Call us today for a consultation! 949.492.3350 Practice Areas About Our News Contact When Is It Time to Declare Bankruptcy? David Gibbs • Dec 22, 2020 If you're feeling overwhelmed by your debts but hesitant about moving forward with filing bankruptcy, you are not alone. Deciding when is the right time to schedule a consultation with a Bankruptcy Attorney can be overwhelming and can even feel like failure as it's the formal step to starting the discharge process. Some of the key signs that you should consider filing for bankruptcy in Orange County now include risk of foreclosure, getting behind in your mortgage payments or have massive debts that you can't repay. This, in addition to being harassed by bill collectors, could be a sign that declaring bankruptcy might be the answer for you. Bankruptcy can eliminate or reduce your debts in most cases and keep bill collectors at bay, but it will have significant consequences for your future including damage to your credit score. Filing for bankruptcy is one way to get out from a crushing debt load but you should always schedule a consultation with a trusted Bankruptcy Attorney who can help you decide based on your individual circumstances whether now is the right time. You might want to contact your creditors first to see if they are willing to negotiate. Many lenders have programs for those people who are struggling to pay their mortgage. If your mortgage is just one of the ways that you have fallen behind financially, however, you will likely be unable to catch up even by adjusting the payments on this end. Identifying these challenges in your life is when sitting down with a bankruptcy attorney can pay off in spades. Ask questions about how this could influence your short term and long-term future so that you can have a good understanding of the pros and cons of filing for bankruptcy now. Your trusted Bankruptcy Attorney will also help you to make a decision about which kind of bankruptcy is most appropriate for your specific needs. You can start filing for bankruptcy in Orange County today - set up a time to speak with the firm today. Newer Post > < Older Post Share Tweet Share Mail How Your Stage in Life Impacts Your Estate Planning By David Gibbs • 06 Jan, 2021 • Holiday Hours & Exciting Changes in 2021 By David L. Gibbs • 21 Dec, 2020 • Wishing You and Yours Happy Holidays! Credit Card Debt & Chapter 7 in California By David Gibbs • 18 Dec, 2020 • Is My Will Valid in California? By David Gibbs • 08 Dec, 2020 • What Can’t Be Accomplished in California Bankruptcy? By David Gibbs • 02 Dec, 2020 • Don't Skip This Important Step for Your Living Trust By David Gibbs • 02 Dec, 2020 • Update To Our COVID-19 Response | 03/17/2020 17 Mar, 2020 • Our Response to COVID-19 | 03/12/2020 12 Mar, 2020 • Pay Attention To The Small Details When Dealing With Long Term Care Insurer By The Gibbs Law Firm • 08 Oct, 2019 • A long-term care insurance company recently cancelled the insurance coverage of an elderly woman who accidentally wrote the wrong amount on her premium check. The case illustrates the need for policyholders to pay attention to the details. Madeleine Maldonado, of Concord, Massachusetts, had a long-term care insurance policy through AIG. According to an article in the Boston Globe, when Ms. Maldonado wrote a check to pay her $3,399.91 long-term care insurance premium, she put down the correct amount in the number box, but she accidently wrote out “three thousand three hundred and 99/100 dollars.” Under banking and finance rules, if a check has contradictory terms, the words are considered the correct amount. Therefore, Ms. Maldonado's premium payment was $98.92 short. AIG sent the 81-year-old Maldonado a past-due invoice for the amount she owed, and when Ms. Maldonado did not respond, they cancelled her policy. Ms. Maldonado's daughter appealed to the company to accept a late payment, but the company refused. Her mother now has dementia and no long-term care coverage. This incident illustrates the need to be extra careful when dealing with long-term care insurance companies. You need to make sure all your I's are dotted and your T's are crossed because small mistakes can lead to huge problems. It is also important not to ignore letters or notifications for payment from the insurance company. For more information about Ms. Maldonado's coverage loss, click here . For more information about long-term care insurance, click here . Foreclosure & Bankruptcy - What You Didn't Know By David L. Gibbs • 01 Oct, 2019 • With all of the bad news these days, I thought should look at some of the more positive little-known tips and tricks if you are negotiating the difficult waters of foreclosure and/or bankruptcy. Did You Know . . . That virtually every lender in the United States must give you a HUD Counseling Notice within 45 days after a missed mortgage payment? [click here for a copy of the FDIC compliance handbook with applicable sections] Although the law does not contain any consequences for failing to give the notice, at least one court in Florida has stopped a foreclosure on this basis. To date, I am not aware of