In my last blog I said that non-citizens–legal or not–can file bankruptcy. All they need is appropriate identification. But that begs two questions: 1) Would that non-citizen receive all the benefits from that bankruptcy that a citizen would receive? 2) And would filing the bankruptcy hurt a legal non-citizen’s efforts to become a citizen, or would it increase an illegal immigrant’s risk of deportation?
The answer is simple: Yes.
What if you are under threat of foreclosure, donât want to keep your house, but just need a little more time to find another place to live? Or if you just need to finish a pending sale before the scheduled foreclosure happens?
Or maybe you donât want or need the extra benefits of Chapter 13. Or you just want to put it all behind you in a few months instead of going through a 3-to-5 year Chapter 13 Plan. A Chapter 7 âstraightâ bankruptcy may give you just the right amount of help.
What if you really need to hang on to your car or truck, but canât afford the monthly payments? Or if youâve fallen behind and just canât catch up?
âStraight bankruptcyâ – Chapter 7 – wonât help you here. Most of the time, you have to either quickly catch up or you lose the vehicle. And very few vehicle lenders will negotiate about the payment amount in a Chapter 7 case. With rare exceptions, itâs take it or leave it.
I had no idea that the recession had such a worse impact on minorities. The gap in median household wealth between whites and each of the two largest minority groups has not only gotten tremendously wide, in fact this gap almost doubled in only four years.
This is according to a report just released on July 26, 2011 by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project.
In most consumer bankruptcy cases you hardly hear about the United States Trustee (UST). But when you do, he or she can make a lot of noise. And carries a big stick. All the more reason to understand this most easily misunderstood player on the bankruptcy stage.
As my title suggests, the UST has two primary rolesâcase administrator and bankruptcy law enforcer. These are reflected in this agencyâs stated mission: âto promote integrity and efficiency in the nationâs bankruptcy system by enforcing bankruptcy laws, providing oversight of private trustees, and maintaining operational excellence.â
As a bankruptcy case administrator, the Office of the UST appoints and supervises the Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 trustees. It monitors cases so that they are âadministered promptly and efficiently.â It reviews and can raise objections to fees charged by attorneys and other professionals in the bankruptcy process.
Your Chapter 13 trustee plays a huge role in the success or failure of your Chapter 13 case. Except he or she actually has at least a half-dozen different roles. Some of which are contradictory. Let me explain.
1) The trustee serves as the gatekeeper of your case, forcing us to play by the rules before allowing your Chapter 13 Plan to be approved by the bankruptcy judge.
2) As part of that role, the trusteeâs job is to make you pay as much as possible to your creditors. Because each individual creditor often doesnât have all that much to lose or gain compared to the cost of each of them hiring an attorney, the trustee is the creditorsâ advocate in your case.
My goal with our Chapter 7 clients is to provide a smooth path through bankruptcy to a fresh and clean start. The way to get there is to do what it takes to keep your Chapter 7 trustee happy. We keep the trustee happy by making it easy for him or her to do his or her job.
Think about the trustee being the green-yellow-red lights at two intersections in a row. The first intersection is about assets. The second one is about getting a âdischarge,â a legal write-off of your debts. In most cases youâre going to get through both intersectionsâthe trustee will claim none of your assets for distribution to your creditors and the trustee will raise no objections to your discharge. But you want to make sure you get through those intersections, and do so without any worry or delay. Thatâs our goalâtwo easy green lights.
The three kinds of trustees in consumer bankruptcy have tremendous power over you. So itâs important to know what they do, and how to stay in their good graces. Iâll introduce them in this blogâthe Chapter 7 trustee, the Chapter 13 trustee, and the United States Trustee. Then in the next three blogs Iâll tell you more about each of them.
1. Chapter 7 Trustee: Determines either that you have no ânon-exemptâ assets to collect or else pursues any such assets in order to liquidate them and pay the proceeds to your creditors. Reviews your documents and presides at your Meeting of Creditors for this purpose. Can conduct other investigation such as reviewing the public record. Can also pursue âfraudulent transfersâ or âpreferencesââmoney or assets either that you gave or sold to someone or that creditors got or took from you within a certain amount of time before the filing of your bankruptcy case.
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