Sonoma County Bankruptcy Lawyer Blog

So, I'm looking for a late-model Mini Cooper Clubman (it has a larger back seat and a half-decent cargo space). They're expensive. On Craigslist, most of the listings are from dealers and they run from $17K to $22K. There's very little in Santa Rosa or Petaluma or Sebastopol; they're mostly in the East Bay or South Bay, there's one dealer in Marin. Anyway, there's this one listing for $9900. $9900 for a 2008 Mini Clubman!

Suspicious, but what the hell. I email the person. And I get a respond the next day. I'll post the whole thread below, because I feel like I'm a relatively intelligent person about this and I came close to falling for this. What's important is that the seller advertised that the deal was safe because it would go through eBay's Vehicle Purchase Protection Program. The car has only 6,700 miles, she said, was obtained in a divorce and is priced low for a quick sale.

Continue reading "Avoiding used car scams on eBay and Craigslist" »

Wow -- we've all been frustrated by being unable to stop an eviction after foreclosure. But foreclosure defense lawyer Michael Pines is taking his frustration to a whole new level. the L.A. Times reports that after a Ventura County judge ordered his clients evicted, Pines responded he would hire a locksmith and break in.

"I'm going back there," Pines declared, gripping the lectern. "And I hope I get arrested." "I certainly hope not," (Judge) Lane shot back. "That is a blatant disregard of this court's order."

He claims he's done just that a dozen times, antics that have gotten him arrested, fined and threatened with jail for contempt of court.

Continue reading "Frustrated California foreclosure lawyer tells clients to squat" »

By Richard Koman, Sonoma County-Santa Rosa-Petaluma bankruptcy and debtor attorney ("We are a debt relief agency")

Back in 2009, Congress considered trying to save homes by changing the bankruptcy laws to allow judges to "cram down" homeowners' principal balance on their primary residence. Great idea, which passed the House but died in the Senate.

America being what it is, bankruptcy judges can cram down principal on lots of goodies, like vacation homes, but not the roof over your head. Since Congress is apparently not going to challenge the banks on this inequity, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys has a radical new proposal that just might work for troubled homeowners in Sonoma County and around the country.

Continue reading "A proposal to save Santa Rosa homes - without a cramdown" »

A California court of appeals has ruled that a worker cannot asset the attorney-client privilege for emails she sent from work when the employer stated in an employee manual that work emails were not private, Wired reports.

... [T]he e-mails sent via company computer under the circumstances of this case were akin to consulting her lawyer in her employer's conference room, in a loud voice, with the door open, so that any reasonable person would expect that their discussion of her complaints about her employer would be overheard,"the court wrote.

It's not quite true, as Wired's headline says, that the court held that workers have no privacy in work email -- but if the company announces they have no privacy, then they have none.

In this case, a secretary claimed her employer discriminated against her when she became pregnant. The company, Petrovich Development of Sacramento, used an email exchange sent from work that showed "Holmes did not suffer severe emotional distress, was only frustrated and annoyed, and filed the action at the urging of her attorney," the court noted.

On appeal, Holmes wanted the email suppressed as privileged communications,
The appeals court said Gina Holmes' e-mails to her lawyer were not confidential because her employer had a written policy that company e-mail was not private and subject to audit.

The Soviet-style hulk called the Hall of Justice

I'm quoted in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat today.

Just when it seemed a new courthouse in downtown Santa Rosa was a dead idea, Santa Rosa City Manager Kathy Millison has revived talk of a downtown location.

"For us, it's a long shot, but I really didn't want to pass up the opportunity if there was any interest," Millison said. After checking with state officials about the progress of negotiations with the county, Millison said she learned the state still was interested in entertaining a downtown proposal, if one were made quickly.

The betting money is still on a location around the current county complex, which I think is the easy answer but a poor one for Santa Rosa. Here's what I told reporter Kevin McCallum:

Attorney Richard Koman noted that most of the city's attorneys work downtown, and going out to the county center isn't a great experience for them. The current courthouse is a "horrible Soviet-style hulk," parking is "a mess," and there are few services there, he said.

"There isn't any vibrancy at all at the county center," Koman said.

For a city split by a highway and mall and struggling to keep its downtown vital, a new courthouse can only help, he said.

"I just think a courthouse and everything that happens around that could be an anchor for revitalization downtown," Koman said.

Back in February, I wrote in praise of a downtown location, saying:

A downtown location for the criminal court is hands-down the best possible choice. With lawyers, jurors and those attending court coming downtown, local eateries and shopping places could see a jump in business. More importantly, the decision to move the courthouse out of Courthouse Square back in the 1960s was exactly the kind of decision that sucked the life out of downtown Santa Rosa. Only the decision to slice downtown in half with US 101 and creation of the the Santa Rosa Marketplace, were more damaging to the city's life force.

Here's hoping...

Sonoma County and North Bay folks -- indeed, everyone - considering bankruptcy might take a moment to consider what happened to one debtor who lied on his petition.

Sydney Peters was an art dealer who lied on his Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. As personal property, he listed "art" and said he had about sixteen pieces worth more than $2,500. He didn't describe the art or provide any details about it. His statement (it's a sworn statement under penalty of perjury) was a lie. The trustee's investigation ultimately found the art consisted of paintings, serigraphs, and other reproductions.

In denying the discharge, the Texas Bankruptcy Court found that Peters was an art dealer who had knowledge of the market value of his art, and that even if he didn't intentionally misstate the value of the art ...

Continue reading "Lies, lies, lies - debtor loses discharge for misrepresenting art value" »

When your small business can no longer hack it and it's time to close up shop, there is an alternative to bankruptcy.

Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors is a way for certain companies to quickly and quietly dissolve without submitting to the control of the bankruptcy court, as the LA Times explains in this article.

Instead of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court appointing a trustee to liquidate the company, the business owner hires an assignee -- often an insolvency lawyer or specialist with experience in ABCs -- to sell the company's assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors. The assignee has a fiduciary duty to try to get the highest price for the assets.

"We signed the assignment and right away [the assignee] took over everything," said Gurmeet Singh, who used an ABC to close his formerly 40-person business, Precision Gear of Corona, two years ago. "He had a locksmith right there and he got the locks switched and we were out of business. Then he got some people in to take inventory of things."

An ABC sell-off distributes the company's assets at pennies on the dollar, and gets the owners off the hook for liabilities. Thus, ABCs are only available to corporations and LLCs, and only make sense if the owners have not signed personal guarantees, which many creditors require for small business credit.

"I don't want to mislead people, because one thing is, to the extent they have made personal guarantees, whether it be for a product or on their loans, they are not released from those" in a general assignment or a bankruptcy filing, said attorney Robert L. Cohen, who runs Alternative Bankruptcy Concepts Inc. in Buena Park.