Sonoma County Bankruptcy Lawyer Blog

Federal income tax returns are due on Monday, April 17, 2012. If your return's not ready, have you filed for an extension?

If you're thinking about filing for bankruptcy protection this year, it's critically important that your return is filed on time. That's because back taxes that are more than three years old can be discharged in Chapter 7 bankruptcy -- but only if tax returns have been filed timely. That means that you either filed your returns or you filed for an extension (you still incur penalties for not paying by Tax Day).

Download the extension form, Form 4868

Continue reading "Santa Rosa attorney: Owe taxes? Make sure to file return on time" »

Once you've made the decision that bankruptcy may be right for you, you need to find the right attorney to handle your bankruptcy for you. (To be clear: The odds of you successfully completing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Santa Rosa without an attorney are virtually nil.) So what do you need to look for in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy attorney?

There are basically three options: a mill; a Cadillac; or solid representation at a reasonable price. We offer the third option. Let's take a closer look.

Continue reading "Santa Rosa Bankruptcy: Will your attorney be a junker, an overpriced Cadillac or a good value?" »

Well, spring training is upon us, but the sad travails of Giants' fan Brian Stow, who was brutally attacked outside Dodgers Stadium before a Giants-Dodgers game, continue on from last year.

The LA Times reports that while Stow's attorneys are asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to allow Stow's case to move back to California state court, the Dodgers are seeking to have the case dismissed entirely.

Stow says the Dodgers are trying to "gain unfair strategic and economic windfalls for ... personal injury litigation defendants and insurers" by taking the $50 million case away from a jury.

The Dodgers failed to adequately police the park and should have taken measures to eject Louie Sanchez, one of the accused attackers, as he was involved in two other altercations before Stow was battered.

"Had these feasible measures been taken by the [Dodgers], Bryan Stow would not have been brutally attacked ... and would not have to face a lifelong struggle to regain basic function," according to the filing.

My son recently completed his California public education (at least pre-Santa Rosa Junior College) and it was, shall we say, less than a satisfactory experience. We experimented with all kinds of options that kept us within the public schools, such as the REACH program.

Of course it's no secret that the quality of California education has plummeted, and Sonoma County is no exception. As government budgets have been squeezed, schools have made do with less.

Parents and students are asked to pay money for supplies, and teachers are increasingly incompetent and overworked. And through it all, the steady drumbeat of budget deficits rings. Government services need to be curtailed. Or privatized.

In point of fact, education has already been privatized, in that anyone who can send their kids to private schools is already doing it. Public schools are the domain of the middle class and the lower class. Some people are coming to just accept mediocrity. Others would be pleased if education were that good.

Is this just the way it is going to be? An elite of privately, well-educated students? A mass of poorly educated students? Private industry, having no choice, importing qualified workers from overseas, leaving most Americans to fight over middle management or blue collar jobs?

Yes, this is the agenda: the destruction of public education. Does it have to be this way? Occupy Santa Rosa is hosting a discussion on that issue. It's Monday, Feb. 20 at the Arlene Francis Center (a name hard to say without irony), 99 6th Street, in Santa Rosa's Railroad Square.

"Children have become a commodity, and education a tool for profit," says Jina Brooks, one of several Occupy Santa Rosa organizers who are helping with the Santa Rosa Teachers' Association Teacher Rally on February 25 at Courthouse Square. "We hope that the information and discussion shared at this teach-in will motivate people to show up and fight for public education beyond next Saturday's rally. We need to learn what is really going on so we know how to best support our teachers and children."

Starts at 6 p.m.

The Bankruptcy Court in Santa Rosa may be heaving a sigh of relief as Sonoma County filings have dipped down, but for many Sonoma County residents and businesses, bankruptcy continues to be an option.

The Press Democrat reports that Sonoma County consumer bankruptcies were down 8 percent in 2011 over 2010 but business BKs actually rose 3 percent.

Even with fewer cases last year, the court is still swamped with double the number of cases it used to see. "You could say the filings are down, but as far as we're concerned, we're still trying to keep our heads above water," Judge Alan Jaroslovsky told the paper.

The Santa Rosa bankruptcy court handles cases from Marin to Lake to Mendocino and all the way up to the Oregon border. Overall, North Coast cases are down 8 percent to 4,688 cases.

