THE LAW OFFICES OF DREW MOSLEY LLC 600 South Perry Street
Lawrenceville, Georgia 30046
770-277-8624 phone678-221-0230 fax See our web page focusing on our bankruptcy practice at www.bcylawhelp.com. Chapter 7, Chapter 13, Debtor, Creditor, Proof of Claim, Motion to Lift Stay, Avoid Foreclosure and Garnishments Bankruptcy can be a complicated area of law to deal with for a consumer facing having to file for bankruptcy protection or for a creditor who is owed money by someone who has filed for bankruptcy protection. Questions of whether or not debt is secured or unsecured arise, as do questions of what debt has priority. An attorney is essential in any bankruptcy situation. What actions may be taken and what actions are prohibited at a given time are decisions no one wants to or should make alone. The Mosley Law Offices have experience representing bankruptcy debtors and creditors. Our Attorneys serve Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Fulton Counties and beyond in Georgia. We are admitted to the Bankruptcy Courts of the Northern District of Georgia, the Middle District of Georgia, and the Northern District of Florida. Q: How does a Chapter 7 bankruptcy work? A: Chapter 7 liquidation is for individuals who have debt they are unable to pay. If you have income that passes the "means test," or in other words is low enough that you are not presumed to be abusing the system, you qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which allows an individual to have his or her qualifying debts discharged so that he or she can start over. There are some other requirements to be eligible, but the means test is one major hurdle. Credit cards, medical debt, a home foreclosure, or an automobile repossession may place a person in a situation that calls for a bankruptcy. Sometimes the numbers simply don't add up and all one can do is start from scratch. Thankfully, United States bankruptcy law offers this mechanism for financial rebirth. It certainly beats the old English practice of imprisoning those who could not pay their debts. Q: How does a Chapter 13 bankruptcy work? A: Chapter 13s are for debtors who presently have income and can afford to pay some money, but not all of their present debts. A Chapter 13 uses a payment plan to achieve something similar to what the Chapter 7 does through its liquidation mechanism. Chapter 13 bankruptcies are often touted as allowing one to keep his or her house or avoid foreclosure. Similarly, they can help you keep your car or avoid repossession. Chapter 13s also provide mechanisms to reduce second mortgages to the amount of the value they secure. These "cram downs" can help to put a debtor in a much better position upon the sale of their home down the road. Essentially, the unrealistic home value assumed by second mortgage is brought back down to earth. Q: Where can I take the online consumer credit counseling course required before filing for bankruptcy protection? A: We used to refer our clients to Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta, Inc., which changed its name to CredAbility a while back. Our firm's code there is 4657. We now suggest DebtHelper because it is cheaper. Our firm's code there is GA0078. If you want to get a jump on your case, you can take the pre-filing bankruptcy course before your first meeting at our office. Q: Can I protect my retirement account in bankruptcy? A: Yes, usually you can. The Code of Georgia in Section 18-4-22 states that "Funds or benefits from a pension or retirement program as defined in 29 United States Code Section 1002(2)(A) or funds or benefits from an individual retirement account as defined in Section 408 or 408A of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, shall be exempt from the process of garnishment until paid or otherwise transferred to a member of such program or beneficiary thereof." This is a tremendous protection for a debtor. One of the most unfortunate situations a bankruptcy attorney encounters is when a debtor has withdrawn money from protected retirement funds to pay off credit cards or other otherwise dischargeable debt and then has to file for bankruptcy anyway. In this scenario, retirement funds are lost when they could have been preserved. Q: Where can I get a credit report that is really free so that I can see who my creditors are? A: AnnualCreditReport.com is the website Congress made the credit bureaus set up to provide consumers with free annual copies of their credit reports. If you request reports from the three major bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax) you will have a greater likelihood of tracking down most of your creditors. Some creditors appear on a credit report from one agency while they do not appear on the others. Q: Can I input information about my creditors online? A: Yes, we use industry-leading Best Case bankruptcy software, and our clients can choose to input most of their information from the comfort of their homes through use of Best Case's My Case Info service. Q: What is a lien strip motion? A: Simply, a lien strip motion is a motion to strip a lien from a piece of property from which it was formerly attached. Does that not sound so simple? Well, for example, if you have two mortgages on your home, a first mortgage and a second mortgage, your home value may have fallen so low that the second mortgage is no longer in reality secured by any value. Consider a house that was purchased for $200,000.00. The first mortgage is for $150,000.00, and the second mortgage is for $50,000.00. But, the house has fallen in value to $135,000.00. In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the second mortgage may potentially be stripped and eventually discharged, leaving only the first mortgage in place. This can be an essential part of the debt relief provided by a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Q: What is an emergency petition? A: Bankruptcy petitions, the papers that are filed to proceed as a bankruptcy debtor in the bankruptcy court, are substantial documents of approximately 50 pages. They take significant time and information to assemble. Sometimes, to prevent a foreclosure, for instance, an incomplete filing is made so that the automatic stay (order protecting debtor from creditor collection action) goes into effect sooner than it would if the whole petition was assembled. An emergency petition must contain the following forms: (1) the Voluntary Petition (this is the first three pages of a bankruptcy filing, though sometimes the completed set of documents is referred to as the petition, as above); (2) Exhibit D, which shows that the required pre-filing credit counseling has been completed [include the certificate if you have it]; (3) Verification of the Matrix of Creditors (address list); (4) Notice to Debtor regarding available kinds (chapters) of bankruptcy available; (5) Matrix of Creditors (address list); (6) A Statement of Social Security Number may be required by your court. Q: How can I see a ledger of payments for my Chapter 13 case? A: Check out the National Data Center. As they put it, "In a world of hundreds of Chapter 13 Trustees, finally one source of consolidated Trustee data." The site is really quite helpful for figuring out where tax returns have gone and what payments have and have not registered with the trustee. As a court approved debt relief agency, we help people file for bankruptcy relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. |