Mighty Bargain Hunter, a personal finance blog I read on a regularly basis, has just recently posted an incredibly comprehensive list of the 16 ways being disorganized costs you money. The post is interesting not only because it covers just about everything, but also because it highlights how our collective desire to run around causes us to take our eye off the financial ball.

Lots of people who go through personal bankruptcy come to me with their finances in disarray. When asked how much they spend on such basics as transportation, food and clothing they look at me blankly. It is only after a significant amount of time that we are able to puzzle through where the money goes each month.

Once the bankruptcy case has been completed, the consumer is still faced with the problem of budgeting. The absence of debt makes a difference, but it doesn’t help to fill the savings account each month. Rather, the individual exiting the bankruptcy court should take a hard look at where the money goes and attempt to spend smarter.

I highly recommend that you print out the list from Mighty Bargain Hunter, tape it to the refrigerator, and review it often.

This article, published in the Rocky Mountain News, discusses the fact that far fewer bankruptcy cases were filed in Colorado in 2006 than in the months leading up to the change in the bankruptcy laws in 2005. Though the article comes from thousands of miles from New York City, the story is the same as in our local courts. Filing as up as people realize that bankruptcy remains the only legal means of breaking free of harassing creditors and debt collectors.

Read the article by clicking here.

By Jay S. Fleischman, Esq.

In In re Jumpp, No. MW 06-031 (1st Cir. December 28, 2006), the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit ruled that Section 362(c)(3)(A) only terminates the automatic stay as to the debtor, not the property of the estate. This provision is in regards to a bankruptcy filing within one year of a dismissal of an earlier case, and requires the termination of the stay after 30 days unless a motion if filed and granted within such 30 day period.

The court held that the statute’s language that the “stay . . . shall terminate with respect to the debtor” only regards the debtor, and not the assets of the estate. This decision effectively makes the the penalty of Section 362(c)(3)(A), which calls for the stay to terminate 30 days after the filing of a bankruptcy case commenced within a year of the filing of a previously-dismissed case, useless as a second Chapter 13 filing would still permit a debtor to protect a house from foreclosure - this, speculatively and presumably, was the very event Congress want to prevent.

Congratulations to attorneys Craig T. Ornell and Lawson Williams of Worcester, MA for working so hard on their client’s behalf in this important issue.

Please Click Here to Read the Case.

There are benefits to filing for bankruptcy without your spouse as well as with your spouse. For example, if you owe all of the money and your spouse does not, it’s a waste for your spouse to file with you. Remember, bankruptcy is debt relief - if your spouse has no debt, then the relief is useless.

But that’s the easy part. There are times when your spouse’s name is on a debt and you still want to file alone.

When? Well, when you’re both obligated on a mortgage that is in foreclosure.

In this situation, you probably want to save the house. If so, you want to file alone. The reason is that you will file a Chapter 13, which allows you to repay your arrears over a period of up to five years. But Chapter 13 includes something called the “co-debtor stay” (contained in 11 USC 1301). That means when you file for Chapter 13, anyone else who is obligated on the debt is also protected from further collection action.

So you file for Chapter 13 without your spouse. Things don’t go as well as planned, and the case is dismissed. If you file again within one year then there may be limitations on the automatic stay; even if you do get it extended past the 30 days provided for in the bankruptcy laws for second filings, you run the risk that the judge refuses to do so.

What do you do? Have your spouse file the second case. No problems with a second filing, no potential limitations on the automatic stay, and the case goes forward properly.

This doesn’t work as well in a Chapter 7 because the goal of Chapter 13 is to cure arrears, not to discharge an obligation. In the event that you are looking at Chapter 7 to discharge joint obligations, filing together is a better idea because by filing one case you are consolidating all debts and doing so under a single filing fee. It’s less expensive, easier, and faster.