Over on the Bankruptcy Law Network, I have been writing a series of blogs on Senators Obama and McCain’s positions on bankruptcy. The results may surprise you.

The articles may be found by clicking on the links:

Obama vs. McCain on Bankruptcy
Obama and McCain’s Votes on Bankruptcy Amendments
Barack Obama on BAPCPA
Barack Obama on Bankruptcy/Credit Reform

When Governor O’Malley signed into law changes to Maryland’s foreclosure laws effective on April 4, 2008, new foreclosure filings stopped. Although the new law’s changes were, in most instances, more cosmetic than substance (see my article on the Mortgage Law Network, “Changes to Maryland Foreclosure Law: Steak or Sizzle?“) they contained provisions that resulted in an effective moratorium, or halt, in foreclosures.

This is primarily because of required new forms that have to be adopted by the State, and without which, the foreclosure cannot comply with the technical requirements of the new law. The forms should be issued in early July, and the floodgates will open. Three months worth of foreclosures will be filed at once, with auctions likely scheduled in early September.

Thousands of new cases are likely to be filed, so if you’ve fallen behind on your mortgage, now is the time to examine your options, before the rush hits.

Usury is defined in Webster’s as, “the lending or practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest.” All states, including Maryland, have laws prohibiting usury—in Maryland, the default rate of interest is 6%, and most loans cannot exceed 24%. So how is it that many credit cards have annual rates of 30% or more? How is it that payday loans and tax refund loans have interest rates over 300%?

The answer lies in the federal National Bank Act and a series of Supreme Court decisions.

The National Bank Act, first adopted in 1863, provides for the establishment and regulation of national banks. For more than 100 years, that law was interpreted to require that even national banks can only charge interest at the rate allowed by the state in which its customer is located. In 1978, the Supreme Court changed everything. Read the rest

According to an article on the US Trustee website, random debtor audits, which were halted in January 2008 due to budgetary problems, will resume on May 12, 2008. The only change appears to be that instead of randomly auditing one out of each 250 cases filed, the UST will audit one out of each 1,000 cases filed.

Brett Weiss was quoted in an article in the May 1, 2008 Salisbury Daily Times. The article, “Bankruptcy Reform May Have Exacerbated Foreclosure Crisis,” discussed the impact of the 2005 adoption of major pro-creditor changes to the Bankruptcy Code, called BAPCPA.

Mr. Weiss’ summary of BAPCPA may be found by clicking on this link.

We’re often asked by new clients what we actually do for them. I thought I’d put a list together:

• We let you answer your phone without your heart seizing with fear that it’s someone calling to collect a bill.
• We give you room in your mailbox for birthday cards instead of bills.
• We let your answering machine be empty when you come home from work.
• We let you know your kids will be going to the same school next fall, because you’ve saved your home from foreclosure.
• We let you know you’ll keep your job because you’ve saved your car from being repossessed.
• We let you sleep at night.

Oh, and we also deal with creditors and the Court, prepare and file pleadings, argue on your behalf, and do all of the other “lawyer work.”

But what our clients remember is the important stuff above. *That* is what we really do.

Brett Weiss was quoted in the January 25, 2008 issue of the Washington Business Journal in connection with the recent bankruptcy filing of one of his Chapter 11 developer clients. Weiss was quoted as saying, “We all know that the current housing market is lousy. And this is making things hard for a lot of good folks.”

The full article may be found on the Washington Business Journal website.

Brett Weiss is honored to announce that he has been named the January 2008 Member of the Month by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA).

As the NACBA site states, “NACBA members give generously of their time, energy, and finances to make the organization successful. They do this without expectation of recognition, but because they believe in our goals. Their contributions benefit not only other bankruptcy attorneys, but the debtors they serve.

“Every month NACBA selects a member whose contributions over the years have been so outstanding that they deserve special recognition. Please join us in applauding these individuals for their support of the goals we all share.”

Mr. Weiss’ profile may be found here.

I’ve taken over a number of cases where a debtor prepared and filed the various bankruptcy documents without the help of an attorney–what is called filing pro se or pro per. Apart from the fact that the schedules generally have to be completely redone (the exemptions are usually wrong, debts are not listed, assets are not listed or are listed or valued incorrectly, the Means Test uses the wrong figures, the Statement of Financial Affairs is incorrect, and the budget is generally wrong), a number of these people lost their homes as a result of not being advised about what was required, how the process worked, how to value assets, how to deal with various types of debts, etc.–something an attorney is required to do.

Others ran into severe problems at the Meeting of Creditors, where they have no one to turn to for preparation or advice, Generally, pro se debtors don’t know what the Trustee is looking for, or how to properly deal with the Trustee’s questions and concerns. One ended up being charged with bankruptcy fraud–all because she didn’t understand the effects of what the information put in their schedules meant.

Finally, under the new bankruptcy law, there are a number of new deadlines that, if missed, can result in the automatic dismissal of your case, and a potentially very complex means test computation. Many bankruptcy attorneys are no longer practicing in this area of law as a result of the changes.

Bankruptcy is a very tricky area of the law (even to attorneys who don’t regularly practice it). Interestingly enough for a federal system, it is very state and locality specific. What will work in California, for example, probably won’t fly here in Maryland.

Do yourself a big favor—see a lawyer.

According to a recent article on the Bankruptcy Law Network by Kansas bankruptcy attorney Jill Michaux, the random and targeted audits of bankruptcy cases by the office of the U.S. Trustee have been suspended. The reason? Congress didn’t appropriate any money!

According to the U.S. Trustee website:

The FY 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Public Law 110-161, provided no funding for debtor audits. As a result, the USTP has suspended its designation of cases subject to audit and has notified the independent accounting firms performing the audits. The Program is pursuing alternative sources of funding to permit it to resume the designation of cases subject to audit and, if successful, intends to reinstate the audits.