Business Bankruptcy Law | Small Business Bankruptcy Laws

For lack of a better term i was forced to take out a mortgage last year on my home that was paid for. The terms and percentages were awful but thats besides the point.

My income at the time was sufficent to pay my bills and the mortgage.

I ran a successful business for a little over two years until 4 months ago when things went downhill. My mortgage payment is more than most people make in my area in 2-3 paychecks and now im unemployed with a SMALL list of other monthly bills besides the mortgage. I do have about k in other unsecured debt from the business and other unsecured creditors from when i was young that i never took care of.

I have thought about bankruptcy, chapter 13 is a no-go mostly because i cant afford the mortgage payments now so why would i waste my time with a 13?Otherwise it could work,but otherwise i dont really need a bankruptcy if were not including the house mortgage because i could just set up monthly payments with my creditors at a small payment.
7 minutes ago – 3 days left to answer.
my monthly expenses are slim so im not worried about that.

My problem seems to stem from my home, i have about 40k worth of equity in a 117k home.

With that kind of equity, it really does not make sense to file a chapter 7 because in my state you lose all equity besides 5k no matter what.

It really doesnt make sense to do a 13 because as already stated i cant afford the payments now,much less the payments to all my creditors plus the mortgage.

And the only other options are selling, of which is not really an option because foreclosure has already been initiated.

Or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but then im giving them all of my equity for "free" although the foreclosure would likely not show up on my credit report and i could begin to repair the other damage.It would be faster to do this than to wait 10 years for a BK to come off the credit or 7 years for a foreclosure to come off.

OR just let it be foreclosed on……thats not appealing at all ofcourse.
ADVICE?

I have a non-collateralized loan (0K) in my personal name used for my small business. I cannot make the payments any longer. I know this is going to court. I am in Florida, so my house and head of household income are not touchable. Other than that I really do not own anything – maybe ,500 in a vehicle. If the bank gets a judgment, and there is no way to pay it, what happens? Does it hang around until I get assets to cover it? ie if I win the lottery, do they get theirs? A bankruptcy attorney said I could file for BK but do I really need to? What is the long term problem of a judgment, other than negative credit?

My closest friend just phoned me to pick him up because his car has been repossessed. I’ve tried to help with organizing his finances by consolidating but he didn’t listen. Now his 1 car has been repossessed. He has 3 other cars, one he’s behind by many payments & is upside down & owes more than it’s worth. He had total 4 cars, 2 he owns – 1 isn’t worth much (old) & the other IS worth a LOT. The other 2, one is now repossessed & the other will likely also be repossessed. He’s upside down on both & has not made payments on either in several months & isn’t likely to come up with the money to get caught up. Even if he did get caught up, he would need minimum of k on EACH of the 2 cars to be even with the value of them. (He can’t sell them unless he comes up with k per car)

He asked if he should voluntarily have this one repossessed also. He’s considering filing BK now. He’s asking me about what’s going to happen. I told him it’s possible they will win a judgment against him & may have the right to cease assets to pay his debt for the money he will owe after they sell his car at auction (the difference of costs from the loss to them).
Can they cease his other assets? (I told him to sell the valuable car asap to keep them from ceasing it – just in case)
I also told him to consider a bankruptcy filing.

Please tell me, does anyone know what rights they will have now?
Is filing for BK the best way out of this mess to start new & fresh & remove old habits? Or is there another way? He knows this would remain on his credit for 10-years if he files. He isn’t likely to have the money to get the payments caught up, also since he’s so upside down, why be prisoner to all of this if there’s a legal way to start new?

Someone with legal knowledge, please help me with this, I’d like to advise him with facts that will really help him. He’s a mess & very stressed from late notices, phone calls & now they are taking away from him these things. How much worse could it get? What is the wisest solution?

P.S. – He also owns a small business (suffering)

I am not sure what kind of BK atty to contact if any. I have a great job, make good money, and I have less than K in personal debt outside of my home. I am having to close down a small business. The problem is I have a personal guarantee on the business loan, lease, and equipment for the business. The equipment has enough equity to take care of itself, but it leaves the loan and lease. I owe roughly K on the loan, and have roughly 0K on the lease left. I don’t have any toys or extras, as my family leads a very modest lifestyle, and ultimately have fallen victims to the bad economy. The business is three years old, and we were on pace to have the business debt free within 5 years. We paid everything in advance, and now looking back was a mistake. All options to extend the debt and restructure have been exhausted. We are now going to be on the hook for almost 0K that we will never have means to pay off. I don’t know where to begin. Do I contact a business atty, a personal atty, or should I be thinking of other options. The loan is with an individual, while the lease is with a major leasing company.

