Maryland Bankruptcy Blog » Bankruptcy In the News

US Trustee Audits to Resume May 12, 2008

Brett Weiss, Esq. — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:56:02 +0000

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 Quoted in the “Salisbury Daily Times” Discussing Foreclosures

Brett Weiss, Esq. — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:57:38 +0000

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.

Bankruptcy Audits Suspended

Brett Weiss, Esq. — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:03:44 +0000

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.

Maryland Foreclosure Taskforce Issues Report

Brett Weiss, Esq. — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:23:24 +0000

While traditionally, Maryland has not been the most homeowner-friendly state in terms of its foreclosure procedures, things have gotten far worse with the deepening of the mortgage crisis. According to State officials, Maryland has jumped from No. 40 to No 15 in foreclosures nationally. A recent article in The Washington Post summarizes the recommendations of the Maryland Homeownership Preservation Task Force. (I haven’t been able to read the full report yet, and my comments below are based on the Post’s summary. If it proves that the summary is wrong or incomplete, I’ll revise this blog.)

It’s always nice to look as if you’re doing something in response to a problem. It’s even nicer to actually do something. Unfortunately, the task force’s recommendations sound a lot more like window dressing than actual improvements in the current foreclosure system in Maryland.

(more…)

Collection of Debts Discharged in Bankruptcy

Brett Weiss, Esq. — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:45:25 +0000

BusinessWeek published online (and will publish in its magazine) an amazing article, “Prisoners of Debt.” This major story talks about the increased selling and collection of debt discharged in Chapter 7 cases. A must read.

BusinessWeek has two companion articles: “Conveniently Not Updating,” about improper credit reporting of discharged debt, and “Whose Second Chance,” about improper collection of discharged debt.

The fact that BusinessWeek (of all magazines) is doing stories about creditor abuse is a clear reflection of just how rampant this sort of thing is.