is over and good times are ahead. This is great news, except that for the typical American worker, the future is not so bright. The truth is that while the DOW is at an all-time…

The American dream can be expensive. Often times this dream is portrayed as homeownership with a couple of cars in the driveway. How one goes about obtaining the American dream in today’s reality is another story. Chasing the American dream has led people to run up huge consumer credit card debt and take mortgages they…

As an Oakland bankruptcy attorney, I know how difficult the thought of filing bankruptcy can be. For many of my clients, the decision to file bankruptcy comes after years of struggling to repay creditors with money they don’t have. Every month they are forced to rob Peter to pay Paul and are never able to…

In an effort to curb abusive bankruptcy filings, Congress in 2005 passed BAPCA, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. BAPCA established what is known by bankruptcy practitioners as the “Means Test.” The means test, through the use of a strict formula that incorporates a debtor’s actual expenses with standard expenses for the area…

The housing crash has left many people wondering what to do with homes that are now so far underwater they may never recover their former equity. To add insult to injury, many of these homeowners cannot afford to pay the mortgage on these underwater homes. This combination of factors has led many people to explore…

A former Mets baseball player, Lenny Dykstra, has plead guilty to bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets, and money laundering all stemming from a bankruptcy case he filed to get out from under over $31 million in debt. As punishment for these crimes, Mr. Dykstra was facing up 20 years in federal prison but received only…

Once you have decided you are interested in filing bankruptcy your next step should be to research which attorney you are going to hire to represent you. This is no small matter, as over the past couple of years the number of bankruptcy attorneys has increased significantly. This is both good and bad. The good…