any California Courts preventing foreclosures as a result of this, however, this morning in Court I had an interesting conversation with another attorney. He was seeking an ex-parte Temporary Restraining Order stopping a foreclosure sale on a client’s home. The basis was alleged defects in the loan documentation, and the judge issued the TRO without any argument or discussion. Now, this was a very preliminary restraining order, it was unopposed by the foreclosing lender, and it may be lifted when the attorney returns for an Order to Show Cause why the Preliminary Injunction should be issued; but hey, its a start! In that particular instance, an Orange County Superior Court Judge was moved to stop a foreclosure sale (literally, scheduled for 9:00 am this morning — the attorney had to run downstairs to serve the TRO on the foreclosure Trustee!) based upon a technical defect in the loan. My personal opinion is that everyone has grown so tired of banks and mortgage lenders that the sympathies are shifting in favor of homeowners in trouble. That both TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program — yes, the one that handed lenders literally hundreds of billions of dollars) and HAMP (the making Home Affordable Mortgage Program “President Obama” plan to stem the tide of foreclosures) require that a lender who received TARP money, must stop a foreclosure while the borrower has a loan modification application “under consideration.” Some lenders have worked around this by not considering your application as being “under consideration” until it is assigned to a negotiator, but recent pressure from the Executive Branch may push lenders to stop more foreclosures while alternatives are explored. For a great article on this, check here at the Mortgage Law Network’s site. That although the much-hailed “California Foreclosure Prevention Act” was supposed to add 90 days to a foreclosure to allow homeowners more time to explore solutions with their lenders; it became almost immediately ineffective as a result of the Departments of Real Estate, Financial Institutions and Corporations giving the servicers who do 90%+ of all foreclosures an exemption from the law. I have previously written about this lovely bit of legislation here. That being said, most small or private lenders do not have this exemption, and must still add 90 days to their foreclosure. That in certain circumstances, a wholly-unsecured second mortgage on your home may be stripped from the home in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy; and that under certain circumstances in a bankruptcy, the debtor can buy his or her car out from under a loan that exceeds the value of the car. That if you are owed money, and your borrower files bankruptcy, you do not have to give up any hope of collecting. In many cases, debts can be exempted from a discharge, and/or the debtor’s discharge of his debts can be challenged if the case is defective, deficient or abusive. That a tenant in a home that has been foreclosed, must now be given 90 days notice by the bank to leave — a new Federal law changed this and many lenders have yet to change their practices to comply. SB 896 — an extremely long and complex piece of legislation included the ”Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act” which provides for 90 days notice to tenants after a foreclosure before they may be evicted. As I have previously written, most attorneys for lenders in California appears to be ignoring this new law entirely — I have seen now more than ten examples of lenders giving 60 days notice under California Code of Civil Procedure 1161a, instead of the 90 day notice now required. There there exist any number of myths surrounding loan modifications. A great article written by Stephanie Devery, a New York Real Estate Attorney covers these. The myths are: (1) that you have to be late on your mortgage to obtain relief; (2) that you need to hire a loan modification attorney or company; (3) that the loan modification process is quick; (4) that everyone will qualify for a loan modification; and (5) that you have no options if you don’t qualify under the HAMP or MHA (Making Homes Affordable) modification programs. Check out Ms. Devery’s article here for the answers to these five myths. The point is this — debt, mortgages and bankruptcy have become increasingly complex with the myriad of knee-jerk legislation attempting to reign in our economy. Whether you are an individual in financial trouble, or someone who is owed money, you should feel free to call our offices for advice as to how to proceed. In this complex and rapidly changing environment, you don’t want your rights adversely affected by failure to obtain experienced, knowledgeable counsel. More Posts For more information regarding how The Gibbs Law Firm may assist you, please contact us today. CONTACT US Practice Areas Estate Planning Real Estate Bankruptcy Business Law Contact info (949) 492-3350 903 Calle Amanecer, Suite 215 San Clemente, CA 92673 Privacy Policy | Electronic Communications © 2021 All Rights Reserved | The Gibbs Law Firm | Website Design by GoBeRewarded