In my last blog, Can I File Bankruptcy In MN And Keep My House Or Car, I discussed the social cost of debt - that is, what happens to our society as a whole when individuals find themselves in a financial position in which they cannot manage the debt they have incurred. I discussed the approaches people take when debt has gotten out of control. I discussed in detail the approach of essentially doing nothing to take the initiative to resolve the debt problem, and the cost to the individual who takes this approach and to society as a whole. At the end of the blog, I started to discuss the social cost of taking the most common approach to resolving difficult debt issues: increasing income and decreasing expenses to allow a more significant pay-down of debt out of a person’s monthly budget. 

The golden years- a period of relaxation, plenty of money, lots of travel and the freedom to play golf and fish everyday right? For many of our Minnesota seniors, the retirement years don’t look anything like this. In fact, for many seniors there is nothing golden about chronic pain, no money, lots’ of debt, and with that the freedom to do very little.

Bankruptcy can be quite the complicated process and especially if you don't know what you are doing. But it doesn't have to be that way! At Kain & Scott we have several MN Bankruptcy Lawyers with years of experience here to help you with the mounds of worksheets, prepare you for the 341 meeting and to file your case with the court. Plus, they make the Bankruptcy Process quick, easy and will guarantee that everything has been done right so your debts get discharged.

If your case gets thrown out your probably not going to be very happy and you'll be back in the exact same boat that you're in now. That's why getting help from Kain & Scott will make a world of a difference! But where can you find one of our MN Bankruptcy Lawyers? And how do you get one of them? Here's how to get in touch with a Kain & Scott Bankruptcy Lawyer today, to help get you started on the road to a debt free life again! 

One of the major reasons to think about a bankruptcy is medical debt. When I was young, my mom was a stay at home mom and my dad worked in a factory. Trust me, my dad never made a lot of money and probably retired making less than $10.00 an hour. In a family of 9 children you would think that a family of 11 people would cost you a fortune in health insurance. But growing up in the back waters of the Mississippi River in the 70's and 80's health insurance was not the fortune it is now. I also don’t recall my parents ever worried about medical bills. Heck, I am not even sure I even remember hearing the words “co-pay” and “deductible.”

Let’s face it, not every client you meet with has 10k to put down toward legal fees. Some clients require the use of a payment plan to pay attorney fees incurred in a divorce. But, what happens if your client files a bankruptcy during or after the divorce, and meanwhile, the client has incurred a hefty bill for your services?

I often meet with people who are married and they are unsure if they can file a bankruptcy individually or if they must file a bankruptcy with their spouse. When you are married you have a choice. You can file individually or you can file jointly. Your choice will depend on your specific situation. The first thing your and your Minneapolis Bankruptcy Attorney will want to look at is you and your spouse’s credit report to see if you are both jointly liable on the debt.

In my last blog I wrote about the choices many clients have to face: whether filing a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 Bankruptcy case is best for them. I discussed that there tends to be “chapter 7 income” and “chapter 13 income” and “chapter 7 debt” and “chapter 13 debt.” Now I would like to discuss the last of the three factors that should be considered in making the decision between chapter 7 and chapter 13 - what kind of assets does the client own, for just as there are income and debt distinctions to make, there are also “chapter 7 assets” and “chapter 13 assets.”

When you file bankruptcy, lawyers will tell you that the automatic stay goes into effect on the day you file a bankruptcy. But what is the automatic stay? Our Bankruptcy Attorneys in Minneapolis like to think of the automatic stay as a shield that goes up between you and all of your creditors. The automatic stay is a law built into the bankruptcy code to protect you from the actions of your creditors. It is a very powerful law. It protects you from creditors: collection calls or billing, starting or continuing lawsuits, garnishing wages or levying bank accounts, repossessions of vehicles and foreclosures of homes.

Are you contemplating filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Minneapolis? If so, then you want to know how much it costs. Let’s face it moneys tight and your debt is deep. After all you wouldn’t be even considering it if it wasn’t, right? Here’s a list of fees that you will encounter:

At the end of the last blog, Can i keep my house or car if i file a Roseville MN Bankruptcy, I wrote that even if a client of mine owned a vehicle that he or she liked, with a payment that the client could afford and the car was a new enough model that it was possible that the lender would repossess the car unless the client signed a reaffirmation agreement, I would still advise the client not to do so. Why? In my analysis, it all comes down to worst-case scenarios. By definition, with my bankruptcy practice I am not dealing with lucky people. My clients are my clients because things have not worked out as planned for them financially, or some sudden unanticipated event has taken place to create financial strain. My clients at our Bankruptcy Law Firm in Roseville are used to having worst-case scenarios come true.

Imagine a world in which creditors could collect from debtors at will and without rules. It would be chaos, literally. Hypothetically speaking, if I know Pete owes me 10k and I know that Pete’s business is teetering on the brink of financial ruin, and there are no rules, what am I going to do? I tell you what I am going to do. I am going to secretly find out what assets Pete owns and then I am going to quickly assert control over those assets so I can get paid my 10k plus costs. I want to do this before any of Pete’s other creditors get wind of Pete’s financial condition and take his assets- before I can get paid. 

Oh the humility of being alive. Some of us go through life and never receive a DWI. Some of us should have received a 100 DWI’s and never receive one. Some of us never incur overwhelming debt, and yet, some of us will. Have you ever had a brain tumor? Me neither and yet 1000's of Minnesotans every year have them. Much of the time, life events’ are out of your control- seriously, they are. No one dreams of having a brain tumor or incurring overwhelming debt. This is not a place most of want to be. Yet, each year, over 10,000 good Minnesotans file bankruptcy. Why? The reasons are varied but most bankruptcies fall into one of 5 categories.

Last week, I wrote about how bankruptcy cases interact with home mortgage and car loans in chapter 7 cases. The general rule is simple: as long as individuals in bankruptcy cases make their house and car payments on time, those individuals should be able to “keep” their homes and cars. The reason for this is that the equity in residential real estate and motor vehicles is almost always exempt under either the Bankruptcy Code or the Minnesota state law that deals with debtors and creditors. But while that general rule is true, individuals who are thinking about filing a bankruptcy case need to know that there are issues that these individuals should be aware of as they make a decision - first, whether to file a bankruptcy case and second, if they intend to keep their homes and/or their cars after their bankruptcy case.

If you were recently involved in a car, truck, or motorcycle accident, you might be wondering whether you should file bankruptcy.  That is a complicated question that involves the intersection between two legal practice areas -- auto accident law, and bankruptcy law.  The answer depends on a number of factors.

When you are thinking about filing a bankruptcy, consumers have two choices. To file a chapter 7 bankruptcy or a chapter 13 bankruptcy. There are other types of bankruptcies that you might hear about in the news, such as the bankruptcies Donald Trump has filed. Trump filed bankruptcy on his businesses and not on his personal debt. He filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy, a bankruptcy that is done to deal with business debt. For this, we will stick to discussing chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy.