Miami Bankruptcy Attorney Blog

If you have filed for bankruptcy in the past and are thinking about filing for bankruptcy again then you may or may not be eligible to file again depending on date since you last filed.   If you previously filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Florida then you must wait eight years from the date of filing in order to be able to file for bankruptcy again.   The important date to remember is the date that you filed not the date that you received your discharge.

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

I often speak with debtors over the phone who are ready to file for bankruptcy and they are always wondering what the best steps they should do to prepare for the bankruptcy filing.  My answer every time is to get your paperwork organized.   Here are a couple of things you should consider:

Do I need to bring a list of all my creditors to the bankruptcy consultation?

No, typically the majority of your debts will be found by running your credit,  however debts such as medical debts, personal loans, and payday loans will not show up on credit reports.  If you have any medical debts, personal loans, or payday loans you should bring copies of them to your consultation.

Documents you need to bring to your initial consultation:

Always provide copies of your last three years of tax returns.  If you don’t have a copy or can’t find them, then you need to go to your local IRS office and ask for tax transcripts (they are free).

Provide copies of your last six bank statements for ANY bank account that has your name on it.

Provide copies of your last six months of any investment account that has your name on it.

Provide copies of the last six months of paystubs (paystubs determine which bankruptcy you qualify for) and the last six months of a spouses paystubs (even if the spouse is not filing).

Provide a detailed description of any vehicle driven, any boat, or any mode of transportation owned by or titled to the debtor.  The description should include the make, model, trim package, mileage and condition.

Provide copies of any litigation/lawsuit in which you are party to.

Providing documentation, to your bankruptcy attorney, is probably the best step that any debtor can take in order to ensure a successful bankruptcy filing.   If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy and would like to schedule a consultation with a local bankruptcy lawyer, 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.

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.

I have been meeting with numerous clients who have told me what “other attorneys” have told them regarding their vehicles and if they will lose them when they file for bankruptcy.  The answer to this question really depends on whether there is equity in your vehicle and whether you can exempt that equity in the vehicle.

A recent client told me that another attorney told her that bankruptcy trustees will not seek to take possession of cars if they are over five years old.  This advice is completely false, and following it would potentially yield the debtor from losing their vehicle.

The bankruptcy trustees job is to recover money and use that money to pay some of your creditors.   Also the bankruptcy trustee gets paid a percentage of the money that they recover in every case.  While you think that you may have a sad story and that “it’s your only car,” you must remember that your bankruptcy filing is VOLUNTARY and that once you file you understand that ramifications.  If your attorney doesn’t inform you of the consequences of filing for bankruptcy when you are over-exempt then I suggest you see a different bankruptcy attorney.

How much over-exempt is “safe” for a car:

A trustee is allowed to request the debtor to pay any amount that he or she is over-exempt on any asset, so there is no “safe” amount.  Whether the trustee acts and requests a debtor to make a payment on the amount they are over-exempt depends on the trustee (and bankruptcy trustees are assigned at random).

How long will I have to pay for an asset that is over-exempt:

A bankruptcy once told a debtor in a meeting of the creditors that he “is not in the collections business,” and that he would rather take a little less money by selling the vehicle now, rather than wait for the debtor to pay it over an extended period of time.   So the answer to how long a bankruptcy trustee will give you to repay debts really depends on the bankruptcy trustee.  Some bankruptcy trustees will give the debtor a week, while others will allow repayment plans of upwards of six months.

Before you decide to file for bankruptcy it is in your best interest to meet with a bankruptcy attorney who will give you a worst case scenario and a realistic answer as to what will happen in your case.  No bankruptcy attorney will give you a guarantee on your case but most will give you an opinion based on their experience in the district in which you are filing in.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy in Florida and would like to schedule a time for a free consultation with a local bankruptcy attorney then please contact 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.

If a creditor has filed a lawsuit against you and obtained a judgment then they can attempt to collect on the debt by doing a number of things including, wage garnishments, freezing bank accounts, or levying property.  I was recently asked by a client if it is too late to file for bankruptcy once a creditor has frozen your bank account?  The answer to that question is NO,  a debtor can still file for bankruptcy once their account has been frozen.  Furthermore the filing of the bankruptcy will UNFREEZE the bank account and likely give the debtor his or her bank account once again.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy, then the first thing you should do is go see a local bankruptcy attorney to determine your eligibility, options, and consequences of filing.  If you live in south Florida then please contact Shmucher Law, PL at 305.741.5553 or 954.309.5559 to schedule a free consultation.  We offer consultations in our main office in Miami as well as our satellite bankruptcy  offices including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

This is a common question that is asked by people who are looking to file for bankruptcy in Florida.  Their main concern is that their friend/relative/neighbor/etc. co-signed on a debt that the client will be discharging in bankruptcy.  So they will always ask, will my co-signer be liable for the debts that I am discharging in bankruptcy?  The answer is Yes, the bankruptcy will only discharge the personal liability of the person who files, not co-signers, whose obligations remain.  What does this mean for the person who is filing, not much because they will likely be able to discharge their debts through the bankruptcy, however their bankruptcy will likely have an adverse effect on the co-signer.

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

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy in Florida and you own real estate then you will need to know the value of the real estate to determine what, if any, equity you have in your properties.  The easiest way to determine the value of your home is to look at the property appraiser website for the county you live in.  Each year your home is appraised for tax purposes by the property appraiser, so when you go to the website, look for the corresponding year and valuation for the property.  Alternatively you could go www.zillow.com and type in your address for another valuation based on comparable real estate sales in your area.  Finally, and probably the most effective way to value real estate is to get a true appraisal of the property by hiring a licensed appraiser to come out to your property to review it and value it accordingly.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy and would like to schedule a free consultation with a local bankruptcy lawyer, 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 office in Miami or in any of our satellite offices (by appointment) including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy then you are also thinking of what type of impact bankruptcy plays with other aspects of your life.  One question I recently received is whether or not filing for bankruptcy in Florida will have any impact on a child visitation agreement or parenting rights.  The answer to that question is NO; the filing of bankruptcy will have no impact on a debtor’s child visitation agreement at all.   The bankruptcy court doesn’t talk to or have any communication with the family courts in Florida.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy and would like to schedule a free consultation with a local Florida bankruptcy lawyer 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 in any of our satellite offices (by appointment) including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Sunrise Florida.

With the increase in the number of houses that are foreclosed on in Florida, more clients are being sued for a deficiency.   A deficiency is basically the difference between what you owed on the house and what the bank sells it for when it is sold at a foreclosure sale.   Generally the deficiency amount is a fairly large number and the bank will sell these deficiencies to collection companies.  The collection company will begin to call debtors, asking them to pay up or be sued.   Typically debtors don’t have that kind of money and they ignore the collector, which leads to a process server knocking on their door and handing them a lawsuit.

If you have been served by a deficiency lawsuit or lost a house to a foreclosure (expect to be hit with a foreclosure suit),  and are wondering if this debt can be discharged/wiped out in a bankruptcy, then you should know that any deficiency or potential deficiency judgment can be wiped out in a bankruptcy filing.  It doesn’t matter if the creditor has already filed a lawsuit against you or they can potentially file one, if you file for bankruptcy then you can eliminate the debt and potential lawsuit that comes with it.

If you are thinking of filing for bankruptcy and would like to schedule a free consultation with a local bankruptcy attorney, then please contact Ofer Shmucher, at Shmucher Law, PL by calling 954.309.5559 or 305.741.5553.  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 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.