San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney Blog

A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney comments on filing bankruptcy while married...

There are times when, as a San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney, I have seen circumstances where one spouse will want to file for bankruptcy, but the other spouse will not to preserve their credit. In this scenario, even though only one spouse is filing, the income of both spouses must be taken for the means test to determine which bankruptcy (Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Chapter 13 bankruptcy or Chapter 11 bankruptcy) the debtor will qualify for. Sometimes, even though the debtor that wants to file for bankruptcy would be able to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy based on his income, that debtor may be prevented because the family income is too high.

One scenario where this might happen is where one spouse has certain debts which are only in that spouse’s name and may have even been incurred entirely prior to the marriage. He wants to file a bankruptcy to deal with those debts without involving their spouse. Congress stated specifically that unless the spouses are legally separated or living apart or have a valid prenuptial agreement, then the non-filing spouse’s income must be included in the means test. The reason for this in community property states is that every spouse has a community property interest in the income earned by their spouse. These requirements have absolutely nothing to do with which spouse owes the debt, whose name is on the debts/accounts, or which spouse is filing the bankruptcy case. This also does NOT mean that the non-filing spouse will be “affected” by filing the bankruptcy case. It merely means that their income must be factored into the eligibility analysis and may result in a Chapter 13 repayment plan needing to be filed instead of just a straight Chapter 7 liquidation case.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney speaks to charge offs in bankruptcy...

If you ask a reputable San Francisco bankruptcy attorney, they may tell you that A Chapter 7 bankruptcy will discharge any unsecured debts, such as credit cards, if the debtor passes the means test. However, debtors have asked if the credit card debt is still a debt if has been “charged off.” It is a misconception to believe that if a credit card company or other creditor “charges off” the debt, that it means they no longer owe the money, or they will no longer try to collect on that debt. This is not true. A charge-off is basically just a bookkeeping entry. It has nothing to do with the legal status of the debt.

Usually, creditors will sell the accounts on which they are owed money to a third party collection company, who then owns all the rights to pursue the debt, just as the original creditor did. What ends up happening is that a debt you thought was long gone suddenly resurfaces after several years, when the new owner of the debt commences a lawsuit to collect on it. This can have an impact on your credit report, because if that creditor gets a judgment, then the judgment will be on your record for at least another 7 years. Therefore, a “charged off” debt is still a debt that is owed to be included in your bankruptcy since the debt has not gone away.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney talks about the Reaffirmation Agreement...

Most of the time, in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to most San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys, if the debtor has a vehicle that is current on its payments, the debtor will be able to keep that vehicle. The debtor, however, needs to make a declaration or contract to the court stating that they can continue to make the payments on the vehicle despite filing for bankruptcy and being unable to pay the rest of his debts. In other words, it creates an obligation to repay that debt after the bankruptcy case is completed. This declaration is called a reaffirmation agreement.

Typically, only secured debts (usually homes) are reaffirmed in order to allow the debtor to retain the collateral. Under the amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, which took effect in 2005, secured creditors can treat the filing of the bankruptcy as a default and use that as a basis to repossess their collateral, like a car, after the bankruptcy case is over, if applicable state law allows it. As a result, the only sure way to keep a secured motor vehicle or other personal property is to enter into a reaffirmation agreement. As long as the debtor can continue to make the payments on the vehicle, the debtor will be able to keep the vehicle even though they are filing bankruptcy. This debt will continue and will not be discharged in the bankruptcy.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco bankruptcy attorney comments on creditor levies....

San Francisco bankruptcy attorneys and debtors alike will notice that there will be times when their bank accounts have been levied by the creditor or their wages have been garnished because they did not pay their debts off in time. In the past couple of years, a couple of banks have started freezing the debtor’s funds in their deposit accounts when they file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. The two more prevalent banks that do this seem to be Wells Fargo Bank and Union Bank. They do this regardless of whether they are owed money by the debtors. This has resulted in a great deal of confusion among clients, as well as unsuspecting bankruptcy attorneys who fail to advise their clients of this possibility.

The reason why a bank can do this is that when a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case is filed, everything the debtor owns or has an interest in becomes property of the Chapter 7 trustee and the trust estate. That includes everything from your house to personal assets to money in your bank accounts. All these assets in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is investigated by the Trustee to determine if any of it can be liquidated to pay off the creditors, unless there is a valid exemption for the asset. Therefore, if there are more funds in the deposit account than the exemption value, then the Trustee may be able to freeze the account and liquidate those funds to pay off the creditors.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney comments on dedecutions when filing for bankruptcy...