We fell on some devistating hard times due to illness, medical bills, ect ect ect. After our only vehicle got repossessed we sifted through hours and hours of online and phonebook ads for bad credit loans to attempt to borrow some money so we can get vehicle back. Seems either they’re all payday loans of small amounts that aren’t big enough to do any good with insane interests or just total scams. Its been exhausting and very depressing. So now we realize that the only answer is to file for chapter 13.

Just as overwhelming is trying to find a good BK lawyer. How do you sift through all the generic ads to find a good one? We don’t have a lot of time for testimonials as we’ll have 3 business days to find one and get working to save what little we have left.

I loaned a "friend" (of 14 years) 00 appx 3 years ago. She was going through a difficult time. She was self employed as a staffer for the car business and after the economy bottomed out she was on the verge of losing her home to foreclosure. She also was about to have her phone shut off and was worried she wouldn’t be able to get back on her feet if she couldn’t conduct her business. Her boyfriend also self employed. He bought things from estate sales and resold them on EBay. Their mortgage was behind by 00, her phone bill was almost 0 and the EBay acct was suspended owing 8.00. At the time my family was doing okay as I had just received some money from an insurance settlement and I had it to loan. I had western unioned her 00 in cash, put her phone bill on my credit card and sent them money through PayPal to pay off the EBay acct.

It was always understood it was a loan but because they were going through such a rough time, I didn’t want to pressure her with a repayment date and just said, "pay me back as soon as you can or if I ever need it back". She has made mention over the last 3 years that she hadn’t forgotten that she will pay me back soon and had once made a payment of 0 dropping her debt to me down to 50.

6 months ago our financial situation had changed. My husbands hours had started to be cut back. At first we juggled and managed but soon after it got worse and we also got hit with a few unexpected bills. I had approached my "friend" and asked if she could pay me back the money she owed me. If she couldn’t handle the whole amount, I would accept payment installments but we really needed that money back. She said she would see what she could do and then shortly after picked a fight with me over something trivial. I saw that ploy for what it was and insisted that she pay me back all of it or else…

She had just filed for chapter 13 BK and stated that she couldn’t be behind on any debt or have a new debt added or it would unwind the BK. I didn’t want to cause any trouble for her but I needed my money back and told her as much. She had promised she would have the money to me by the end of May. The deadline came and went and not a word from her. My husband had finally gotten his hours back but not soon enough and because we had no other money coming in, all we could do was hope she would be honorable and pay, so we held off our creditors as long as we could. As a result our truck, that we had paid diligently for over 3.5 yrs had gotten repossessed. We are going to be able to get it back but we’re going to have to let go of a few other bills to do so and its going to causes us much trouble. The money she owes me would put us right back on track.

I’m starting to see that unless I get "official" with her I’m not going to see my money back any time soon. Recently, on one of the rare occasions when we had a cordial conversation, she had let it slip that she’s had steady employment for the last year and through some sort of loophole, she’s been able to stay in her condo for the last 36 months and her car (a benz) for the last 18 months without having to pay anything and that her boyfriend just bought a new car. Now I’m furious! While my truck sits in a lot as we try to come up with 00 by Friday to get our truck back and try to figure out how we’re going to feed the family and keep the lights on, they’re doing just fine! In what universe does that seem fair? So now I’m ready to role up my sleeves and get serious. You just don’t do that to people, especially after a decade and a half of "friendship". Its all so pathetic and cliche!

Problem is, I live in Colorado and she in California. I looked into it and I can’t sue her in small claims from here. I’d either have to hire a lawyer to handle the suit or file myself but I’d have to do it from there. Obviously can’t afford that right now. I’ve looked into hiring a collection agency but the few that I found that will take on a personal, non-business loan want between 30-50% upfront in fees (and some after). I’ve kept all the proof (WU receipt, credit card bill, paypal transaction showing all the money I sent her, along with the emails where she acknowledges her debt to me and that she would be paying me back what she owed me, in full, by May, 2010).

