Americans are earning less money today than they did eight months ago, according to the U.S. Trustee program of the United States Department of Justice.

In order to ascertain whether a person or couple qualifies for Chapter 7, bankruptcy attorneys refer to the latest median income figures published by the U.S. Trustee.  Usually, on average, these figures go up every time they are published. However, the latest figures tell an unfortunate story-the U.S. economy is continuing to contract.

Although Colorado had a slight increase of 1.04% in median income, the country’s average, as a whole, has declined for the period of March 15, 2009 to November 1, 2009.New Hampshire and Oregon are reported to have the worst decrease in median income, while Alaska and Nebraska have had the greatest increases in median income.

If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy lawyer, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form.

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A question that many clients ask relates to Chapter 13 bankruptcy. They want to know what occurs if their financial situation changes during the time allotted with their payment plan. Remember that a Chapter 13 payment plan extends from three to five years. A lot of changes can occur in your circumstance during that time. You or your spouse can become ill or be involved in an accident, or one of you could lose a job-which can mean either major additional expenses or a decrease in income.

The benefit of Chapter 13 bankruptcy is its flexibility. Often, the bankruptcy court can agree to adjust your payment plan to make it work for your new circumstances. This frequently means that your required monthly payments would be lowered.

In some instances, you may not be able to pay your mortgage even with the restructuring of your debt involved in your Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. This situation would require a modification in your payment plan. If it is a short-term difficulty that you are having, the bankruptcy court may permit a moratorium on payments if it allows you to recover from a temporary cash flow issue.

And finally, if your circumstances radically change, Chapter 13 includes a “hardship discharge.” This will be granted when your payment plan has been accepted but something has come up that prevents you from honoring the payment plan. A hardship discharge is only a viable option if: your inability to pay is a result of circumstances beyond your control; your creditors have gotten at least as much payment as they would have been given under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy; and altering the plan is not possible.
If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, and have any questions, please contact me. Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelp Email, free-consultation form.

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If you are considering filing bankruptcy in order to solve your tax debt problems you should be aware of some of the issues involved. Many people believe that you cannot discharge tax debt via bankruptcy. But this is not the case. Tax debt is dischargeable if it meets the strict requirements involved in qualifying for a discharge.

Some of the qualifications involve timelines, such as when you filed the income tax return you are attempting to get discharged. The year in which you filed your return must have been filed a minimum of two years prior to filing bankruptcy. Any return filed within two years of your bankruptcy case will not qualify for discharge. Whereas the taxes you are trying to discharge must be at least three years old. In other words, your overdue taxes must be owed from a minimum of three years prior on a tax return filed no later than two years ago.

There are other criteria by which discharge of tax debt is based. The IRS must assess your tax debt two hundred and forty days before you file for bankruptcy. Income taxes are the only taxes that can be discharged via bankruptcy. For example, you cannot discharge unpaid payroll debt through bankruptcy. If you have been convicted of income tax fraud or tax evasion, your tax debt is not dischargeable by filing bankruptcy. Keep in mind that in bankruptcy court, you may have to supply your most recent income tax return, along with the returns from the previous three years.

If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy lawyer, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form.

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I will be appearing on MartinoTV tomorrow, November 24th. I’ll be discussing personal bankruptcy issues. Please join me there.

MartinoTV airs weekday morning on KDVR FOX 31 from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m., and again on KWGN The Deuce from 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.

For further information go to: http://www.kdvr.com/business/martinotv/

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Beginning December 1, 2009 new time deadlines for bankruptcy cases will take effect. Deadlines will be computed in multiples of seven instead of five. The change is intended to minimize instances where deadlines are due on weekends.

Bankruptcy cases involve a large variety of deadlines based on multiples of five. You are given five days to submit documents, ten days to appeal, fifteen days to file pleadings, and twenty to twenty-five days to object. Any time period that is less than 30 days will be changing to the new seven day system.  In other words, five day deadlines become seven days, ten and fifteen day deadlines will become fourteen days, twenty day deadlines will change to twenty-one and twenty-five day periods will become twenty-eight days.

Weekends and holidays have been counted as any other day. When a bankruptcy court issued an order requiring action within ten days, that order would fall due on a weekend if it was issued on a Wednesday or a Thursday. Ten days later would be Saturday or Sunday, respectively. 

With the change in the bankruptcy law, seven, fourteen, twenty-one or twenty-eight day deadlines will always be due the same day of the week as the day the original order is issued. Since the bankruptcy court is closed on weekends, the seven day system will eliminate a lot of the confusion that surrounds weekend deadlines.

The Statutory Time Period Technical Amendments Act of 2009 is the name of the new law. It alters the time period of nine sections of the Bankruptcy Code.

