Jacksonville Location (904) 419-7255
Jacksonville Location (904) 419-7255
Should I file for bankruptcy? “Should I file for bankruptcy?” is a question more and more Floridians are asking themselves. This is true even though recent reports indicate that unemployment fi ... Read More »
Bankruptcy Security Clearance Will I lose my security clearance if I file bankruptcy? Can you lose your clearance? Yes. Will you? Likely not. I have practice bankruptcy law here in Florida since ... Read More »
When Can I File Bankruptcy After Moving To Florida? A lot of clients call our office asking "When can I file Bankruptcy after moving to Florida? In Florida you can file bankruptcy after moving here f ... Read More »
Rebuilding Credit Rebuilding credit requires hard work and determination. While there are several options available, most people arrive at the same conclusion – Bankruptcy. This is because most ... Read More »
Payment Plans For Attorneys Fees In Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Most Bankruptcy Law Firms will not allow clients to make payments on the fees and cost of a chapter 7 bankruptcy. Our firm will. We allow the ... Read More »
What can Chapter 13 Bankruptcy do for you? Stop Repossession / Stop Foreclosure / Modify a Mortgage Chapter 13 bankruptcy has several different variations to it depending on your facts. Each cas ... Read More »
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Unprotected Property Keeping Your Unprotected Property in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy While the majority of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy cases filed by the Law Offices of Keith D. Collier co ... Read More »
Save Your Home with Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Now that the housing market is rebounding and home prices are on the rise, it’s time to think about saving that house that you might have given up on. MS ... Read More »
Protecting Assets in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy "Exemptions" or asset protections are used in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy cases to make sure you keep as much of, if not all of, your property. Exemptions allow ... Read More »
Protecting Assets in Bankruptcy When you file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, it is sometimes referred to as "Liquidation Bankruptcy". "Liquidation" is when goods or assets are sold off to create cash that ... Read More »
Loan Modification Through Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is referred to as “clean slate” or “fresh start” bankruptcy. A major change has recently occurred in the Middle Distric ... Read More »
Did you know it's possible that when you die you may be leaving all of your outstanding debt to your children to pay? CNN has recently published an article describing all the different scenarios where ... Read More »
Stripping Mortgage in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy with the Law Offices of Keith D. Collier can yield many unexpected and significant benefits. For example, did you know tha ... Read More »
Did you know it's possible that when you die you may be leaving all of your outstanding debt to your children to pay? CNN has recently published an article describing all the different scenarios where ... Read More »
Can I get rid of student loans with bankruptcy? The general rule is No, Private and Federally backed Student Loans are Non-Dischargeable in Bankruptcy unless you show all three of these elements be ... Read More »
In the last week I randomly pulled 10 new client files to look at how their credit score was affected by their bankruptcy. We pull credit reports using a service provided by a company called CIN Leg ... Read More »
Automatic Stay When you file chapter 13 or chapter 7 bankruptcy, you have basically thrown up a huge wall against your creditors. This huge wall is the bankruptcy code’s “automatic stay.” ... Read More »
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Plan of Reorganization A chapter 13 bankruptcy plan is just that – a plan. It tells the court how much money you plan on sending to the court and when. It then describes w ... Read More »
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Chapter 13 bankruptcy may help you stop garnishments, save your car, and save your home. Moreover, chapter 13 bankruptcy may help you consolidate all of your other debts suc ... Read More »
Choosing a Bankruptcy Attorney Since chapter 13 bankruptcy lasts for three to five years, you must take great care in choosing a law firm to represent you because that law firm will be representing ... Read More »
Are Debts Obtained Through Fraud Dischargeable in Bankruptcy? Bankruptcy is a very powerful tool to get your financial house back in order. However, one type of debt that often proves confusing f ... Read More »
