Miami Bankruptcy Attorney Blog

One of the most common questions people want to know, when filing for bankruptcy, is what type of debts are dischargeable.  While most debts are dischargeable in bankruptcy there are several types of debts that are non-dischargeable.  A debtor will not be able to discharge back-owed child support in bankruptcy.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy and would like to schedule a free consultation with a local bankruptcy attorney then please contract Shmucher Law, PL by calling 305.741.5553 or 954.309.5559.   We offer free consultations in our main Miami office as well as any of our satellite offices (by appointment) including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

Sometimes I have potential clients who have had friends or family members that have previously filed for bankruptcy and that family member or friend may have had a good/bad experience with their bankruptcy trustee.  So the potential client will ask me if it is possible to know who your bankruptcy trustee will be prior to filing your case?  The answer depends on what type of bankruptcy you file.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

When you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Broward, Dade or Palm Beach county you will automatically be assigned a bankruptcy trustee at random.  So there is no way of knowing who your bankruptcy trustee will be until the actual case is filed.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

There is only one standing Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee for Broward and Palm Beach County and there is only one standing Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee for Miami-Dade County.   So in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy you will be able to know who the trustee is prior to your bankruptcy filing.

If you are thinking if filing for either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy in South Florida and you would like to speak with a local bankruptcy attorney  then please contact Ofer Shmucher at Shmucher Law, PL by calling 305.741.5553 or 954.309.5559.  We offer free consultations in our main Miami Office or any of our satellite offices (by appointment) including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation and Sunrise Florida.

A recent client asked me if she could terminate her cell phone contract through the bankruptcy and not be subject the termination fee of her provider.   The answer is YES a debtor can terminate their current cell phone contract by listing the cell phone provider on their bankruptcy petition and “rejecting their contract.”  I would put cell phone providers debts into the following three categories:

Old Cell Phone Contract Debt

If at one time you had a contract (and it has expired) and you owed an amount then by listing the old cell phone provider on your schedules you will easily be able to eliminate or discharge the debt through bankruptcy.

Current Cell Phone Contract Debt and Canceling

If you have a current cell phone contract debt and are planning on canceling the debt then you should put the owed debt amount as well as the contract on the bankruptcy petition and mark the contact as “rejected.”

Current Cell Phone Contract and Continuing to Pay

If you have a current cell phone plan and are continuing to pay then you don’t need to list the cell phone contract or the debt on the bankruptcy petition.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy in South Florida and would like to schedule an appointment with a local bankruptcy attorney then please contact Ofer Shmucher at Shmucher Law, PL by calling 305.741.5553 or 954.309.5559.  We offer free consultations in our Miami office as well as any of our satellite offices (by appointment) including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

When people have personal injury lawsuits they tend to take quite some time before they actually receive any money.  During that time period where the personal injury lawsuit is pending a person may consider filing for bankruptcy.  A question I receive from potential clients is whether or not they can file for bankruptcy while they have a pending personal injury lawsuit.  The answer is YES a person can file a bankruptcy while they have a pending personal injury lawsuit, but the more important question to ask is WHETHER they should file for bankruptcy with a pending personal injury lawsuit.

In the world of bankruptcy a personal injury lawsuit is considered an asset and in some cases it is a very lucrative asset.  A debtor, when filing for bankruptcy, must exempt the assets they want to keep and under Florida law there is NO exemption for a personal injury lawsuit.  A debtor may use the wildcard exemption or the $1,000 personal property exemption on the lawsuit but likely the debtor may not be able to cover much of the personal injury claim.  SO what happens if you have a lucrative personal injury claim and you file for bankruptcy?  In most cases you will transfer your rights in the personal injury lawsuit to the bankruptcy trustee and upon receiving any monies from the lawsuit, the monies will be used to pay off your debt.

If you have a pending personal injury lawsuit and are thinking of filing for bankruptcy then I suggest you meet with a qualified bankruptcy lawyer to determine how bankruptcy would affect your claim.  If you would like to schedule a free consultation with Shmucher Law, PL then call 305.741.5553 or 954.309.5559.  We offer consultations in any of our office locations including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

Clients always ask me the following question “Can I go max out my credit cards and then come back and file for bankruptcy?”  The answer to that question is NO and it could lead to severe consequences including having the credit card companies sue you while you are in bankruptcy, and if they win the debt incurred will survive bankruptcy.

