May 31
Recently released numbers on personal bankruptcy filings show that April’s numbers were down from both March 2011 and April 2010, more or less following the trends that experts have predicted for the remainder of this year. Here’s a closer look at the specifics, and what this means for you.
- The 21 business days in April saw 130,000 total bankruptcy filings, which comes to 6,177 filings per business day.
- The number of filings shows a decline of 2.9 percent from March, and 7.1 percent from April 2010.
- So far this year, filings have decreased each month at a rate somewhere between 5.6 percent and 8.2 percent compared to 2010 numbers.
- In the past 12 months, 4.9 in 1,000 people have filed bankruptcy petitions. The number in 2004 (before the new bankruptcy law was passed) was 5.5 per thousand.
According to these statistics, April 2011 bankruptcy numbers suggest a decline in bankruptcy filings both compared to recent months and to last year. Ban
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Tags: April, Bankruptcy Filings
May 29
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. As we remember those who have died for our freedoms and those who continue to serve our nation, let’s remember that we have the freedom to be DEBT FREE!
You have a biblical right to absolve yourself of your debts according to the bible. Remembering our service men and women who have also made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives so that we are FREE should inspire us all to take action in our lives to live as free people. Free from being a slave to debts by filing bankruptcy would be an honor. E
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Tags: Day, Memorial Day
May 29
Since the Florida Supreme Court liberalized the application of the $4,000 wildcard exemption in February, 2011. The Supreme Court said that the wildcard exemption can be stacked upon the Constitutional exemptions for personal property and automobiles for any debtor who does not claim the homestead exemption in bankruptcy and where the homestead exemption does not otherwise impede the trustees administration of the bankruptcy estate. Some bankruptcy trustees have suggested that debtors are ineligible for the wildcard exemptions when they indirectly get the benefit of a homestead exemption even though they do not expressly claim the homestead exemption on their bankruptcy schedules. The trustees are trying to chip away pieces of the wildcard exemption in order to increase the value of property subject to the trustee’s administration and trustee commission.
A recent bankruptcy court decision addressed two such trustee arguments seeking to disallow the debtors wildcard exemption. The court first considered the situation when a debtor owned an upside down homestead. T
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Tags: Exemption, Wildcard Exemption
May 28
Question by Tammy D: Is there a loan that will accept a truck title as collateral? Can the loan be paid off in monthly payments?
I have bad credit but make very good money. I would like to use a truck as collateral, like a secured loan. Is there a place that will do that for me?
Best answer:
credit union maybe. You might sign over the title to them and then make auto payments.
Add your own answer in the comments!
Tags: Payments, Truck Title
May 24
When a debtor calculates a Chapter 7 means test analysis he is entitled to deduct from income transportation expenses associated with ownership of a car. All Florida debtors can deduct from income a general transportation expense which is approximately $250. There is another deduction associated with the expense of owning a car known as the “ownership expense.” The ownership expense is calculated using the debtor’s car payment and a fixed allowance of about $500. Based upon a recent court ruling, debtors who own a car free and clear of any liens are not eligible to take any ownership expense despite the obvious costs associated with owning a car in Florida. The car ownership deduction is limited to people with car debt.
This past week I provided legal services to a woman who is a bankruptcy paralegal in a high-volume bankruptcy office located in Illinois. We discussed how her office handles car expenses in the means test. The attorney she works for recommends that prospective debtors who own cars outright get a very small car loan in order that the debtor qualifies for the car ownership allowance.
In Florida, for example, debtors get a $1,000 base car exemption. Most
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Tags: Debt, Means Test
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