Qualify for a Chapter 7 Using the “Business Debt Exception” Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a powerful tool, one that can help you get out of debt quickly so that you can start to rebuild your financia ... Read More »
Government Shutdown to Affect 800,000 Workers Just when you thought the economy was starting to pick up again, Washington politicians deal the American public another blow. This time it ... Read More »
Get Out of Debt With Your Federal Income Tax Refund Every year millions of Americans receive their federal income tax refund for many things from property taxes, automobile and homeowner’s insura ... Read More »
To recover from bankruptcy is easy. The hard part is actually making the decision to file. Hundreds of people go to my web site each day and think about calling. 20-30 actually make the call and sche ... Read More »
Short Sales can be good if you understand that you may have a tax liability after. If you short sale your property and the bank settles for lets say 100k and you owe 180k, they will 1099 you for the d ... Read More »
We use a company to pull credit report is called CIN legal data services. The allow us to pull Credit Data from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax in either a 2-Bureau or 3-Bureau Report. This data ... Read More »
Can I get the money that was garnished back if I file bankruptcy? The answer is no unless you continue to fight the creditor in state court under some other argument like head of household or the orig ... Read More »
As a Jacksonville, Daytona, and Orlando Bankruptcy Attorney, I pride myself on remaining up-to-date on the statistics for bankruptcy and foreclosure filings. CNNMoney.com, a branch of CNN.com and th ... Read More »
Bankruptcy on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart As a Jacksonville, Daytona and Orlando bankruptcy attorney, I am always on the look-out for issues concerning bankruptcy and middle-class families that ... Read More »
Did you know that filing chapter 13 bankruptcy with the Orlando/Jacksonville Law Offices of Keith D. Collier can help you obtain a loan modification to save your home? The chapter 13 bank ... Read More »
1.) Don't lie about assets. Anything in your name needs to be listed in your schedules. What's an asset? Everything you could sell or own according to the law. Potential lawsuits are even considered a ... Read More »
Regaining Contol of your Credit When a person or couple file for bankruptcy their credit score is affected. It’s not always Doom and Gloom. Generally, a person credit score is based on their ... Read More »
Can I purchase a car after filing bankruptcy? Yes. Under chapter 7 bankruptcy clients have a better chance of being able to purchase a vehicle after they file than chapter 13 bankruptcy. The chap ... Read More »
Do I lose everything when I file bankruptcy? Generally not. There are Federal and State exemptions that protect assets. Depending on your situation you could lose things. However, if you have a ... Read More »
CHAPTER 7 TRUSTEE? WHO ARE THEY AND WHAT IS THEIR PURPOSE? In short, a chapter 7 Trustee is a person appointed by the US Department of Justice to review the case and investigate the debtor and the ... Read More »
The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) launched in early 2009 boasted potential mortgage assistance for 3 to 4 million homeowners. It is estimated that only 816,000 homeowners have receive ... Read More »
Tax Refunds and Chapter 7 Bankruptcy When you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a Trustee is appointed to your case. The Trustee’s job is to look for assets. One asset a lot of clients or their attorney ... Read More »
How can I stop my wages from being garnished? To stop a potential or active garnishment , you must act fast. The faster the reponse, the less likely you are to lose your income and savings. If ... Read More »
Don't pay anyone to dispute your credit reports. Pull each report directly from the source and examine each entry. If you see things that are incorrect follow the companies dispute guidelines. If you ... Read More »
Credit scores range between 300 and 850. The higher the score the better. 500 or lower is considered a low credit score. 700 or above will save you money on your financed purchase by lowing your inter ... Read More »
Simple, you pay the Cost to file and I will stop your wage garnishment. To file a chapter 7 case you have to pay the Federal Court a $306.00 Court Filing Fee. In order for my office to accurately prep ... Read More »
Consumers should be sceptical of CREDIT REPAIR ORGANIZATIONS that make promisses or statements that sound to good to be true. Just because it's what you are want to hear don't be fooled. Credit Repa ... Read More »
