Bankruptcy
Friday, 27 February 2009 12:33
ON BANKRUPTCY. - Generalized commentsBankruptcy in short is a procedure by which a person is relieved of the
burden of paying impossible debt. A person filing a bankruptcy wants to
receive a "discharge" from the Court. The discharge is a court order
which prevents your creditors from collection their debts from you. There
are exceptions. See below. The second you file the bankruptcy, a court
order called the "Automatic Stay," goes into effect. It stops almost all
actions of creditors to collect money from you or to take your property
from you. One person had his house foreclosed on him. He did not learn
about the foreclosure until he received a letter on a Friday from the
sheriff telling him that he had to be out of the house on by Monday next
midnight. He filed bankruptcy and stopped the eviction.
THE PROCESS
First: You have to list ALL of your creditors, including money owed to
ANY relative and ANYONE you intend to pay back.
Second: You have to list ALL of your assets, even the $4,000.00 buried in
the tin can in the backyard.
Third: You have to list your income and expenses.
Fourth: You have to answer certain questions about your finances and your
financial transaction.
Fifth: You have to go through "credit counseling" before you file and
then "debtor education" before the case is over.
Sixth: You have to contend with a "Means Test." Most people have no
problems with the Means Test.
Bankruptcy law and Washington State law entitle you to exemptions. If an
asset is exempt, your creditors may not seize it to pay the money you owe
them. The property of the overwhelming majority of people who file
bankruptcy is exempt.
Will you keep you house if you file bankruptcy? Yes under two conditions:
First if you continue to make you house payments. Second if your equity
in the house, that is the difference between its value and the amount you
owe on it is less than $125,000.00. Washington State law entitles you to
the $125,000.00 exemption.
Will you keep your car? Yes, but under certain conditions. You have to
continue to make your car payment. And the equity in you car is below a
certain amount.
You may discharge most debts in your bankruptcy. Some you may not. The
most common ones are child support and alimony. You may discharge certain
taxes under certain circumstances. If you kill someone because of drunk
driving, you may not discharge the debt. You may not student loans unless
you show a "hardship."
Bankruptcy law has deceptive simplicity. In reality it can be very complex.
STATEMENT ABOUT LAW FIRM
When the so-called Bankruptcy Reform Act was passed during 2005, with the
lavish political contributions of credit card companies, banks and other
financial institutions, greasing the wheels, these companies passed a law
which states that I have to declare that I am a "DEBT RELIEF AGENCY. I
HELP PEOPLE FILE BANKRUPTCY." The theory behind the law seems to be that
you the American people are ignorant and easily led. (Abraham Lincoln did
not share the current political class's opinion of the American people).
But times change.
I do my best to assist people who have financial problems. We live in an
age of overwhelming debt at many levels of our country. Most people call
me when they believe they are backed into a corner and see their ability
to survive threatened. People are proud. Most do not like to file
bankruptcy. People know they have to survive, keep a roof over their
heads and the heads of their children, food on the table, adequate medical
care and dependable transportion. Debt threatens these necessities. And
there a many, many people and companies who are prepared to deprive you of
these necessities. I do my best to protect you from them.
Part of basic banking is the word, "No." The problem now with many banks
summarized in a quip of Dorothy Parker" "That woman speaks eighteen
languages and can't say "No" in any of them." Banks and especially the
big ones have forgotten how to say, "No." The forgot because they made a
lot of money forgetting. They made the money by earnings fees by
converting something simple into something extremely complex. For
instance, Bank of America owns very few of its credit card debts. It
earns fees in servicing the debt. To have some idea of who owns Bank of
America credit card debt, you need to Google "Edgar SEC." Look for the
response with ".gov" in it and click on it. It will open the EDGAR SEC
webpage. Click on the link for "Companies" and then in the field type
"Bank of America." You will be amazed. But about 90 ABS (Asset Backed
Securities) trust will appear. One of these trusts more likely than not
will "own" your credit card debt. The trust will consist of perhaps
100,000 credit card debts. And the trust breaks the credit card debt down
in to slices. One slice is interest, one, principal, one late fees, one
over the limit fees. Bonds are sold secured on each "slice." Greedy Wall
Street pigs being greedy Wall Street pigs, received (not earned) obscene
sums of money to create these monstrosities. Whether the holder of the
credit card ever paid the bond holder was not the concern of the greedy
Wall Street pigs.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 16 April 2009 13:11 )
