Katie Clunen is a sharp family law attorney in Westlake Village, CA. She recently asked me whether a couple with tax issues going through a divorce need separate attorneys to Read more »
Tax Issues in Divorce: Who Represents Who?
Courts
Chapter 12 Bankruptcy & Judicial Foreclosure
An investor was trying to collect on a note, and called me to help him out: he and a bunch of strangers had loaned $600,000 to a fellow living in the outskirts of Cambria, California. The fellow Read more >>
Legal Chaos Solved With Bankruptcy
Note: The case involved here is very complex. But that’s the point: it dominated and nearly ruined the lives of my clients for a decade, until I used bankruptcy law to end their nightmare. Read more >>
Hawkins vs. FTB Changes Tax Evasion Standard
If the government can prove that you “willfully attempted in any manner” to “evade or defeat” a tax, then you cannot discharge that tax debt in bankruptcy. 11 U.S.C. 523(a)(1)(c). Read more >>
Should Legal Losers Pay the Winners’ Attorney Fees?
My clients were nurses at a local hospital. They’re immigrants and English isn’t their first language. They worked hard and bought a house. One day, Read more >>
Judge Riblet on the Absolute Priority Rule
The Absolute Priority Rule is an arcane part of the Bankruptcy Code (see 11 USC § 1129(b)(2)(B)(ii)). It says that, in a Chapter 11 plan, lower classes of creditors cannot be paid anything unless higher classes have either been paid in full Read more >>