How to protect your identity from being stolen The easiest way to protect your identity from being stolen is to continuously monitor your credit and protect important information such as account numbers, creditor information, and your social security number.  Many credit monitoring companies offer low monthly fees to pull your credit at any time and [...]

Community Property Rules vs. Common Law Rules Whether or not you are liable for your spouse’s debt depends on whether or not you reside in a “community property state.”  In states that follow community property rules, debt that is incurred by one spouse during the marriage is owed by both spouses.  Likewise, the income of [...]

What is a reaffirmation agreement? A reaffirmation agreement is an agreement whereby a debtor filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy makes a new promise to pay a pre-petition debt.  Since all of a petitioner’s unsecured debt is discharged in a Chapter 7 and a petitioner may surrender secured debt in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy the only way [...]

Reasons a Debtor Might Want to Reopen a Bankruptcy Case The three most common reasons that a debtor desires to reopen a bankruptcy case are as follows: 1)  Failure to file a pre-discharge credit counseling certificate; 2) Failure to list a creditor or an asset; 3)  Failure to take necessary steps to remove a judgment [...]

Why a court looks at a debtor’s expenses. Two things that a bankruptcy court looks for in a bankruptcy petition are a debtor’s income and expenses. This is important because in order to file a Chapter 7 the debtor must make less than a determined amount for his/or her family size or be unable to pay a minimum [...]