Bankruptcies filed by businesses in the Southern District of Florida are decreasing in 2011. Experts estimate that about 22 percent fewer commercial bankruptcies will be filed in the district by the end of the year.
Through August of this year, 886 commercial bankruptcies were filed in South Florida. At this rate, there should be around 1,329 business bankruptcies filed in all of 2011. In 2010, there was a total of 1,709 business bankruptcy filings.
Of the 886 commercial bankruptcies filed through August, 643 businesses filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy and 205 filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy.
The 2005 bankruptcy law contains a provision which intends to stop debtors from converting non-exempt funds in to homestead properties otherwise exempt under state law. The Code section provides for loss of homestead exemption to the extent a Chapter 7 debtor used non-exempt assets, such as cash, to buy a homestead within 10 years preceding bankruptcy bankruptcy when the debtor purchased the homestead with the intent to defraud creditors. Sometimes I hear clients ask whether the new law means that they cannot exempt in bankruptcy money used to buy a Florida homestead in the past 10 years.
No, the law does not mean you cannot by a house within 10 years of filing bankruptcy.
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is the federal government’s newest regulatory body, has pledged to target credit reporting and debt collection companies that don’t act in the best interests of American consumers.
These two types of agencies—credit reporters and debt collectors—are relatively mysterious but they have huge impacts on the everyday lives of consumers.
In recognition of the negative impact of rising levels of debt, such as credit card debt, and the ways in which these companies contribute to consumer’s pain, the Protection Bureau is proposing sweeping changes to the regulation of these entities.
Traditionally, credit reporting agencies and debt collectors were not subject to federal supervision, but this may soon change, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times:
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Singer T-Boz’s third bankruptcy filing was dismissed by a judge in Atlanta, Georgia last week. The TLC singer first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the rest of the girls in the group in 1995.
Then, last February, T-Boz filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy with more than $700,000 in debt. This case was dismissed, and the singer filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy again in October. However, creditors were able to make enough of a case that T-Boz was not making an effort in her bankruptcy for the judge to toss out her most recent filing.
T-Boz was accused of failing to attend meetings with creditors, to make any payments in her bankruptcy, to submit required documents, and to seek $250,000 in child support she is owed. T
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A fraudulent transfers and fraudulent conversions prior to filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy can be detrimental in two ways. First, the Chapter 7 trustee can reverse the transfer or conversion, take the property back from the transferee (recipient), and sell the property for the benefit of your creditors. In addition, egregious fraudulent transfers within two years of filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy can cost the debtor the bankruptcy discharge. If discharge is denied the transferred property will be recaptured and sold and none of the debtor’s debts will be wiped out so that the creditors could pursue collection after the bankruptcy is over.
Fraudulent transfers involve a transferee and drag the transferee in to the debtor’s bankruptcy. In
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