The company responsible for Ho Hos, Twinkies, and Ding Dongs has announced that it has filed for bankruptcy protection. Hostess Brands has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy once before, in 2004 when it was under the name Interstate Bakeries Corp. The company recently came out from a financial restructuring process in 2009 with changes that the company now considers as “insufficient.”
Unsecured creditors (like credit cards and medical bills) have little legal ability to actually collect on their debts. Outside of going to court, they can only send you a bill or call you on the phone to ask for payment. The only way to increase their ability to collect is to file a lawsuit. The creditor’s purpose in filing a lawsuit is to get a judgment. Once the creditor obtains a judgment, it becomes what attorneys like to call a “judgment creditor.”
If you have gone through a divorce, it’s likely that it was like countless other divorces in that you and your ex-spouse divided your debt. You may have assumed responsibility of some of the debt while your ex-spouse took responsibility for the rest. In the divorce decree, you and your ex-spouse not only promised to pay the debts assigned to each of you, but you also agreed to protect the other party from any adverse action by the creditor. Moreover, you were both court ordered to comply with this agreement.
Once you file bankruptcy, creditors must stop negatively reporting to the credit agencies. While they can report that you filed bankruptcy and that the debt was discharged, they must stop reporting past due balances. Unfortunately, some creditors disregard this restriction and carelessly continue their negative reports to the agency. This is a violation not only of the bankruptcy discharge, but of the the Fair Credit Reporting Act as well.
One of the most significant benefits of bankruptcy is the relief you get from the harassment of creditors. Immediately upon filing for bankruptcy, the creditor must stop calling and/or sending you bills. This protection from debt collection continues throughout the bankruptcy process and becomes permanent once you are given a discharge.
In this blog post, I want to concentrate on those who have lent money only to find that their borrower has declared bankruptcy. What can you do if the person who owes you money just filed for bankruptcy?
For the many people who live in trailers, I want to address the significant differences in the laws of manufactured homes compared to those of traditional home residences.
Many people in Arizona are struggling to pay their bills right now. And when it comes down to feeding your family or paying the credit card bill, many choose to feed the family. However, as is usually the case, once the credit card company goes long enough without payment, they take you to court. This allows them to get a judgment and begin garnishing wages or bank accounts.
One of the first places a person turns to when they are experiencing financial difficulty is their family. At least once a week I meet with someone to discuss bankruptcy who has either borrowed money from or received monetary gifts from a parent or sibling to help them weather the financial storm. Just about everyone who has a family debt and seeks to file bankruptcy wants repay their family before filing. I understand why people with to repay their family – they want to protect them from the bankruptcy. Unfortunately, without knowledge of the bankruptcy laws, it is difficult to know how to appropriately do this. There are ways to protect your family, but you should seek an attorney’s advice and guidance through the process.
Many Arizona homeowners whether they like it or not belong to an HOA. If you are anything like me, you probably do not care for them. I appreciate that it helps to keep my neighborhood looking nice, and some HOA’s, like mine, try to host regular community gatherings. Even still, I do not care for the red tape I have to go through anytime I want to do anything with my yard, and of course I never like writing that check every month (who does?). I do have to admit, the HOA I belong to is very reasonable and the board does a decent job, but mine is the exception. Most HOAs are ruthless – especially when it comes to collecting a debt.
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