Oak Park Real Estate & Estate Planning Blog

For the last several years, experts have noted a decline in consumer bankruptcy filings in both the United States and the U.K. In many respects, the drop in personal bankruptcy has signaled that many Americans have begun to recover from the recession and the real estate crash of the mid-2000s. However, according to a recent report from CNBC , the stabilized economies in America and England could lead the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England to increase interest rates, and a rise in interest rates could result in more consumer bankruptcies on both sides of the Atlantic. Interest Rates May Rise as Economies Recover According to the article, the number of American bankruptcy filings decreased by 12 percent between June of 2014 and June of 2015. As Herman Poon, the director in Fitch Ratings, explained, “further improvements in both jobless claims and unemployment helped precipitate the better-than-expected decline in consumer bankruptcy filings.” Poon even went so f...

If you file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy and are required to surrender your vehicle as part of a payment plan, what happens if the car gets stolen? It might seem like an odd question, but it is one that became a significant issue in a recent case before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the North District of Illinois. In short, a debtor is not required to physically deliver a vehicle “when she is incapable of doing so through no fault of her own,” according to Judge Timothy A. Barnes. Let’s take a closer look at this recent bankruptcy case. Learning the Facts of In re: Ware In order to understand why the court ultimately decided that the debtor’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan could be confirmed despite the fact that she could not physically deliver her vehicle (as required by the plan), we should examine the facts of this case, In re: Ware . Back in early 2011, the debtor bought a 2006 Chevrolet Monte Carlo from a lender, Santander. The purchase agreement came with an inter...

For former students across the country who help to account for the billions of dollars in student loan debt currently owed, filing for consumer bankruptcy will most likely not make those payments go away. While it is not impossible to discharge student loans in bankruptcy , it tends to be a pretty arduous process. The difficulty of discharging student loans through personal bankruptcy doesn’t mean that lenders can treat those borrowers unfairly. According to a recent article in Forbes Magazine , the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently “slammed” Discover for its illegal student loan servicing practices. Getting the Right Information About Your Loans Many Chicagoans have first-hand knowledge of the burden of student loan payments. Most of us also know that mounting debt often leads Illinois residents to seek bankruptcy protection. Before you get to the point where you can’t make monthly payments, you need to know what your monthly payments are and how to...

If you have previously filed for consumer bankruptcy , can you file for bankruptcy again? According to an article in the Wall Street Journal , both individuals and businesses often become repeat filers of bankruptcy, and some commentators believe that someone must be to blame when a party files for bankruptcy more than once. Should bankruptcy courts be concerned about serial filers? Or should we think about multiple bankruptcy filings as actions that often are necessary for debtors to become financially healthy and reliable consumers? Serial Filing in Bankruptcy Court What is a serial filer, exactly? When you hear about serial filing, it refers to individuals or businesses who are repeat—or in some cases chronic—bankruptcy filers. In other words, serial filers are parties who seek bankruptcy protection more than once. However, filing for bankruptcy on more than one occasion doesn’t necessarily mean you are a serial filer. Although some repeat filers will file again in f...