What do the credit card companies look for?

When you file your bankruptcy each credit card company, that you owed money to, will look back 90 days to determine whether or not you made charges on their card during that period.  Credit cards will look at the charges and determine if any of the charges are considered luxury goods.  A good rule of thumb is that anything other than food and gas is probably going to be considered a luxury good.  The credit card companies can sue you on anything they deem a luxury good. 

What do the courts look at to see if the debtor intended to defraud the creditor?

This is a non-exclusive list of factors that the court may use to determine whether or not the debtor, while using their credit card within the 90 day period before bankruptcy, intended to defraud the credit card.

1. 1.      The length of time between the charges made and the filing of bankruptcy
2. 2.      Whether or not an attorney has been consulted concerning the filing of bankruptcy before the charges were made
3. 3.      The number of charges made
4. 4.      The amount of the charges
5. 5.      The financial condition of the debtor at the time of the charges
6. 6.      Whether the charges were above the credit limit of the account
7. 7.      Whether the debtor made multiple charges on the same day
8. 8.      Whether or not the debtor was employed
9. 9.      The debtor’s prospects for employment
10. 10.   Financial sophistication of the debtor
11. 11.   Whether there was a sudden change in the debtor’s buying habits; and
12. 12.   Whether the purchases were made for luxuries or necessities

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy in the greater Fort Lauderdale-Miami area and would like to speak with a local bankruptcy attorney then please contact Ofer Shmucher at Shmucher Law, PL by calling 305.741.5553 or 954.309.5559.  We offer free consultations in our main Miami office as well as our satellite offices (by appointment) including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

Clients that come see me tend to have one or two credit cards that they are current on.  These credit cards are typically low balance cards just for an emergency.  The client will usually ask me if they can keep these low balance credit cards after filing for bankruptcy in Florida, and unfortunately the answer to that question is NO.  Debtors will not be allowed to keep any credit cards they have, whether they are current, in default, or have been written off.

If you are worried about not having a credit card after filing for bankruptcy for an emergency use then it may be beneficial for you to get a secured credit card.   Otherwise you will be able to obtain credit card offers approximately three months after your bankruptcy case is over.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy in the greater Miami-Fort Lauderdale area and would like to speak with a local bankruptcy attorney then please contact Ofer Shmucher at Shmucher Law, PL by calling 305.741.5553 or 954.309.5559.  We offer free consultations in our Miami office or any of our satellite offices (by appointment) including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

Many clients that I see in Florida aren’t originally from the United States, and these clients may or may not have foreign assets in their home country.  One of the questions I get asked a lot is whether or not a debtor needs to list any of their assets they own, that are NOT in the United States.  This could include foreign bank accounts, foreign businesses or even foreign real estate holdings.   The answer to that question is YES, a debtor must list all their assets whether or not they are owned within the United States or not.  When a debtor files for bankruptcy they sign under oath that the information in the bankruptcy petition is true and correct and lists all the debtor’s assets.  If a debtor fails to list an asset and the bankruptcy trustee finds out about it then 1) the debtor could lose their bankruptcy discharge or 2) the debtor could be sent to jail for attempting to commit bankruptcy fraud.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy and would like to schedule a free consultation with a local Florida bankruptcy attorney then please contact Ofer Shmucher at Shmucher Law, PL.  We offer free consultations in our main Miami office as well as any of our satellite offices (by appointment) including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

I spend a lot of time looking at my website data, and one of the most common questions people type into Google is: what is the average price of a bankruptcy attorney in Miami, Florida?  Here is a breakdown of the fees required to pay in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy:

Filing Fee:
The filing fee is mandatory, unless a client gets a waiver (not likely), and is $299.00

Credit Report Fee:
Your attorney will need to run a credit report for you, and the fee varies by credit bureau but you can expect to pay anywhere from $35-50.

Pre-Filing Course Certificate:
Each debtor, prior to the filing of a bankruptcy, is required to take a budget and credit counseling course.  This course can range anywhere from $30-50, depending on where you take it online.

Post-Filing Course Certificate:
Each debtor, after the filing of a bankruptcy, is required to take a financial management course.  This course can range anywhere from $15-50, depending on where you take it online.

