Oak Park Real Estate & Estate Planning Blog

As you might know, the CARES Act, which was passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, provided a number of bankruptcy modification options for individuals and small businesses who were struggling as a result of virus-related shutdowns and job losses or work hour reductions. However, those provisions were designed to expire on March 27, 2021. In order to extend the protection and modification options for debtors across the country, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a piece of bipartisan legislation. That legislation, the COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act , would extend protections for individuals and small business owners into March 2022. What is covered when it comes to consumer bankruptcy , and what protections would be extended if the proposed legislation passes? Bankruptcy Modifications Under the CARES Act and Proposed COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act The CARES Act provided some of the following key protec...

When you file for consumer bankruptcy , you should not have to be worried about creditors continuing to engage in collection activities against you because of the automatic stay. Yet creditors and debt collectors do not always abide by the law. What happens, then, in a case where the creditor violates the automatic stay after you have filed for personal bankruptcy ? Understanding How the Automatic Stay Works After you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, something known as the “automatic stay” immediately applies to your case and prevents creditors or debt collectors from taking any additional actions against you in order to collect on debts owed. According to the Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII), the automatic stay is “an automatic injunction that prohibits most creditor collection activities after the debtor has filed for bankruptcy,” and it “begins at the moment the bankruptcy petition is filed.” For example, the automatic stay prevents creditors from...

If you have student loan debt and are struggling to make your payments, it is critical to know that you could be targeted by a student loan debt relief scam. Receiving a call or another form of contact from an alleged student loan debt relief organization can feel particularly welcome for many Americans, especially if you have recently read or heard that student loans can be difficult to discharge in a consumer bankruptcy case. Yet student loan debt relief companies may not be able to keep the promises they make to consumers, and they can ultimately cost you more money and stress in the long run. Our experienced Oak Park consumer protection lawyers want to discuss a recent action taken by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) against operators of an unlawful student loan debt relief company, and to tell you more about your options for managing student loan debt through bankruptcy and otherwise. It is a common misconception that there are no options to discharge student lo...

As you might have read, President Biden recently signed the American Rescue Plan, which includes another round of stimulus payments to American households. Indeed, many Americans will be eligible to receive a $1,400 stimulus payment as part of the $1.9 trillion bill, a payment that millions of consumers need “for urgent expenses like food and housing,” according to an article in Fortune . Yet as that article underscores, debt collectors may be able to take this stimulus payment before it ever reaches the hands of consumers, marking a shift from the rules concerning the previous two rounds of stimulus payments. Debt collectors were not allowed to garnish stimulus checks sent through the CARES Act, but the American Rescue Plan is different due to the way in which the relief package was passed. In short, you should know that a debt collector might be able to take your stimulus payment, and it is important to learn more about what that means for you and what steps you may be able to tak...

Many sole proprietors in Oak Park and throughout Illinois receive Paycheck Protection Program loans, or PPP loans, in the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those PPP loans were issued with a possibility of forgiveness in the future if businesses that received the loans used them in particular ways required by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The PPP loan program has opened again, and sole proprietors and other small business owners were specifically eligible for loans—before larger businesses—between February 24 and March 9, 2021. According to an article in Quartz , the SBA also issued a new rule that ultimately allows sole proprietors and freelancers to obtain larger PPP loans because it “allows entrepreneurs without employees to calculate their loan eligibility using gross income rather than net income, making the loans far more generous, especially for businesses with little or no profit.” What happens when a sole proprietor cannot repay the PPP loan and can...

For most consumers who are considering personal bankruptcy , it will not be necessary to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Most consumers file for either Chapter 7 bankruptcy or Chapter 13 bankruptcy . When a consumer earns a regular wage and is interested in a reorganization bankruptcy, it is most often in that consumer’s best interest to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy instead of Chapter 11 bankruptcy—assuming that consumer is eligible for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. As you might suspect, Chapter 11 bankruptcy is typically a backup plan for consumers who have too much debt to qualify for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. To explain, we want to provide you with more information about reorganization bankruptcies and situations in which a consumer might file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 are Both Types of Reorganization Bankruptcy Both Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy are forms of reorganization bankruptcy. Different from a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case—in which non-exempt assets ...