Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis just announced that they will set aside $4.3 million, up to $35,000 per homeowner, to help make mortgage payments that were missed due to pandemic. Applicants will first need to apply for other loss mitigation options, for...
When Legal Matters Become Personal
Bankruptcy
Congress takes up student loan bankruptcy-discharge bill
Yesterday Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Senator John Cornyn (R-IL) introduced “Fresh Start Through Bankruptcy Act”, bipartisan legislation, that will restore the ability to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. This is the first bipartisan effort in the U.S....
Supreme Court declines to hear case involving bankruptcy discharge of student loan debt
In bankruptcy, student loans are not dischargeable unless the borrower initiates and can prevail on a separate lawsuit to determine that it would be an undue hardship to pay it back. Courts have interpreted this to be a relatively high standard, virtually impossible...
Why there won’t be another foreclosure stampede like 2009-2010
Foreclosure rates have continued to dwindle since they peaked in 2010. A recent article talked about reasons why there is not likely to be anywhere near the surge that we had experienced during the last recession. There are a few additional reasons that I have...
COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act of 2021 signed into law
On Saturday, March 27, 2021 President Biden signed the COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act of 2021 into law. This bill extends for one year all of the bankruptcy-related provisions that were included in the CARES Act passed on March 27, 2020. These provisions...
New Median Income Figures In Effect as of April 1, 2021
The Department of Justice recently did its semiannual adjustments of the median income figures, which are effective in bankruptcy cases filed after April 1, 2021. The median income is an important figure, as debtors below that figure are almost always assured a...
Is the new stimulus protected from creditors? Can it be protected in a bankruptcy?
The short answer is yes, the new federal stimulus is almost certainly protected from creditors outside of bankruptcy, or inside of bankruptcy. The reason I can only say “almost” certainly, has to do with a more complicated analysis of federal law versus state law, the...
Will my mortgage payments be reported on my credit report after bankruptcy?
When you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you need to declare your intentions on your secured debt, which is essentially that you are going to give it back, or keep it. If you are going to keep it, most people just continue making the payments, referred to as the retain...
I already filed bankruptcy, when can I file bankruptcy again?
You need to wait eight years from the filing date of a prior Chapter 7, in order to file another Chapter 7 and get a discharge. If it’s been less than eight years, but at least four years, you can file a chapter 13, and get a discharge. My “over/under,” where I advise...
Why are bankruptcy filings down in 2020?
With record shattering unemployment due to the pandemic, a lot of people are surprised that 2020 bankruptcy filings to-date are down 30% from 2019; that figure includes commercial filings, and for individual bankruptcies, the numbers have decreased by at least 40%....