General cost of filing may vary from state to state or city to city. On average I have seen fees charged from $1,000.00 to $2,500.00 for a simple chapter 7 case. More complex case can go a little ... Read More »
First things first . . . the recent credit bust and changes in the housing market has caused many financial institutes and mortgage lenders to be merged or bought out. Since lenders have different int ... Read More »
The Means Test, formally called the Statement of Current Monthly Income and Calculation of Commitment Period and Disposable Income, has two main purposes: 1) To determine one’s eligibility t ... Read More »
What Makes the Means Test “Mean”? The most notable change of Bankruptcy Reform in 2005 and probably the most criticized was the inception of the Means Test. A Debtor can no longer fill out a si ... Read More »
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rule last week that Chapter 7 would also allow for stripping of subordinate mortgages. Before this case second mortgages could only be stripped in chapter 13 c ... Read More »
Bankruptcy Statistics For April 2012 for the United State Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Florida Bankruptcys Filed Year to Date Filing ... Read More »
Sample Chapter 11 Case for Homestead Property Client has one house that is his homestead valued at $200,000.00. He is in his 5th year of a 30 year mortgage, 25 years remain or 300 months. The ... Read More »
Why File Chapter 11 for your Homestead instead of Chapter 13? 3 simple reasons. 1) Chapter 11 allows you to spread your arrearages on your homestead property over the remaining years of the mo ... Read More »
Reaffirmation Agreements in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Cases are documents that are generally prepared and filed by secured creditors. When done properly and timely they hold the debtor liable on the debt t ... Read More »
When a creditor gets a Judgment against you they are essentially getting what is called a Judicial Lien against property that is in your name. This judgment allows them to garnish your bank accounts, ... Read More »
What really hurts your credit score? video article by CNN. http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2012/04/17/pf_lk_dont_know_credit.cnnmoney/ These are just a few hints into how to keep your credit score ... Read More »
Not hiring an attorney will likely cost you more money than hiring one. to help with the filing of a bankruptcy. The time you will have to commit to the bankruptcy will also cost you time that could ... Read More »
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/borrowers-beware-of-mortgage-relief-fraud/ This article in the New York Times is a proble that will problably be arround as long as mortgages and foreclosu ... Read More »
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/business/bank-of-america-starts-mortgage-reduction-effort.html An Article in the New York Times talks about how "Bank of America has started sending letters to tho ... Read More »
I get this question 5 times a day. Can or how long before I can purchase a new or used car after I file for chapter 7 bankruptcy? Well the answer is generally anytime after you are discharged. After ... Read More »
This CNN video article hits the nail on the head with it's advice on credit scores. Three ways to boost your credit score http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2012/04/23/pf-hd-boost-credit-score.cnnmoney/ ... Read More »
This video on CNN (http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2012/04/30/pf-file-bankruptcy.cnnmoney/ ) talks about when to file bankruptcy. Even though this videoarticle tells people to look into other options ... Read More »
This resent article on CNN "Too broke to go bankrupt" backs my argument against last months article published in the Jacksonville Daily Record reporting that bankruptcy are down because the economy is ... Read More »
Helpful links for people who considering filing for Bankruptcy or who have already filed Federal Bankruptcy Court Middle District Of Florida http://www.flmb.uscourts.gov/ Filing Fees and Cour ... Read More »
In an article published April 10, 2012 by the Jacksonville Daily Record it’s reported that bankruptcy filings are on a decline. Is this decline because of a better job market, stabilizing ec ... Read More »
The Law Offices of Keith D. Collier won a great victory in court this year litigating against the United States Trustees office. This new ruling by Judge Paul M. Glenn in the Middle District of Florid ... Read More »
Are homeowners association dues or condo dues dischargeable in bankruptcy? Yes but there are nuances to this answer. If you file chapter 7 bankruptcy to surrender a property you are discharged from yo ... Read More »
Sample Facts and Figures Client has a primary house with a first and second mortgage. The value of the house is $120,000.00. The first mortgage is $900.00 a month with property taxes and insurance ... Read More »
