I remember that kid’s balloon was still inflated, like someone had just had a birthday party. That what kills, me, the things the children had to leave behind. Sometimes, their crayon pictures are on the wall.  A lot of toys are in the closet…It’s traumatic.

It was too traumatic for one woman in Massachusetts. She faxed a note to her mortgage company saying, “By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead.” As this ABC News story sadly relates, 53-year-old Carlene Balderrama of Taunton, Massachusetts, fatally shot herself with her husband’s rifle shortly before the foreclosure.

Nadine Kaslow, chief psychologist at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and a professor at Emory University’s School of Medicine, said such financial stresses come attached with significant psychological consequences.

There is no question that the economic downturn in our country is causing havoc with people’s mental health,” she noted. “It is very depressing to lose one’s home. It represents loss of stability, a feeling of failure. … It is scary and overwhelming.

But it’s not the end:

Once you find out that foreclosure is not a sign of personal failure, that it is not anything that is happening to nobody else … there’s hope.

And given the numbers, it’s happening to a lot of people. According to RealtyTrac, the number of U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure notice between April and June of this year shot up 121 percent compared with the same period last year. That means that 739,000 households received a foreclosure notice during this three-month period — which translates into one out of every 171 households in the country.

There is a way out–Chapter 13 gives you the chance to catch up on missed mortgage payments over 5 years. And even if you can’t, a Chapter 7 will delay the foreclosure to give you some time, let you wipe out any arrearages and deficiency and start over with a clean slate.

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

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.

• 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.

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.

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.

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