Those are the only mandatory fees that a debtor must pay for when filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Miami, Florida.  However an attorney will likely charge you for their time, and usually this is a FLAT FEE.

Attorney Fees:
If you scour the internet, and make numerous phone calls, then you will find the prices for a local Miami bankruptcy attorney to range drastically.   This is likely because attorneys will quote on their website, one price, but then they forget to tell you about the other fees, listed above, or inform you that your case is a lot more complicated than that of a regular case and thus they will need to charge you more.  Prices in Miami range from $1,000 to $3,000, depending on the law firm.

Shmucher Law, PL Fees:
Our website fees are located directly on the main page of the website and are as follows:  For the majority of our cases (individual (not-joint), don’t own a business, one home, and don’t foresee anything exciting in a bankruptcy) then the attorney fee is $1,200 plus $30 credit report plus $299 filing fee for a grand total of $1,530.00 .

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy in South Florida and would like to schedule a free consultation with a local bankruptcy attorney then please contact Ofer Shmucher at Shmucher Law, PL by calling 305.741.5553 or 954.309.5559.  We offer free consultations in any of our office locations including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Plantation and Sunrise Florida.

One of the biggest mistakes a debtor can do, before filing for bankruptcy, is to repay debts owed to the debtors’ relatives or friends.

When a debtor files for bankruptcy a trustee is appointed in the case.  The trustee’s job is similar to that of a referee, whereby the trustee reviews the debtor’s bankruptcy schedules and makes sure everything looks normal.  The trustee also reviews the debtor’s tax returns, bank statements, and any other financial documents.  The trustee will review your financial documents to see if you have made any illegal transfers.

Under the bankruptcy code, any transfer repaid to a relative or other “insider” within twelve (12) months prior to filing a bankruptcy case can be recovered by the Trustee in that case.    That means that the Trustee can (and, depending on the amounts involved, will) sue that relative to recover the money or property repaid to them during that period.    This is known as a “preferential transfer” and the bankruptcy statute is 11 U.S.C. 547.  Furthermore the bankruptcy trustee can piggyback onto Florida state law and extend the fraudulent transfer period for an insider for upwards of four years.

Payments made to non-insiders (non-relatives) follow the same law, except the look back period for those transfers is only 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy in South Florida, and would like to schedule a free consultation with a local bankruptcy attorney then please contact Ofer Shmucher at Shmucher Law, PL by calling 305.741.5553 or Read more…

I tend to meet clients who have visited other bankruptcy attorneys so I typically ask them what they thought of the previous attorney.  I was shocked to learn what some of my clients told me.  So here is a compiled list of things to be on the lookout out for when meeting a bankruptcy attorney:

Your consultation is with the paralegal or law clerk and not the attorney

This has to be one of the worst things I hear from clients who met other attorneys.  I’ll ask them what they thought of the previous attorney and they tell me that they never met the attorney, instead they had a consultation with the paralegal.  If that doesn’t scare you, it SHOULD.  Paralegals cannot give you legal advice and more likely than not what they tell you is incorrect.  If the attorney isn’t even willing to meet with you then how do you know they will even review your case before it is filed?

When you call the schedule a consultation they tell you there is a fee

A consultation fee, while allowed, is probably a good reason to walk away from the potential bankruptcy attorney .  Bankruptcy attorneys in particular must consider their clients circumstances, limited funds, and thus should always offer individual debtors

The attorney only does Chapter 7 bankruptcy

If you meet an attorney and they tell you that they only handle Chapter 7 cases it may not be in your best interest to stay there.  They may try to push you into filing a Chapter 7 and you may have to give up certain assets to do so.  However sometimes Chapter 7 isn’t the best fit for a client, sometimes a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is useful because the client can wipe out the 2^nd mortgage on a home or decrease the loan amount on a vehicle.

The attorney only looks at your paystubs and tells you that you can’t file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

The easiest way to determine if someone can qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy is to look at their paystubs and see if they fit under the median income.  HOWEVER, even if a debtor doesn’t fit under the median income does not prevent them from filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, it just requires the attorney to do more work and to compare the debtor’s income to his or her expenses.

If you are looking for a bankruptcy attorney in South Florida then please consider calling Shmucher Law, PL at 305-741-5553 or 954-309-5559.  We offer free consultations in any of our office locations including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.