Chapter 11 and Rental Property Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is a great way to knock out a lot of the negative equity in rental properties. An example of a resent case we filed had 10 rental property’s ... Read More »
How often can you file Bankruptcy? Chapter 7 –> Chapter 7 or Chapter 11? You can file chapter 7 or file a chapter 11 and get a discharge in a chapter 11 only after 8 years from the date of fi ... Read More »
You may have to pay income taxes after Foreclosure takes place if you don't file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 Bankruptcy before the foreclosure sale. Once a house is foreclosed the lender will likely cla ... Read More »
Frequently Asked Bankruptcy Questions How will filing bankruptcy affect my credit? Generally we see clients with lower credit scores (450 – 550) increase 50 – 100 points after filing. Clien ... Read More »
Will bankruptcy stop a repo / repossession of a vehicle? Yes, chapter 7 or chapter 13 will stop a vehicle repo / repossession, immediately when filed. Our office can file an emergence petition with ... Read More »
The resent trend has been mortgage companies are just leading people on when they tell people "send me your income and expenses we can modify your mortgage payments." The majority of clients that I ... Read More »
What is a BuyBack? A buyback is done in a chapter 7 case. It's were the debtor makes an offer to purchase their unencumbered non-exempt assets back from the Chapter 7 Trustee. When you file chapt ... Read More »
What are the Pitfalls of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy? Chapter 7 has some pitfalls. That is why you should always hire an attorney to guide you through the law. If you don’t then you may lose assets and m ... Read More »
Stripping Second and Third Mortgages!!! Chapter 13 Bankruptcy will allow a Debtor to strip a subordinate mortgage if the value of the house is less than the superior mortgage. This means subordinat ... Read More »
Is it best to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy to surrender my house before or after the foreclosure? It’s best to file the chapter 7 before the foreclosure to prevent receiving a 1099 for the deficie ... Read More »
Total Available Credit Up to 30% of your credit (FICO) score is determined by how much you owe creditors. The ratio of this debt to your credit limit affects your score. Asking your credit card com ... Read More »
Welcome to the new Keith D. Collier, Bankruptcy Attorney website. Come back often for industry news, information and helpful tips. ... Read More »
Chapter 11 Business and Personal Bankruptcy Chapter 11 Business Bankruptcy allows a business to reorganize their debts into manageable payments. Each case is different. Chapter 11 is a good idea for ... Read More »
In short, a chapter 7 Trustee is a person appointed by the US Department of Justice to review the case and investigate the debtor and the debtor’s assets. One of their main jobs is to make sure th ... Read More »
Individual Real Estate Investor Chapter 11 cases have been on the rise in FLorida because of the decline in the real estate market. Real estate investors really have a lot to gain from a Chapter 11. ... Read More »
How long can I stay in my house after surrendering it in bankruptcy? It just depends on how far along the state court foreclosure proceeding is when you file. When a bankruptcy case is filed the fore ... Read More »
Can I file bankruptcy without my husband / wife / spouse? Yes, an individual can file with out their spouse or their spouses permission. However, their income must be included to determine if the ind ... Read More »
Will bankruptcy affect a co-signer / co-debtor? Yes and no. If a person files bankruptcy the co-signer / co-debtor is still liable for the debt. As long as the debt gets paid on time by someone the n ... Read More »
Will bankruptcy stop a bank account garnishment? Yes, chapter 7 or chapter 13 will stop a bank account garnishment, immediately when filed. Our office can file an emergence petition with the Federa ... Read More »
Will bankruptcy stop a wage garnishment? Yes, chapter 7 or chapter 13 will stop a wage garnishment, immediately when filed. Our office can file an emergence petition with the Federal Bankruptcy Cou ... Read More »
Can I purchase a house after filing bankruptcy? Yes, but most mortgage companies will not lend money for at least 2 years after completing of a chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy and receiving a disch ... Read More »
How will filing bankruptcy affect my credit? Generally we see clients with lower credit scores (450 – 550) increase 50 – 100 points after filing. Clients with mid range scores (600) stay abou ... Read More »