As the article points out, 75% of bankruptcies are "Chapter 7" cases, which give consumers a full discharge of most unsecured debt. Chapter 13 cases have also remained popular as equity values in real estate have plunged. Chapter 13 lets homeowners "lienstrip" second mortgages that are now unsecured.

The drop in filings in an indication that we're clawing our way out of the recession, but in Sonoma County and Santa Rosa, hiring is still anemic and there are plenty of people who are over their heads and underwater. Robert Eyler, director of Sonoma State University's Center for Regional Economic Analysis, said "There's still people out there hanging on by their fingernails."

If you are considering bankruptcy, give my office a call and see if Chapter 7 or 13 makes sense for your financial goals, and if you qualify for our low $994 pricing. (We are a debt relief agency.)

After months of Republican resistence to the appointment of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Obama used to Congress' winter recess to appoint him in a recess appointment. Republicans had been trying to stop the appointment by having pro forma sessions, sometimes lasting only a minute, to establish that Congress was not "formally" in recess, according to Reuters.

Now, a legal battle may ensue as the ultra-pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce threatens to take the U.S. to court over the appointment. The White House says Congress is in recess as long as it is not performing legislative business.

Even if Cordray's appointment is not challenged in court, business and finance plan to challenge the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law passed in the aftermath of the economic collapse, one industry insider said.

"The issue is not so much Cordray, or whoever is the director, but the CFPB itself and some of the powers it has been given under Dodd-Frank," said Bert Ely.

That's exactly the sort of attitude that drives the Occupy movement and middle-class outrage at banking's refusal to be regulated.

Occupy Petaluma is lauding the announcement of a holiday moratorium on foreclosures,
The Press Democrat reports. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced a two-week halt to actual evictions, from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2.

CNN reports that the Big Banks will also hold off on foreclosure evictions during the period, although as always with banks there is plenty of wiggling.

Chase was the only major bank to commit to a full ban on evictions. Both Wells Fargo and B of A said they would not evict on their own loans but would still proceed when they are the servicers of other loans.

The foreclosure mortatorium is something Occupy movement across the state have been pushing for. Notes Steve Scauzillo in the San Gabriel Valley Times:

"Occupy leaders now demand: a moratorium on all foreclosures; a re-examining of complex laws that clearly favor banks; courts to examine foreclosure documents, many of which they say are fraudulent or in error.

"In California, banks don't have to prove they own the property and the judge will grant an eviction. This is so wrong," he said.

Bringing fairness to foreclosure evictions is a worthy battle for the Occupy movement, far more than occupying city parks all winter.

Well, today was Black Friday and everyone's interested in how much consumers are spending. Consumer spending is of course good for the economy, but is it good for individual consumers. If you're trying to beat back debt or save money for college or retirement or just cover the bills, getting hooked into the purchase of stuff may not be such a great idea.

The Occupy people were bringing that message to the malls today - with mixed results. It's not clear, for instance, how not shopping at Macy's helps education, as this protester said, as reported by ABC

"I see how the education deficit directly affects the schools; how the teachers struggle with so many kids in the classrooms and a lack of books. It's not fair to this generation."

There is a basic connection between giving money to corporations and struggling with debt - it's the mindset that tells us we have to have what they are selling, whether that was a home loan or a new car or a 47" TV. So there is a lot of virtue in Buy Nothing Day, but it's important that protesters don't make shoppers feel like criminals.

Down the street from Macy's massive store on Union Square in San Francisco, shopper Celia Collins of New Orleans said she worked hard to earn her MBA and pay off her student loans. She had every right to enjoy Black Friday, she said, and the protesters would be better off working within the system to find jobs and support the economy.

"I think they're a bunch of ... crybabies," said Collins, clutching her shopping bags as she watched the protesters march down Stockton Street. "I don't begrudge them the right to do it, but I just don't think they've really very smart."

Way back when, a few months ago, Santa Rosa City Hall was the focus of a huge Occupy rally and march - the sixth largest in the country. It was a middle-class affair - my friends and I were there - filled with a happiness that people had been moved to come and protest and speak out. Here's a pic from that day:

After the rally, Occupy Santa Rosa organizers vowed to occupy City Hall. They did.

But anyone who has driven past the encampment, as I do every day, since CalTrans has been tearing up Third Street, can see what the Press Democrat reports today - that City Hall is nothing but a homeless encampment.

It's important, as someone said, that Occupy be a movement that welcomes "my mom." No one's mom wants to be associated with a homeless encampment.

