As a Massachusetts bankruptcy attorney, we get calls from clients and potential clients with mortgage questions all the time. Calls from folks who are refinancing in Massachusetts are perhaps the most common these days, but so are calls from folks who are buying their first house, including rental properties. Thus, we try to keep Massachusetts [...]
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Pain of student loans
It does hurt. On average, 2011 graduates carry almost $23,000 in student loans each, the highest debt load ever, according to the Wall Street Journal. I would call this a giant debt avalanche. According to various sources, total amount of student debt is somewhere between $850 billions and $1 trillion. For the first time it [...]
Courts Take Action on Bankruptcy Preparers
A recent editorial by the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel focused on how too many bankruptcy petition preparers are going well beyond what is allowed under the law and hurting poor petitioners in the process. Urban areas have no shortage of people who prey on the poor. Fliers posted at corner gas stations or hand-painted signs that [...]
Reestablishing Credit During the Recession
A number of the people I counsel want to know how soon they can restore their credit after bankruptcy. The prerecession standard advice was two years for a credit card with decent interest and four years for a mortgage with indecent interest. But that was then. Now, because so many people have bad credit because [...]
Elizabeth Warren: Consumer Protection Leader
Massachusetts consumer advocate and Harvard bankruptcy law professor Elizabeth Warren was grilled by Representative McHenry, the North Carolina chair of a House subcommittee the other day. The testimony was supposed to be about the direction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a report to Congress. The Congressman, however, seemed less concerned with what Professor [...]
Five Ways to Trigger a Tax Audit
It’s the dreaded fear of every taxpayer: the audit. Regardless of whether you pay your taxes correctly, an audit can cost you valuable time and result in weeks or months of stress. If you are focusing on the credit repair process, that may be time you can’t spare. Consider the list of audit triggers below [...]
2011 Personal Bankruptcies Down 12%. 2012 Expectations???
According to a new report from Fitch Ratings, 2011 personal bankruptcy filings declined by 12% to 1.35 million from the year earlier. It was the first decline in four years, possibly resulting from somewhat improved economic conditions and decreased consumer spending. Credit card charge-offs, which are directly affected by bankruptcy filings, fell significantly through 2011, [...]
Watch Out For the Newest Foreclosure Scam in California
Scams involving purported mortgage modifications and foreclosure assistance have abounded since the California foreclosure crisis in 2009. The California Department of Real Estate recently warned consumers about the newest version of these scams. In this scam, a “lawyer” invites homeowners to join a mass joinder or class action against a bank or mortgage company. The [...]
Massachusetts Bankruptcy Cases Down in 2011
Personal bankruptcies were down in 2011, for the first time in several years, according to preliminary reports. The estimate is that 1.35 million personal bankruptcies were filed in the United States, which was down approximately 12.5% from 2010. As the Boston bankruptcy lawyer reported on January 5, 2011 in our bostonbankrutpcylawyerblog.com bankruptcies were up in [...]
Five Gifts for the Financially-Minded Giver
It’s a new year, and a spate of new birthdays and holidays beckon. If you want to give a gift that lasts, consider a practical one this time around. Take stock of the needs of your friends and family during 2012 instead of their basic wants. For those struggling with money and credit repair, your [...]
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