There are many questions that arise for San Francisco bankruptcy attorneys regarding what can be a valid deduction to be taken for the means test. Some of the bigger deductions that are usually taken are home mortgages and car payments. People often will borrow from their 401K and wonder if they are on the cusp of qualifying for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy if they can use this 401K deduction to pass the means test. Unfortunately, loan repayments to a 401k plan cannot be used as a budget expense on the means test for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In addition, a loan repayment to the 401K cannot be discharged either since this is essentially a loan to yourself. So any penalties for taking the 401K out early would still be paid back.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney tells debtors whether they will do time or not...

I just consulted with someone in our San Francisco Bankruptcy office, where the client feared that because he did not pay his debts that the state or federal government would be able to send him to jail. If there is anyone else wondering this, let me put your mind at ease and tell you that people who do not pay their debts can no longer be sent to jail. Yay! Federal law now prevents people from being imprisoned because they have not paid their debts off. This means that you can file for bankruptcy and this will not make you a criminal.

The new bankruptcy laws that were enacted in October 2005 have nothing to do with making bankruptcy, whether it is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Chapter 13 or Chapter 11 bankruptcy, criminal Debtor’s prisons were abolished 176 years ago. However, creditors can undertake collection activities allowed under applicable state law, such as garnishing wages, seizing bank accounts, placing liens against real estate and other property, etc. One can file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case and get rid of most debts in return for giving up any non-exempt assets they have in Chapter 7 or paying out the equivalent value of said assets over time in a Chapter 13. Every state, including California, has exemptions which protect the value in various assets, so one is always allowed to retain some.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco bankruptcy attorney speaks a bit about student loan debt....

There have been many students in the San Francisco Bay Area that have asked me, a San Francisco bankruptcy attorney, whether or not their student loan debts are dischargeable in a Chapter 13 or Chapter 11 bankruptcy or whether or not they are included in the debt limits. First, a person can file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case if they have noncontingent, liquidated unsecured debts less than $336,900 and noncontingent, liquidate secured debts of less than $1,010,650.

Like any other debt, student loans actually do factor into the unsecured debt limits for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It does not matter that student loans are non-dischargeable debts, they would still be included in the calculation for the debt limits. The only way the student loan (or any) debt would not count towards the unsecured debt limit in a Chapter 13 is if one of the following occurred:

1. They already had a judgment against you and created a lien against assets sufficient to cover the amount of the student loan. In this case, that amount would count towards the secured debt limit.
2. The debt is contingent, or you don’t owe it unless some pre-condition occurs; or
3. The debt is unliquidated, or there is no way to readily determine the amount owed.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney comments on navigating the bankruptcy petition...

As a San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney, I realize the the Bankruptcy Petition can be very difficult to navigate. There are times when the debtor may overlook a creditor when drafting the Petition. Most of the time, the debtor does not have to worry if they unintentionally just forgot or overlooked to include a specific creditor in their bankruptcy.

In the 9th Circuit (which includes California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and Nevada, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam) and this is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and there are no assets were liquidated and sold by the Trustee, and you have already received your discharge, then there is no consequence for unintentionally failing to list a creditor. This means that if you get your discharge, you are discharged from ALL dischargeable debts regardless of whether they were listed or received notice of the bankruptcy. The two main cases on this are In re Neilsen, 383 F.2d 922 (9th Cir. 2004) and In re Beezley, 994 F.2d 1433 (9th Cir. 1993). If the creditor in question has grounds to object to the discharge of the debt, like if the debt was incurred through fraudulent means, then they can still move to reopen the Chapter 7 bankruptcy case and litigate their non-dischargeability claim if they received no notice of the original bankruptcy.

In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or Chapter 11 bankruptcy case where assets are being distributed by the Trustee, the failure to list a creditor is more serious and can result in that debt not being discharged.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney explains creditor judgements as it pertains to bankruptcy filings...

As a San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney, I know the reality is that creditors have been getting judgments against debtors who have not paid their debts off. For these debtors, one of the major questions is if that judgment is discharged in bankruptcy. A judgment lien is not automatically dischargeable. The creditor must obtain a judgment from the court. Then, to create a lien, it must be perfected under applicable non-bankruptcy law (usually the State or county in which the asset is located). For real estate, this usually involves obtaining a certified abstract of the judgment from the court that issued it, and recording it with the county recorder’s office wherever the property is located that the creditor wants the lien to attach.