In this piece from the Daily Show, we learn about a couple who owned their house outright but Bank of American tried to foreclose on them anyway. No lawyer wanted their case except a rookie attorney with eight months' experience. They sued the bank and got a judgment for $3,000. When BofA wouldn't pay, they got a writ of execution and went down to the local branch with a sheriff and emptied the place out.

The federal consumer regulator says it's high time for private student lenders to provide transparency into their practices, Reuters reports.

"It has been operating in the shadows for too long," Raj Date, the Treasury Department adviser who is running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a release. "Shedding light on this industry will benefit students, lenders, and the market as a whole."

The problem with student loans, from our perspective, is that they are not dischargeable in bankruptcy, and that schools are motivated to sign up students - even very marginal students - since the taxpayers are on the hook when the students default.

But since the debt can't be discharged, students find their financial lives ruined at a very early age, while the schools and the lenders are making out. Call in the Student Loan Bubble.

No idea what changes the agency will recommend or how hard the banks will fight, but any scrutiny is welcomed. But one thing that would make a huge difference is to make student debt dischargeable.

Remember Dippin' Dots - the ice cream of the future? It seems things arent going so well in the future. The company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization today, Bloomberg reports.

The company asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas H. Fulton to let it use cash held as collateral for an $11 million loan from Regions Bank of St. Louis. Without using the collateral, Dippin' Dots "will have no ability to operate," the company said in court papers. It didn't file an explanation of the bankruptcy.

Hey, what are dippin' dots anyway? Here's an explanation from the website:

Jones, a microbiologist, pioneered the process of cryogenic encapsulation...a scientific way of saying he used super-cold freezing (read liquid nitrogen) methods to make little beads of ice cream. Not only were the ice cream beads delicious and fun to eat, Jones knew that flash-freezing the ice cream ingredients would lock in flavor and freshness. With those qualities established, Dippin' Dots were ready to take on the world!

So in a perfect example of government patsies covering for their corporate masters, New York Mayor Bloomberg says Occupy Wall Street should Occupy Capitol Hill instead. Check this out:

It was not the banks who created the mortgage crisis, it was, plain and simple, Congress," said Bloomberg to an Association for a Better New York breakfast meeting.

"They are the ones who pushed the banks to loan to everybody and now we want to vilify the banks because it's one target," said Bloomberg.

"It's easy to blame them and Congress is certainly not going to blame themselves."

So, Wall Street didn't want to make all that money pushing bad loans and collateralized instruments! They wanted to be responsible bankers like their fathers, but Congress pushed them into it!

Could be ... or perhaps Congress passed all these laws deregulating Wall Street at the behest of the financial industry lobbyists and think tanks, which comprise after all, the top givers to all presidential candidates, including President Obama.

As The New York Times says:

If Senator John Kerry had won the 2004 election, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito Jr., conservatives who have led the court to the right, would not be on the court. And last year's devastating 5-to-4 ruling in the Citizens United case would likely not have happened.

The case came to the Supreme Court as a limited question about interpreting a federal campaign-finance statute. In an aggressive act of judicial activism, the conservative majority made the case a constitutional matter and the signature of the Roberts court. Sweeping aside established precedents that had not been challenged and inserting itself into politics, the conservative majority unleashed unlimited corporate and other money into American politics and gave the Republican Party a large advantage in fund-raising.

The Dodgers are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As part of the proceedings, Major League Baseball wants owner Frank McCourt removed. And both sides are using Brian Stow - the Giants fan who was beaten almost to death by hoodlums outside Dodgers Stadium - as a symbol of their arguments, the L.A. Times reports.

MLB says the attack on Stow is the inevitable result of McCourt's taking millions of dollars from the Dodgers for personal use: stadium security was sparce, parking lot lighting was inadequate, and the front office was filled with newbies.

The Dodger say Commissioner Bud Selig is stooping low to blame the Dodgers for the Stow attack.

He set about fabricating the public misimpression that security at Dodger Stadium was somehow inadequate. This is, by far, the most unforgivable action taken by the commissioner during this entire saga, and has caused enormous and irreparable harm to the Dodgers, Mr. McCourt and the game of baseball.

That's pretty laughable. It was well known that LA was a dangerous place to watch a ballgame, there had been all manner of incidents before Brian Stow. In my opinion, the Dodgers were well aware of how little security they had out there. Dodgers Stadium was a disaster waiting to happen.

Unfortunately for Brian Stow, it happened to him.