Student loan debt in the United State has risen to $1.6 trillion dollars, second only to mortgages as the highest category of consumer debt in the United States. While new loans account for some of the increase, that’s only part of the story. One of the more obscure reasons for the explosion of student loan...
Chapter 13 can provide a glimmer of hope to homeowners struggling to make 2nd mortgage payments. Getting rid of a second mortgage mortgage in a chapter 13 bankruptcy has become routine in many jurisdictions like New Hampshire and Massachusetts. As a bankruptcy lawyer who has filed a couple of dozen of chapter 13s to strip...
Bankruptcy has a bad rap. It's true. Working in bankruptcy, we see so many of the harsh realities our clients are facing each day. Outside the bankruptcy circle (including bankruptcy attorneys, financial advisors and even the courts), bankruptcy has a bad image. "Bankruptcy is great for people who rack up enormous debt and then can't...
This article was originally posted on Huffington Post on Monday, June 11, 2012 and reprinted here with permission. Given the bailout the banks enjoyed at taxpayer expense, it's ironic how difficult it has become for the 'little guy' to take advantage of the only bailout he's ever going to see -- the fresh start promised by filing...
[caption id="attachment_273" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Natural disasters often leave homeowners holding the bag on mortgages, property taxes and more."][/caption] We’ve all seen the devastating television footage of Mother Nature’s fury. From out of control wildfires in the Southwest to historic flooding and the ravages of hurricanes in the Northeast, it seems that no one is immune...
The college graduating class of 2012 is scheduled to start tossing caps in the air in just a few short weeks. But the celebrating may be more subdued because recent news has also given them the distinction as being the Most Indebited Graduating Class in U.S. history owing more than $1 trillion dollars in student loan...
There are a lot of misunderstandings about filing for bankruptcy which lead to a tremendous amount of confusion and heartache if you don’t understand your rights from the beginning. Why does this happen? Some of these myths are perpetuated in the media. Other times, people are often too embarrassed to tell a neighbor or relative...
[caption id="attachment_262" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Rising healthcare and decreasing insurance coverage mean tough choices for many families."][/caption] A recent report came out a few days ago linking federal bankruptcy court records with cancer survival rates. For many Americans the findings were shocking, but for those of us who work in bankrupcty, the numbers were not all...
Reprinted with permission from Huffington Post 7-13-11 One newspaper article in 1997 told me all I needed to know about the business model for the credit card industry. Beneficial National Bank, the credit card lender for BJ's Warehouse, notified 12,000 of its customers that it was revoking their credit card privileges. A logical guess would be...
[caption id="attachment_84" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Welcome 2010"][/caption] Smart Money recently ran a great piece on the basics of understanding the bankruptcy filing process (http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BankruptcyGuide/10-secrets-of-filing-for-bankruptcy.aspx). Many of the issues presented are ones we witness every day in our Salem, NH office. Hardworking Americans are struggling because of medical expenses, unemployment has wrecked havoc by leaving families with mounting debt and potential...