Every bankruptcy case is different fees will vary from case to case.

Typical fees in consumer cases are as follows:

Chapter 7:

                                Legal Fee:                                            $1,000 - $1,500

                                Filing Fee:                                            $299

                                Bankruptcy counseling:                 $100

                                Homestead Recording Fee*:      $35

                Chapter 13:

                                Legal Fee**:                                      $1,500 - $2,000

                                Fining Fee:                                          $274

Bankruptcy counseling:                 $100

                                Homestead Recording Fee*:      $35

*if necessary

**an additionally legal fee will be paid through the bankruptcy plan

For business cases and chapter 11 and 12 cases please call the office.

In most bankruptcy cases you will pay back nothing to your creditors. In other cases you will pay back what you can afford.

Debt negotiation typically works by you making a payment to a company and then those companies asking your creditor to accept a payment of less than you own them.  Debt negotiators typically charge high fees for their services and often times the monthly payment is SO high that you cannot afford more than a few months of payments.

Most bankruptcy cases do not require any payments to creditors and typical legal fees and expenses are usually about the same as 3 or 4 months worth of payments to the debt negotiator instead of 3 or 5 years.

Some people will need to file a chapter 13 bankruptcy and pay back a small percentage of what they owe. In this case you only pay what you can afford and not what the credit card company wants.

I encourage you to take advantage of the free bankruptcy consolation and learn more about bankruptcy and debt negation.

Take care,

Robert

Starting today, June 1, 2010, HAMP Home Loan Modifications cannot be denied because you are in an active chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy.

This is significant for many consumers. Many consumers facing foreclosure need both bankruptcy and a modification.

A bankruptcy filing will automatically stay a foreclosure on your home and a modification of the terms of the mortgage will make the home more affordable.

For more information about this important change please visit https://www.hmpadmin.com/portal/docs/hamp_servicer/sd1002.pdf

Bankruptcy can save your home from foreclosure!

The moment a bankruptcy case is filed with the bankruptcy court the automatic stay comes into effect. The automatic stay prevents creditors from taking certain actions against you including foreclosing on your property.

 Bankruptcy will even stop a foreclosure if filed minutes before the foreclosure sale.

Once the case is filed and the foreclosure stopped you may be able to catch-up missed mortgage payments during the course of a chapter 13 plan, eliminate second or third mortgages, or have time to work out a modification with the bank.

Judge Melvin Hoffman is set to take the bench April 15, 2010. Judge Hoffman will be taking the seat left by retiring Judge Rosenthal in the Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court, Central Division.

Judge Rosenthal will remain on the bench through April 14, 2010.

At the conclusion of most individual bankruptcy cases a Debtor receives a “discharge” of his debts. The discharge is a release of your personal legal obligation to repay your debts. In part that discharge serves as an injunction against the discharged creditors ever attempting to collect a discharged debt.

In some cases a creditor may ignore the discharge injunction and continue to harass the debtor in an attempt to collect the debt. This harassment is illegally and hampers the Debtor’s ability to get a fresh start and move on in life.

A creditor may be liable to a debtor for violations of the discharge and have to pay to the debtor money damages.

If you have been the victim of harassing phone calls, collections letters, or other debt collection activates on discharged debt you may be entitled to money damages.  

The Law Office of Robert W. Kovacs, Jr. will pursue all such violations. We will handle your discharge violation case even if you used another attorney for the underlying bankruptcy case.

After filing bankruptcy the “automatic stay” comes into effect.  Much like the name implies it happens automatically upon the filing of your case and stays actions against you.

This means that a creditor cannot call you to collect a on a debt as soon as your case is filed. However, it may actually take 2 – 3 weeks for all your creditors to receive notice of the bankruptcy and really stop calling.

During this 2 – 3 weeks period you may answer the phone and tell your creditors about your bankruptcy filing. The creditor will likely ask for your case number and attorney information. Providing this information will cause the creditor to have actual knowledge of your filing and thus they will have to stop calling.

If they still continue to call, call your lawyer, the creditor may be ignoring the stay or they may not have received notice of your case. In either event a strongly worded letter from your attorney is appropriate.

If after a warning letter from your attorney the creditor continues to call, you may be able to bring an action against your creditor for money damages.

Yes settling a debt for less than you owe will save you money but it is not going to save you as much as you think.

When you settle a debt with your credit card or other creditors for less than you owe the amount forgiven is taxable income.

For example if you owe Bank of America $20,000 and they forgive $10,000 the forgiven $10,000 is treated as income to you which you will pay taxes on at year’s end.  The creditor will issue you a 1099.

Also debt settlement for less is reported on your credit report and can negatively impact your credit score.

