Recent Articles

Foreclosure Defenses: Round 1

Gregory Adam Napier
March 21, 2012 20:24

Most people focus on the mortgage (real estate lien) in their defense efforts because often the mortgage does not have the name of the company filing the foreclosure on its face. However, the document most pertinent to the issue of standing is the promissory note (loan agreement). The promissory...

What you should no about property tax liens

Gregory Adam Napier
March 14, 2012 15:35

Here is where some caution comes in: KRS 134 only allow for that interest to accrue on the original tax due or the amount it sold for if less. When the holder of that debt files their claim, they will almost always seek 12% interest on the basis PLUS attorney fees, accrued interest, and various...

Coping with a balloon loan that has burst

Gregory Adam Napier
March 12, 2012 20:19

So now, many people are either facing that final payment in a few months or that balloon has already popped leaving them with massive arrears. There is a remedy IF your income can sustain it: Chapter 13. Let's say you have $50,000.00 in arrears on one of these loans and your income would support a...

Bankruptcy: Just the beginning

Gregory Adam Napier
February 20, 2012 19:23

Two excellent resources for learning to be financially free are Dave Ramsey and the older Crown Ministry. These resources may even allow you to avoid bankruptcy in the first place. However, if you cannot avoid bankruptcy, be sure to realize that filing the petition is really just the beginning of a...

Small businesses and the bankruptcy estate

Gregory Adam Napier
February 06, 2012 23:56

For an oversimplification, when someone files a bankruptcy, everything they own (with some exceptions) goes into an estate under the control of the trustee. The individual then uses exemptions to reach into the estate and keep certain property. Now, the issue in focus is what happens to the...

Settlement strategies in divorce with an eye to bankruptcy

Gregory Adam Napier
February 01, 2012 20:00

As a follow-up to my prior post on domestic support obligations, I wrote a post on my family law blog that goes into a little more detail on strategies to keep in mind in reaching a financial settlement.  This is worth reading if you are in a pre-divorce situation where bankruptcy seems likely.As a...

Domestic Support Obligations: child support, alimony, and equitable distributions

Gregory Adam Napier
February 01, 2012 19:35

There are two different sorts of domestic support obligations defined in the bankruptcy code.  The first kind of domestic support obligation encompasses things such as child support payments and alimony (called maintenance in Kentucky).  The second sort comes from an equitable distribution of...

Bankruptcy and Divorce: when to file and when to finalize

Gregory Adam Napier
January 18, 2012 19:57

It is very smart to get an attorney who understands both family law for your state and bankruptcy law to review the situation and give a recommendation. True, this involves bringing in yet another lawyer because the lawyer representing either spouse is ethically forbidden from doing a joint...

Where Science Fiction and Bankruptcy Meet: The time traveling statute

Gregory Adam Napier
January 16, 2012 19:40

This post is actually about an oddity in the law where there are certain assets that the debtor actually does not possess at the moment of filing that, nevertheless, become part of the estate. This provisions is like legal time travel and causes an asset that was non-existent at filing to be...

A word about workouts

Gregory Adam Napier
January 05, 2012 21:29

Whether you are a small business owner or an individual who is insolvent (cannot pay their debts as they come due), then you may look at doing a workout outside of bankruptcy. The starting point for this, oddly enough, is to get an analysis by a lawyer who practices bankruptcy to see what a...