If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, and have any questions, please contact me. Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelp Email, free-consultation form.

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One of the issues that my clients ask me about involves overdue utility bills. The good news is that if you have outstanding debts with utility companies before having filed bankruptcy an automatic stay will go into effect as soon as you file. This will prevent the utility companies from shutting off your utility services.

If your utilities have been turned off prior to filing bankruptcy, you will need to provide evidence of the bankruptcy case to the company and demand that your utilities be turned on once you have filed bankruptcy. In some instances the utility company may require a deposit from you before they will turn on your utilities.

Keep in mind that the situation is different in terms of utility bills that are due after your bankruptcy case is settled. A utility service can be terminated if you don’t pay bills accrued after your bankruptcy.

If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, and have any questions, please contact me.   

Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, ColoradoBankruptcyHelp Email, free-consultation form.

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has sponsored the Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2009. As of today, the bill is presently in the Committee of Judiciary. The bill would amend federal bankruptcy law to include circumstances under which a debtor, filing bankruptcy, who is medically distressed may exempt from their estate up to $250,000 of their total interest in property that they (or their dependent) uses as a residence, or in a burial plot. The bill would revise the requirements for dismissal or conversion of a Chapter 7 case to prohibit the court or specified interested parties from filing a motion to dismiss, or convert to Chapter 11 or Chapter 13, if the debtor is medically distressed. The bill would waive the credit counseling prerequisite for filing for relief from debt in the case of a medically distressed debtor. The bill does deny a discharge during bankruptcy from any debt incurred relating to attorney’s fees generated as a result of filing a Chapter 7 petition. A debtor who seeks relief as a medically distressed debtor will be required to state in writing, and under penalty of perjury, that the medical expenses of the debtor are genuine, and not specifically incurred to bring the debtor within the coverage of the medical bankruptcy provisions of the Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2009.

If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy lawyer,303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form.

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A bill allowing bankruptcy judges to lower mortgage payments was approved by the House a few weeks ago. It has been sent to the Senate for approval. The bill should give a bankruptcy judge permission to reduce the principal and interest rates on any mortgages in trouble. A bill has already been passed that allows a bankruptcy judge to modify car loan and student loan payments. Prior to the bill being passed by the House, major banks and lenders opposed the bill claiming it would eventually drive up housing costs. But this bill should offer great relief to homeowners who have struggled to meet their monthly mortgage payments but are no longer able to make payments. If you are interested in more information about mortgage relief visit the following website: www.loanmodificationhelpcenter.org .

If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy lawyer,303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form.

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Every so often, one of my divorced clients has an ex-spouse who has filed for personal bankruptcy.  One of the matters they are concerned about is whether or not their ex-spouse’s bankruptcy case will eliminate obligations that were decreed in a divorce order.

The Bankruptcy Code, as it stands now, does not allow for the discharge of most divorce or domestic relations type of debt.  In particular, Bankruptcy Code Section 523(a)(5) declares that a “domestic support obligation” is non-dischargeable. According to Bankruptcy Code Section 523(a)(15), any debt to your former spouse or your child that you have incurred during a divorce or separation or connected to your separation agreement, divorce decree, or any other order of a court is non-dischargeable.

Generally, bankruptcy judges avoid getting involved in child support, alimony or property division disputes. In most cases, a bankruptcy debtor cannot eliminate this type of debt via bankruptcy.

There are some instances, however, that are not so straightforward. For example, if you and your spouse have accrued joint credit card debt and your ex-spouse files bankruptcy, you may receive a letter from the credit card company demanding payment on the outstanding balance. If the credit card debt was not mentioned in your divorce settlement, you could have a problem.

Also be aware that there have been cases in which a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is used to address delinquent child support by including the payment of back child support over time in the payment plan.

If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, and have any questions, please contact me.  

Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy lawyer, 303-955-7570, COBankruptcyHelpEmail, free-consultation form

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A denial of discharge refers to your entire bankruptcy case. If you receive a denial of discharge this denotes that none of your debts will be discharged.  There are a variety of causes for a denial of discharge. Refer to this section of the US CODE:Title 11 for more information.

A particular debt is considered nondischargeable under the Bankruptcy Code for various reasons. Your remaining debts will still be discharged. Remember, if one of your debts is nondischargeable you are still required to pay that specific creditor. Refer to this section of the US CODE:Title 11 for more information.

If you live in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Broomfield, Commerce City, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Lafayette, Littleton, Northglenn, Westminster, Wheat Ridge, or Golden, Colorado, and have any questions, please contact me.  

Kevin D. Heupel, Colorado Bankruptcy attorney, 303-955-7570, ColoradoBankruptcyHelp Email, free-consultation form

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