I know I got a discharge, and I tried to apply for some financing, and they said I was good to go, but my bankruptcy is still open. How could that be? I got a discharge!

Maybe a creditor has filed some sort of motion, they want to do something. Maybe the trustee has found assets that the trustee wants to administer and that could take weeks, months, or even years before your case is closed after you got a discharge.

So, sometimes if you want to try to get on with your life after you get your discharge, but the case is still open, you should bring your bankruptcy attorney into the picture, try to get their help, so that you can coordinate with lenders or landlords or anybody else who needs to fully understand what’s going on in your situation, so that you can move forward in your life after getting a discharge, even though the bankruptcy case has not been closed.

Thoughts from a Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyer

The post I Received A Discharge But My Bankruptcy Case Is Still Open, How Is That Possible? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

So, I got my Chapter 13 plan confirmed, but now the trustee wants to see my tax returns every year. Why?

The reason for that, is that during the term of you Chapter 13 case, 36 to 60 months, your income might fluctuate significantly, and you’re supposed to pay over all of your net disposable income in order to qualify for a Chapter 13 discharge.

So, if your income spikes all the way up one year and that is revealed in your tax returns, the trustee needs to know it so that the trustee can go back into court and ask the judge to modify your Chapter 13 plan. Now that’s not a good outcome, but it doesn’t happen that often.

On the other hand, in some Chapter 13 cases you need to turn over your tax refunds every year because that’s also part of your net disposable income, and the trustee needs to monitor your tax returns in order to see if you’re getting refunds. So, there are reasons why the Chapter 13 trustee does need to take a look at your tax returns every year.

Thoughts from a Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyer

The post Why Does The Chapter 13 Trustee Want To See My Tax Returns Every Year? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

I’m getting ready to file a Chapter 13 case, but the attorney’s fees are so much higher than Chapter 7, why is that?

The reason why Chapter 13 attorney’s fees are much higher than Chapter 7 is that Chapter 7 is a fairly straight-forward and in the best-case scenario a 90 to 100-day process.

Whereas in Chapter 13 you have to do everything you would do in a Chapter 7 plus you have to get a plan confirmed, plus, you know, clients are living through their lives during Chapter 13, income rises and falls, expenses vary, sometimes you need to get a car, sometimes you need to move out of a house and the attorney needs to be prepared to manage all of those different circumstances that are going to come up during that 3 to 5 year period and that’s why the Chapter 13 attorney’s fees are significantly higher then Chapter 7 attorney’s fees.

Thoughts from a Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyer

The post Why Are Chapter 13 Attorneys Fees Higher Than Chapter 7? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

I got a scholarship for a college but then I had to drop out and now the college says that I have to repay that scholarship. Can I just charge that debt in Chapter 7 bankruptcy?

The bad news is you can’t discharge that in Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 because that is considered an obligation to repay a scholarship or a stipend or an educational benefit and the bankruptcy specifically says those are the kind of debts that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. They are considered on par with other student loans so that is a thing that you’ll have to plan to repay even if you decide for other reasons to file bankruptcy.

Thoughts from a Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyer

The post Can I Discharge Scholarship In Bankruptcy After I Drop Out? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

I woke up this morning, and I went out to start my car, and it had been repo’d. Now I’m going to have to file bankruptcy to get it back. How long is that going to take?

A good bankruptcy law firm has been through this fire drill many times before, and it depends in large part on the lender and their process for dealing with these bankruptcy cases. Experienced lenders, the ones who know what they are doing, they can turnaround and return your car a day after you file bankruptcy, providing your attorney does all the right things.

Some lenders they’re not with the program. They are not as experienced and with them it can take a week to get your car back. So really the better play is to file the bankruptcy before the car gets repo’d.

Thoughts from a Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyer

The post My Car Has Been Repossessed! How Long Will It Take To Get It Back After Filing Bankruptcy? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

So I’m going to file a Chapter 13 and I know I need to meet with the trustee at least once during my case. Do I have to go to my confirmation hearings also?

The good news at least in Maryland is that the trustees like to move their dockets through as efficiently as possible so if you’re current on your plan payments and you’re getting in documents and you’re making a good-faith effort to meet the requirements of Chapter 13, then most of the time you won’t have to go to a confirmation hearing so you won’t have to take off time from work and make arrangements to get to the federal courthouse to do that.

But if you’ve missed a bunch of payments and there’s a problem because they just think that the amount that you’re going to pay is too low and you can’t meet in the middle and you got to go to the judge and get the judge’s permission to approve your plan, then yes you’re going to have to go to that confirmation hearing.

Now, besides everything I’ve said, when your lawyer tells you about a confirmation hearing you really need to put that on your calendar and reserve the day until the lawyer tells you that you don’t have to go.