In bankruptcy debts are discharged through a court order. Discharged debt in bankruptcy will not be taxed or reported as income.

As soon as your bankruptcy case is filed with the Court the “automatic stay” comes into effect. The “automatic stay” is much what it sounds like, it happens automatically upon filing of your case and it stays certain actions against you.

This means as soon as you file bankruptcy your creditors are legally prohibited from, foreclosing on your home, repossessing your car, sending bills, or making collection phone calls.

Of course, your creditors do not know you filed bankruptcy the very instant you file. The Court will send a letter to all the creditors listed in your Creditor Matrix informing them of your filing. This will likely take about two weeks.

If there is an urgent matter, such as a home foreclosure tomorrow, I will call and fax the law office handling the foreclosure to ensure they are aware of your bankruptcy filing and it does not take place.

Individual debtors filing bankruptcy are required to complete both pre and post discharge counseling courses. Pre-filing counseling or “Credit Counseling” must be completed before the filing of bankruptcy.

After the filing of bankruptcy debtors must again complete a counseling course. The post filing course has several common names; including, “Debtor’s Education,” “Financial Management Course,” and “Pre-Discharge Education.”

The course must be completed in order to get a discharge of debts. If a debtor fails to complete the course then the debtor’s bankruptcy case will be dismissed and no discharge granted debtor. The course must be completed and the certificate filed with the Court no later than 45 days after the first scheduled date of the §341 meeting of creditors. However, it is my recommendation to complete the course before the meeting.

The course can be completed, on-line, over the phone or in person.  There are many agencies that provide pre-discharge education to bankruptcy debtors. These organizations must be non-for-profit corporations AND must be approved by the US Department of Justice; commonly debtors use the same company for both the pre-filing and post-filing course.

I provide all my clients with a referral to an approved counseling course, however, clients are free to use any agency they wish to complete the course.

In order for an individual to qualify for bankruptcy protection you must first complete Credit Counseling. Counseling can be completed on-line, over the phone, and in person.  The counseling will take about 2 hours.

In order to for an agency to provide bankruptcy credit counseling, the agency must be a not for profit corporation and approved by the US Department of Justice. A list of approved agencies is available at http://www.justice.gov/ust/ .

I, and most other attorneys, will provide clients with a referral to the agency that has provided a Quality service to my clients in the past.

With the internet the counseling is available nearly 24 hours a day so there should be a convenient time for you to complete the course.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a payment plan. In chapter 13 the debtor makes a reasonable monthly payment based on his or her income and expenses. Whatever does not get paid back to creditors through the plan is discharged and you never have to repay again.

In order to determine the amount of the monthly payment we first look to the debtor’s income and then take off deductions for living expenses. Such as utilities, rent, mortgage, car loan payments, food, gas, retirement contributions, and life insurance to name a few.

With some careful planning we can reduce the amount of the chapter 13 plan payment. The simplest way to reduce the payment is to increase the amount of you contribute to your employee retirement plan. For every dollar you contribute you have to pay one less dollar to your creditors. However, your contribution cannot exceed 15% of your annual salary.

If you owe the IRS or the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (“DOR”) back taxes then filing bankruptcy may help.

Filing bankruptcy under chapter 13 or 11 will put you into an interest free repayment plan. Yes, you will have to pay the IRS or DOR back, but it will be INTEREST FREE, penalty free, and you will be able to do it over 5 years in chapter 13 and possibly even longer in chapter 11.

It should also be noted that some taxes will get discharged in bankruptcy meaning you never have to pay them back.

For most debtors filing under chapter 7, 11, 12, or 13 you are able to keep your tax return without surrendering it over to the case trustee or the estate.

In bankruptcy you are able to exempt certain asset from your creditors and the bankruptcy estate. Although there is no specific exemption for tax returns, the federal exemptions allow for a “wild card” exemption for up to $11,200 per person or $22,400 for married debtors filing jointly.

Because of the large value of the wild card exemption it is rare that a debtor will lose their tax return in bankruptcy.

Also, individuals filing under chapter 11, 12, or 13 will simply factor their anticipated tax return into their monthly budget as to not lose their tax return over the course of the bankruptcy plan.

In order to protect an asset a person thinking about filing bankruptcy may transfer an asset out of her name and into the name of another. This can include a home, vacation home, car, boat, plan, motorcycle, or even cash in the bank.

This is a huge bankruptcy mistake.

This would be an attempt to defraud your creditors. It could result in, a denial of the bankruptcy discharge, loss of the asset, or even criminal actions.

The good news. The asset, would be bankruptcy debtors are trying to hide can typically be exempted in a chapter 7 bankruptcy or protected in chapter 13 filing. In short if you try to hide something from the Court you are risking a lot with no possible reward.