If certain requirements are met, then the judgment lien can be discharged. The bankruptcy code section that states this is 11 U.S.C. 522(f), which allows a lien to be removed to the extent that it impairs an exemption to which the debtor would have been entitled in the absence of the lien. This is basically a mathematical calculation, and depends of course on the value of the asset, the amount of any senior liens, and the amount of the available exemptions (usually governed by the laws of the State where the bankruptcy case is filed, but not always.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney answers this important bankruptcy question...

As a San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney, I know that many people are worried that filing bankruptcy will cause them to lose their homes. Many times, that is not the case unless it is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and there is equity in the home. People make this mistake because a Chapter 7 bankruptcy involves liquidating most of a debtor’s assets to pay creditors, including the home. But in reality, homeowners who end up filing often don’t have enough equity in their home to benefit creditors. They do not have enough equity because they’ve taken out a second mortgage or the home’s value has fallen or both. In these types of cases, the trustee handling the bankruptcy can decide not to liquidate the home, in which case the debtor gets to keep it. This is usually the case because the trustee will not take an asset that does not have money in it.

The home can also be saved via the Homestead exemption. In most cases, the Homestead exemption will allow you to keep your primary residence if your equity in it is below a certain threshold. It can vary widely from state to state: from $30,000 for a married couple filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Illinois, for example, to $75,000 for the same in California. So, the government has to pay you for the exemption before they will consider taking the home to pay the creditors.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

San Francisco Bankruptcy Firm Attorney dicusses Capmark's bankruptcy...

As a San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney, i keep tabs on all bankruptcy filings in the news. Capmark Financial Group is the latest to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Capmark is on of the US’s largest commercial real estate finance companies. It is no surprise then that the economic downturn and the downturn of the real estate market has caused the company to file bankruptcy.

The Financial Times, reported Capmark suffered a loss of $1.6 billion in the second quarter of this year. According to the Financial Times, Capmark's bankruptcy filing listed about $20 billion in assets against consolidated debt of $21 billion. Additionally, 40 of the company's subsidiaries also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend. In a statement released Sunday, the company emphasized that it still has "in excess of $500 million in cash and cash equivalents" and expects to continue its day-to-day operations.

Capmark services more than $288 billion in loans with a focus on the commercial real estate market - a sector many analysts believe may be the next part of the financial system to be severely tested as the global downturn continues.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!

A San Francisco bankruptcy attorney relates an update on bankruptcy filings...

Recently, the government released new bankruptcy data showing what bankruptcy filings looked like for the past two years and trends for the future. I took note of course, being a San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorney.

The figures released last week by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California look at overall Northern California bankruptcies over a 24 month period (October 2007 through September 2009) and also break them down by bankruptcy type.

Northern California bankruptcy filings in September were up 46.8% overall compared to September 2008. Specifically, Northern California Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings increased by 45%, Northern California Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings were up 46% and Northern California Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings more than doubled (from 23 cases to 50 – Chapter 11 filings represent by far the smallest number of cases across the two year data period).

A year-to-year comparison (October 2008 - September 2009 vs October 2007 - September 2008) is even more sobering. This indicates a 62% jump in Northern California Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filings, 66% for Northern California Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings and 63% overall. Northern California Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings increased by 72.8%.

If you have questions regarding bankruptcy in San Francisco or bankruptcy in the greater Bay Area please contact our San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys at (415) 946-8882 for a free consultation or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Francisco Bankruptcy Attorneys. After you have spoken with one of our Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys, we can schedule you for a free face to face appointment in an office location nearest you. Our team of Bankruptcy Lawyers, Bankruptcy Customer Care Specialists and Bankuptcy staff supporting San Francisco and Bay Area consumers in debt can assist you with all aspects of your bankruptcy or bankruptcy litigation case. If you have questions about filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, or would like to learn more about bankruptcy litigation, legal debt settlement, mortgage modification, lien stripping, cram down, stopping a foreclosure, wage garnishment, asset protection, discharging a debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California and Oregon who can assist you with all of your debt resolution questions. Please feel free to complete our free online bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy. We look forward to hearing from you, San Francisco Bay Area!