I want to know if I can hire a lawyer (preferably in SoCal) to scare her into paying me back by sending her a letter on my behalf stating my intent to pursue all my legal options to get the money owed back within 30 days, without having to pay a retainer and if so how much would something like that cost?

And if anyone can think of anything else that I can do to get the money owed to me back, that would be greatly appreciated. Maybe a SoCal atty that would be willing to handle this probono?

Thank
Thank you all in advance for any and all advice. Sorry it was so long but I wanted to add the full history in case someone could think of anything else I could do. Maybe someone knows of a SoCal atty or firm that would be willing to take this on probono?

I never saw or spoke to a lawyer, they filed chapter 13 bk for me which failed..Dismissed For Incomplete Filing, no pay plan submitted.They denied it saying it was a COURT ERROR but they "can’t argue with the court" so I have to start over–Refile and pay filing fee again out of my pocket!Meanwhile, the sale date is coming up
They prepare docs again, just barely in time, and they have ME file it myself and pay the fee directly to the court. I still hadn’t seen a lawyer but I was told I will "when it is time". They said I don’t even need to go to court, so I didn’t, and neither did a lawyer either! Case Dismissed For Failure To Appear and I can’t refile for 180 days. Still no lawyer and they tell me they are moving, changing phone#, FAX#, and the business Name, too.
Now my property is unprotected, I don’t know what to do and the bank takes my property. Is there anything I can do? Can I hold someone responsible?

Also I have not received anything in writing yet, and I have one rental unit and the renters have not received anything in writing either, Do I still collect the rent until I get something in writing from the bank?

I know this is long,
I filed for a chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2007, after being self employeed in same business for 35 years. It is a 5 year plan. I barely am making it now due to the economy and even my bk attorney is suprised I have gone thru it this long. In the Summer of 2008 my 16 year old snuck out of the house after 11pm to see a 19 year old boy she did not have permission to see and she meet him at a park. According to police reports the two did not do anything illegal when the police were in the area and were called out due to the other side of the park there was a complaint of 10-15 kids playing in playstructures, (so when the police went around the park to check the entire area they saw her and him) According to police report they drew guns on her and her boyfriend because he had a pocket knife cliped on to his pocket. She yelled and used fowl language on the officer and his trainess because they could have killed her and the boyfriend she was with. The officer told her that he was going to take her to juvenile hall (she has never been to juvenile hall or ever in trouble) which then of course got her scared and the trainess put her boyfriend in the back of another squad car (btw, this all took place across the street 5 houses down from his residence). The officer actually took her to a receiving home for CPS but she thought she was in juvenile hall. the officer said that she was "wandering" the streets and they could not get in contact with me (funny thing is noone did till 48 hours later after I filed a missing person report that day since she wasnt in her bedroom and she made her bed to look like she was sleeping under the covers) She told a social worker that she is scared for her boyfriend doesnt know if he is in jail or something and that it is not his fault he was just going to help her runaway from me and to please let him go and to let her go because I am to "kill" her if I found out where she is at. (this was CPS evidence against me) after 48 hours they had a social worker leave a note on my house telling me to go to court or lose my rights to have my child. Went to court in which I received a petition stating that I have a history of abuse and it was from an inconclusive allegation which was made in 2004 stating i slapped her on the mouth when she was being disrespectful, (I have that record and the social worker somehow spoke to my daughters deceased father that died in 2000, my daughter and me. Plus tons of other evidence which would prove I and my daughter never spoke to a social worker in 2004). The court sustained the allegation that I failed to protect my daughter because she snuck out of the house at 11pm to see a boyfriend,even though my daughter was on my side.
So I filed a claim to the county for this 2004 social worker report based on the date I found out about it, of course the county denied it so I filed to the federal court based on the date I found out about this report including evidence to prove this, and I also filed an In Forma Pauperis since I am in a bk chapter 13 (i cant afford everyday living expenses plus fees of the court this time becuse in my BK my daughters social security check that comes to me to take care of her after her fathers death was put into as income till my daughter turns 18, CPS had taken it for themself even though I am taking care of her becuase after she found out that she was in a receiving home not juvenile hall she left to go back to me, so thats another fight I am in now with social security, so the money that would cover my house payment I have to use to take care of my child) The federal court granted my case in regards to 2004 and my in forma pauperis, and defendeants were in the process of being served and a pretrial date was set. I then filed in the federal court for the recent case of 2008 and made notice of the related 2004 case, and as I was told by the cleark to file another in forma pauperis with this.
I then get back in the mail from a different magistrate then the one I was dealing with for the 2004 case that my in forma pauperis is denied because my 2004 case should have been included as assets in my bk. (but i filed my bk in 2007, didnt find out about the 2004 till 2008 when it was used against me, and the 2008 case also is after the filing of bk) and that I have inconsistent position in my bk and present action (of course, cps is receiving the social security check instead of me and my child is with me and I still have to take care of her, plus I have been in court for the past year over 63 days for this cps dependency and I know I lost an incredable amount of self employedd income because I have to keep my shop closed since I am the only one who runs it, plus the economy has worsen since my filing in 2007 (fannie mae, freddie, leman brothers, etc. that happened after my filing). I of course put in an objection to the magistrates findings and recommedations and also an objection to that magistrate because that magistrate h
This was the rest of the paragraph after "h"
happened to work as deputy counsel for the county I am suing and that would not be favorable to me nor the defendants.
The judge that reviwed this agreed to the magistrate order in which as of to date has caused the dimiss with prejudice on my 2004 claim, (so far I dont know with my 2008 related case which supposely if cps didnt have this 2004 allegation against me they wouldnt make my daughter a dependant of the court for this 2008).
As far as I know I can not refile my 2004 claim since it was dismissed with prejudice with my in forma pauperis revoked (I heard somewhere that I can but I have to wait a certain amount of time) So I am planning on filing an appeal in regards to this decision but not quite sure if I can appeal it and if I do how to go about that.
Problem I have is that while in bk I can not make debt over 00.00 plus if I had some money I would have paid the 0 filing fee to federal court. Any kind of help/information right now would be great, I am planning on still representing my self pro se since obviousley I can not afford an attorney. I am located in the state of CA
This was the question, but answers didnt post the full amount just partial