Thoughts from a Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyer

The post Do I Have To Go To Confirmation Hearings In My Chapter 13 Bankruptcy? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Today I want to answer the question, “I have a security interest in property that somebody is using, or I loaned somebody some property and they haven’t given it back to me. How do I get possession of that property from the person who’s wrongfully withholding it?”

Well, the answer to that question is there’s a procedure in the law called replevin, and replevin is a fairly short procedure in most states because these are things where stuff disappears, and the people that want to get their stuff back or get their collateral back so they can sell it, tends to have a problem getting hold of that, so they don’t want them to hang around too long in the court process. It’s a fairly quick procedure that allows you to go into Maryland District Court and obtain an order or judgment giving you possession of your stuff.

Once you have that order or judgment, then you send the sheriff out to identify it and to grab it and to bring it back into someplace for storage or safekeeping so that you can then sell it to pay down your debt, or if it’s yours and the other person was holding it, simply enjoy whatever use and possession that you want once you have it back in your possession.

The post What is Replevin? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Today I want to answer the question, what is a zero distribution plan in Chapter 13. The answer to that question is that Chapter 13 offers you opportunities to do certain, very specific things. For example, you can discharge parking violations or other toll violations or speeding tickets in Chapter 13 where you can’t do that in Chapter 7.

Sometimes you can restructure an automobile loan if you’ve had the car for more than 910 days and the car is worth much less than what you owe. Sometimes you can cure arrears on a home mortgage so that you can catch up those arrears over 60 months and keep your home; and other types of things that are only available in Chapter 13.

When that happens, you can file a plan that will payout your net disposable income over 5 years or 3 years, as the case may be, and it’s possible that your net disposable income is really zero dollars or close to zero dollars. And then your payment will only be for fees of the trustee and probably fees for your bankruptcy lawyer as well. If what you’re trying to do is cure the arrears on a home mortgage, then your Chapter 13 payment may only be the amount required to cure the arrears on that home mortgage. And then there won’t be anything extra that other general unsecured creditors will receive in the bankruptcy.

When unsecured creditors aren’t going to receive anything in a bankruptcy under Chapter 13 that’s called a zero distribution plan. Now, some states and some districts and some jurisdictions they strongly disfavor those and may require you to make a payment to general unsecured creditors in Chapter 13. So you are in most states and jurisdictions authorized to have a zero distribution plan in Chapter 13.

The post What Is A Zero Distribution Plan In Chapter 13? appeared first on Baltimore Bankruptcy Lawyer.

Today I want to answer the question, you know, I have a payment that I’m making from an auto debit from the bank, and I need to stop that payment. How do I do that?

Well, you know, sometimes that seems like it’s going to be tricky or frustrating, but it should be pretty simple. First, go to the bank. Tell the bank you don’t want that payment coming out of your bank account anymore. The bank really should honor that request and then withdraw that ACH, or let’s say you have it coming out from a debit card. You could go to your debit card company and say, you know what, I have this automatic payment coming out and I need to stop it.

So, that’s the first thing I would do, is go to your financial institution. The next is go to your creditor. Tell the creditor, listen, I need to stop the auto debits that are coming out, so I’m withdrawing the authorization that I gave you to take these auto debits. The creditor really does need to honor that because the creditor can’t just take money from you without your authorization.

If you’re making no headway in trying to get free of this payment, you may have the last resort which is simply pull all the money out of that account and start putting money into a new account. It could be at the same bank, it could be at a different bank. This way when the auto debit comes out of that old account, it will fail, and the creditor won’t be happy, but at least you won’t have that money coming out of your account on a regular basis. The good news is these days, it’s pretty easy to change if you have your Social Security check or disability check or your payroll check going into a bank account every month or every other week or however, but every period of time that you get your pay, it’s pretty easy and pretty quick to have that changed to a new system.

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Today I want to answer the question, I have these payday loans and they’re killing me. Can I discharge those in bankruptcy? Well, the short answer to that question is yes. Payday loans are fully dischargeable in bankruptcy. Even if they are being automatically deducted from your paycheck or deducted from your bank accounts or being deducted based upon a debit card, you can file bankruptcy, list them on the bankruptcy papers that you file with the court. They’ll have 60 days from the date you meet with the trustee to object to your bankruptcy case on the basis of fraud, which almost never happens, and then, on the 61st day after you meet with the trustee, the court will issue a discharge order, and you will be free from those payday loans.

Of course, the instant you file the bankruptcy case, the automatic stay of bankruptcy will prevent that payday loan creditor from taking any action to collect on that debt, but the bankruptcy process will protect you from the payday loans and will give you relief from those very expensive and onerous financial obligations.

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