Credit Report Experts

When people are considering bankruptcy as an option to overwhelming debt, they often wonder about whether being “judgment proof” applies to them and how it relates to the decision of whether or not to file a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

• If a creditor is planning to sue you over unpaid debts, your creditor will generally consider if they have grounds to win the case, and whether you have enough assets available to cover the time and expense of taking action against you.  If your assets and income are so small that a creditor has nothing to seize or garnish, then you are said to be “judgment proof.”

• Some forms of income are protected and some may be at risk for bank/paycheck garnishment Some forms of income, such as Social Security payments, cannot be garnished by creditors, and a bank account containing only deposits from Social Security income cannot be levied by creditors either.  If you have forms of income that are not protected, your creditors could try to garnish them.  Also, if your bank accounts contain deposits from Social Security mixed with deposits from unprotected income, then the whole account might still be at risk of being seized.

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Our Claremont consumer bankruptcy lawyers tell our clients to be as sure as they can be before accepting a legal settlement, because it’s difficult to change your mind after the fact. In the absence of a special circumstance, such as a finding that one party had no authority to make the agreement, courts may hold parties to their agreements even if they later reconsider. This was the case in In re Burrage, a recent decision of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Linda Burrage of Ohio filed an adversary proceeding in her bankruptcy against Bank One, a creditor. The parties agreed orally to settle two months later, but Burrage, who was not represented by an attorney, changed her mind the next day. After the court entered the settlement, she moved unsuccessfully to reopen her adversary proceeding. The BAP agreed with the bankruptcy court that there was no evidence showing a good reason to reopen it.

Burrage and Bank One settled on Oct. 4, 2010 and Bank One notified the court, which canceled the trial in her adversary proceeding. On Oct. 5, Burrage called the court to say she changed her mind and preferred to go to trial.

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In 2009, I wrote an article outlining how to navigate through the world of charitable giving.  Since that time, there has been a lot of coverage about charitable giving due in part to some charities involved in dodgy tax schemes and a greater emphasis on bang for the charitable buck during economic slow times.

While a positive step to promote transparency and accountability, has the law of unintended consequences taken over and we are too hyper-critical and reluctant to give as a result? The dialogue on charitable giving is generally being boiled down to two metrics- how much money has the charity spent on administration and what is its fundraising expense ratio (which is the amount of cents spent to raise $1.00- the higher the ratio, the better).

A recent study found that 40% of all surveyed believed that a charity should spend no money on fundraising costs (I am guessing these 40% also believe governments can deliver civilization with a 2% flat tax as well).  Another 60% believes that charities should have a fundraising expense ratio of approximately 15% (in other words, 15 cents is spent to raise $1.00).

Heres the catch- the governments contradict the public on this issue. T

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Some things are sacred. The holiday season is a perfect example: it’s a special time of gift giving, filled with joy and wonder, especially for children. So it comes as a shock when we hear of a particularly ugly violation of the spirit of the season: parents, who are supposed to give the gift of love and devotion to their children, stealing their identities instead.

According to a series of articles in the Huffington Post called “Burdened Beginnings,” child identity theft is a startling reality for some individuals. One article cites a study done by ID Analytics that shows a large group of parents and children in the United States is inappropriately sharing identity information. Here are some statistics that may surprise you:

• Approximately six million parents and children improperly share identifying information, specifically Social Security numbers.
• Nearly 500,000 children under the age of 18 have had their identities stolen by a parent.
• More than two million elderly parents have had their identity information used for fraudulent purposes by adult children.

So, why are parents using their children’s information instead of their own? Bad cre

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While the news may not come as a huge surprise, recent research shows that people who suffer from chronic illnesses are more likely than others to have large amounts of medical debt.

And, in turn, people suffering from chronic diseases or those requiring long-term medical care may file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy more often in order to reduce their heavy medical debt loads.

In sum, the research portrays a stark picture of an American health care landscape that offers little aid to those who need it most.

According to data compiled by the Commonwealth Fund, and reported on MSNBC.com, Americans were more likely than citizens of other high-income countries to have problems getting medical care because of high rates of medical debt.

Some of the most interesting nuggets of information include:

• High costs of care. The Commonwealth Fund poll questioned 18,000 adults, and found that 42 percent of all Americans with health problems decided to forego medical care because of high costs.
• The burden of debt. In addition, of the adults with chronic health problems, more than 25 percent reported that they were unable to pay all or some of their medical bills.
• U.S.

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