I already filed the "objection to magistrate findings and order" the judge stated that he agreed. I wrote a detail statement about my case in a similar question yesterday.
Currently in BK chapter 13 since July 07 (5 year plan), cant make debt over 00.00, trying to handle my civil case pro se, cant find an attorney who will speak to me (State of CA) because they want to handle the entire case (which is fine but they dont do contingency) Problem is apparently cps talk to me, my daughter and dead father in 2004, but I wasnt aware nor my daughter till 2008 when it was to be used againt me, filed a suit against the defendants based on the date I found out (with all the proff to prove this) it was granted along with the informa paperius and was set for pretrial, then when filed my 2008 suit being related to the 2004, the informa pauperis was denied because a different magistrate thinks the 2004 should be an asset in the BK (BK filed in 2007, never knew CPS talked to me, my daughter and father that was dead in 2004 so the suit was filed based on the date I found out in 2008) The judge agreed to that magistrate, that the case should have been in asset. My BK attorney disagrees with that because that was after the BK was filed I found out. So that it is denied with prejudice what do I do, do I file again with the fees, do I appeal the findings (if so where do I go to find out how to do this I already handled my own appeal when I appealed the juvenile dependency ruling, but Federal I am not for sure), can I file the same claim even though it was denied with preudice because of the informa pauperis got denied, is there a time period I have to wait before refiling. Another prob which I put in the objection, is that CPS took my daughters social security check even though she is in my custody, and I have to still take care of her so i used the house payment money and bill money to take care of her (which that money was used as income to me for the BK 13) plus I had to close my business over 63 days to go to court to fight the allegation in the past year and half, so I lost income. That I feel I can not afford to pay court fees and other fees plus the cost of living. My BK attorney feels the one magisrtate and judge is wrong and the other magistrate was correct with granting the informa pauperis, but he doesnt know what I should do because he doesnt know of those types of cases
Okay spoke to a person in the court who said that they dont think the judge understood about my 2004 case that I didnt find out till 2008 when it was used against me and made an error, that I can have his desicion revisited, (I assume appeal) "lovestheconstitution" problem I have is there are no attorneys in my area to take contingency and I already have opposition trying to dismiss the allegations against me due to the extrinsic fraud so you are wrong for thinking I dont have a case, problem is attorneys that were afforded to me have problems with the amount of caseloads they have because they need to make money now, while dealing with mine and will have to wait which can take time and in BK I can not make an debt over 00.00 without permission of the trustee, which costs thousands of dollars with my BK attorney to open the case and make thoses changes. So my case is complicated on that aspect.