Before taking any action with your assets talk to a qualified attorney.

When contemplating filing bankruptcy, sometime individuals will max out their credit cards right before filing. This is a mistake, and could jeopardize your entire case.

Some debts in bankruptcy are non-dischargeable, meaning you will still be responsible to repay your debts even after your bankruptcy case is over. This includes luxury items charged to your credit cards within 90 days of filing. Someone may think, max out the cards and wait 90 days and then file. This too will not work.

Any debt that you ever incurred without the intent to repay is also non-dischargeable.  

By maxing out your cards you may risk the discharge not only on the maxed out cards but all your debt.

If you are thinking about filing bankruptcy stop using credits and talk to a lawyer.

Bankruptcy laws, like all laws, attempt to be fair (I admit not all laws actually are fair). In an effort to be fair to all creditors a bankruptcy debtor may not pay off one creditor in favor of another. In other words your relative cannot get all the money back you owe them and your credit card companies nothing.

Many times a bankruptcy debtor owes money to a relative and instead of listing the relative in the bankruptcy filing they pay off the loan before filing.

If this happens your case trustee or a creditor could bring a “Preference Action” against your relative in order to get back the money you paid them. This means that your relative will be sued in the bankruptcy Court and forced to repay the money.

Repaying Small loans will not likely result in a “preference action” against your relative. Also, after your bankruptcy case is over you are free to repay any creditor, including your relative.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy is often called a payment plan. In chapter 13 bankruptcy the debtor will make a monthly payment for either 3 or 5 years. The amount of the payment is reasonable based on the debtor’s income and expenses and not on how much debt the debtor has.

The debtor is required to have income. Unemployment income is enough to file. Of course unemployment does not last forever so the debtor filing with unemployment alone will need another source of income by the time unemployment runs out.

If you live in or around Framingham your §341 meeting will be at:

J.W. McCormack Post Office & Court House
5 Post Office Square, Room 325
Boston, MA 02109

If you file for bankruptcy and are behind on a public utility bill then you can discharge the arrearage and not lose service.

What happens is the amount you are behind will be discharged in your bankruptcy. Anything you incur for a charge after the date of filing bankruptcy you will be required to pay.

Public utilities include the electrical (National Grid) and gas (NStar) company.

Cable or satellite television and land or cell phones are not public utilities. Your obligation to repay these bills will be discharged in bankruptcy.  You may or may not lose service depending on the policy of your provider.

Water and sewer bills attach to your home so those will need to be repaid.

If you file bankruptcy you will keep your home; unless you want to surrender it to the bank.

In order to keep your home you will need to at a minimum be able to make the current monthly payment on the first mortgage.

If you are filing chapter 7 bankruptcy, you will need to be current with all mortgages on the home when you file and continue to be current after the case is over. This is just like it would be without the bankruptcy filing. As long as you are current with the mortgage payments the bank will not foreclose.

If you are behind on your mortgage, or have a second mortgage, worry not, you will still be able to keep your home. In chapter 13 you are given up to 5 years to catch-up the missed mortgage payments under a court approved plan. Your bank will legally be barred from foreclosing during your bankrutpcy.

Additionally, in chapter 13 you may be able to eliminate your second mortgage and keep your home. In order to eliminate the second mortgage you will have to prove to the Court that the value of your home is less than the value of your first mortgage.

Bankruptcy can help. As soon as your bankruptcy case is filed the “automatic stay comes into effect. (See 11 U.S.C. §362)

The automatic stay is much like the name implies, it happens automatically by the filing of your case, and it stays actions against you.

Simply put, as soon as you file bankruptcy your creditors are legally prohibited from calling any more.

Leave it there.

An individual filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy case you may be able to exempt up to $11,200 ($22,400 for a married couple) of cash and bank deposits.

If the money is exempt it will not be touched by the bankruptcy court, trustee, or your creditors. Simply put you can keep.

If you are filing a chapter 13 case there is no liquidation of your assets, unless you want there to be, so here again you can keep the money in your bank.

If you have cash and bank deposits that exceed the exemptions, fear not, you may be able to protect some of the non-exempt money by placing it into an IRA or putting a new roof on your home. I strongly encourage you to meet with a lawyer prior to planning any exemption.

No, your bankruptcy filing will not be in the newspaper.

However, the local newspapers here in Massachusetts does not list who filed for bankruptcy. Look for yourself, pick up the newspaper and look for the bankruptcy filings section, you will not find one.

You should know that foreclosure listings are in the newspaper. Also, if you were famous, perhaps a  town official or celebrity, then the paper may run a story regarding your bankruptcy.