For lack of a better term i was forced to take out a mortgage last year on my home that was paid for. The terms and percentages were awful but thats besides the point.

My income at the time was sufficent to pay my bills and the mortgage.

I ran a successful business for a little over two years until 4 months ago when things went downhill. My mortgage payment is more than most people make in my area in 2-3 paychecks and now im unemployed with a SMALL list of other monthly bills besides the mortgage. I do have about k in other unsecured debt from the business and other unsecured creditors from when i was young that i never took care of.

I have thought about bankruptcy, chapter 13 is a no-go mostly because i cant afford the mortgage payments now so why would i waste my time with a 13?Otherwise it could work,but otherwise i dont really need a bankruptcy if were not including the house mortgage because i could just set up monthly payments with my creditors at a small payment.
7 minutes ago – 3 days left to answer.
my monthly expenses are slim so im not worried about that.

My problem seems to stem from my home, i have about 40k worth of equity in a 117k home.

With that kind of equity, it really does not make sense to file a chapter 7 because in my state you lose all equity besides 5k no matter what.

It really doesnt make sense to do a 13 because as already stated i cant afford the payments now,much less the payments to all my creditors plus the mortgage.

And the only other options are selling, of which is not really an option because foreclosure has already been initiated.

Or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but then im giving them all of my equity for "free" although the foreclosure would likely not show up on my credit report and i could begin to repair the other damage.It would be faster to do this than to wait 10 years for a BK to come off the credit or 7 years for a foreclosure to come off.

OR just let it be foreclosed on……thats not appealing at all ofcourse.
ADVICE?

I worked for a company that laid us all off one day, and then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the next day. No employee has received their last paycheck for time worked and it’s been more than 7 months. I know we are priority, but it seems highly likely that the company will end up filing for Chapter 7 (they are pretty much not doing any business right now and cannot even agree on a BK plan because they say they don’t have enough money) and that there won’t be enough money in the estate to pay us.
Many of us employees saw very skeptical things while working there, and it is rumored that the owner transferred money from the business into his personal account right before the bankruptcy. Are we able to sue the owner personally? And if so, do we have to wait until after we "officially" receive nothing?

For lack of a better term i was forced to take out a mortgage last year on my home that was paid for. The terms and percentages were awful but thats besides the point.

My income at the time was sufficent to pay my bills and the mortgage.

I ran a successful business for a little over two years until 4 months ago when things went downhill. My mortgage payment is more than most people make in my area in 2-3 paychecks and now im unemployed with a SMALL list of other monthly bills besides the mortgage. I do have about k in other unsecured debt from the business and other unsecured creditors from when i was young that i never took care of.

I have thought about bankruptcy, chapter 13 is a no-go mostly because i cant afford the mortgage payments now so why would i waste my time with a 13?Otherwise it could work,but otherwise i dont really need a bankruptcy if were not including the house mortgage because i could just set up monthly payments with my creditors at a small payment.
my monthly expenses are slim so im not worried about that.

My problem seems to stem from my home, i have about 40k worth of equity in a 117k home.

With that kind of equity, it really does not make sense to file a chapter 7 because in my state you lose all equity besides 5k no matter what.

It really doesnt make sense to do a 13 because as already stated i cant afford the payments now,much less the payments to all my creditors plus the mortgage.

And the only other options are selling, of which is not really an option because foreclosure has already been initiated.

Or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but then im giving them all of my equity for "free" although the foreclosure would likely not show up on my credit report and i could begin to repair the other damage.It would be faster to do this than to wait 10 years for a BK to come off the credit or 7 years for a foreclosure to come off.

OR just let it be foreclosed on……thats not appealing at all ofcourse.
ADVICE?
Ok i dont think you guys are reading everything.

Selling the home is pretty much out of the question because of the mediocre or slow real estate market combined with the foreclosure that has already been initiated and would most likely only take 3-4 weeks to be final.

OK any other advice?

If a bank allows you to open a new account after an overdraft account with same bank was discharged in a ch7 bankruptcy can they take funds from the new account to satisfy the discharged one? I had to file both a corporate and personal ch7 BK about a year ago. The bank where I had my accounts was Bank of America. My accounts were overdrawn and that was included in the BK. The BK was just now discharged and that debt discharged along with the BK. I had a savings account with them as well which remained open with a balance of .64 in it and that account is still open today with the same .64. I started a new company (Sole Prop w/DBA) and went to BOA online and opened new business accounts. I am concerned that they would be able to take funds that I deposit into my new accounts to try to satisfy the discharged debt. I have called many people with BOA to ask this question and most have no clue but one said absolutely they could but didn’t seem to have referenced anything other than her own belief when answering. If I deposit funds into these new accounts and the take the funds then my business and me personally would take an unrecoverable hit. So I need to know if they can indeed take funds from the new accounts or do the federal BK laws protect me in that they can not collect a debt that was previously discharged in a BK? I welcome opinions with your answers but mainly request facts that directly pertain to this subject. Thanks for the help!!!

Help!!! my car has just been reposessed, if you been thru it before , please give me some good advice?
They reposessed the car last week, and told me i do not have the option to bring the payments current , they now want the full balance which is k, they also told me to get a loan with someone else, they done doing business with me. I have tried paying my car note on time, but i have had some financial woes lately, raising a little baby by myself without the father’s financial support, so it has been tough for me. My major concern right now is when they will take me to court for the remaining balance, because i definitely will not be able to pay a k car note without having the car, i simply can’t afford it, should i get a lawyer to represent my case against the bank, or should i file for bankruptcy, i never even wanted to file bk, but i may have to……i need your advice, thanks
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i will use my tax refund next year to buy a car with cash outright and just fix it up if need be

They reposessed the car last week, and told me i do not have the option to bring the payments current , they now want the full balance which is k, they also told me to get a loan with someone else, they done doing business with me. I have tried paying my car note on time, but i have had some financial woes lately, raising a little baby by myself without the father’s financial support, so it has been tough for me. My major concern right now is when they will take me to court for the remaining balance, because i definitely will not be able to pay a k car note without having the car, i simply can’t afford it, should i get a lawyer to represent my case against the bank, or should i file for bankruptcy, i never even wanted to file bk, but i may have to……i need your advice, thanks

A while back my brother was about to lose his house & my husband & I lend him $$ from our small business (I know, I should have never lend $ to family) but he has 2 kids & we felt sorry for him. He then failed to make pymts as agreed & soon after he filed bankruptcy. The contract he signed was to my husban’s business name (my brother lost his copy of the contract so he assumed the $$ was owed to me). Once the BK was discharged we got the records & there’s neither my husband or his company’s name in file only my name w/my maiden name. Can we still go after our money?

I just read that Sharper Image and other retailers are not honoring Gift cards because they are in financial trouble and some are even in Chapter 11 BK. The story is" That is typical of businesses that reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which treats gift cards as a loan to the company, not as cash."

Was’nt cash used to buy these gift cards????? If so, how can they deem it a loan or credit when they (Sharper Image)were already paid for the gift cards.

My wife and I started a business 2 years ago and put everything from our savings and credit into it but it went under. We need to file Bk to get out from this debt and collection efforts but we did manage to keep our 401K accounts and not touch them for the business. Can we file BK and have our investment account not placed up for grabs? How about our car notes? Are there limits as to what one can have when filing bankruptcy? Would we still be liable for a portion of the debt because of Bush’s new law that went into effect last year? The total debt is less than 100K. Any information would be greatly appreciated and I will definitely pick the Best Answer.

Thanks!

Filed bankruptcy a year ago because of a bad business venture. I am currently in college with a major in accouting but I am getting worried that I won’t be able to use my degree in accouting with a BK. I am only in my second year so I could easily change majors at this time. I do have an interest in Med-school, law-school and accounting PHD. My question is should I keep going with my accounting degree and get my PHD in accounting. I would like to teach I think but worry that it will be hard to find a job after getting that degree that took me 8 years to get?

I have a small business that I am closing and am filing bankruptcy for the LLC. Can my employees final 2 weeks of pay be included in a BK?