Posted on March 21, 2013 in San Antonio Bankruptcy Attorney

Since the housing collapse of 2007, foreclosures have been occurring rapidly across the nation.  Banks have been accused of lending to those who should not qualify for mortgages.  There is evidence that they have also been up to other shady practices.  Now, in 2013, there is a new horror in the housing market.

Thousands of homeowners are finding themselves trapped by a zombie title.  A zombie title is when homeowners are legally liable for “foreclosed” homes that have literally came back to life.  Banks issued notice of foreclosure only to later decide that it would be too expensive to reclaim the home, in turn transferring the title back to the homeowner.  It is an action that mirrors how homeowners abandoned their mortgages during the housing collapse.

These titles are becoming more prominent in the foreclosure process.  There is no national database to track these zombie titles but lawyers, housing court judges, code enforcement officials and others involved in foreclosures have noticed the increase.

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 Posted on March 14, 2013 in Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Texas is just about average when it comes to number of bankruptcy filings, when broken down into circuit and district. In 2011 there were 14,694 bankruptcy filings in the San Antonio district, a figure that significantly declined in 2012 to 12,999. That’s an 11.5 percent drop, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court statistics, the largest percent change in the national Fifth District, in which San Antonio (and Texas) is included.

As is the case across the country, the 65-years-old and over population in Texas has been steadily increasing in recent years, and in 2011 totaled 10.5 percent of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The national percentage was a bit higher, at 13.3 percent. Regardless, that’s a significant percentage of Texans nearing or in retirement. Many retirees have been hard hit by the recent economic downturn, due to businesses that have failed, resulting in a lost pension and subsequent bankruptcy.

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 Posted on March 02, 2013 in Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Many people often falsely believe that a bankruptcy filing means the person is a spendthrift who can’t take care of his or her finances. However, in truth, most people file for bankruptcy for completely different reasons. An article in U.S. News Money mentions several misconceptions surrounding consumer bankruptcy. Here are some of them.

1. People who file for bankruptcy are irresponsible when it comes to money. In truth, some of the most common causes for consumer bankruptcy are long-term unemployment, expensive divorces and the cost of medical care. According to a 2011 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 percent of American households had difficulties paying medical bills.

2. Bankruptcy discharges all of your past debts. Not all types of debt are discharged by bankruptcy. Domestic support obligations, for example child support, can’t be removed no matter what. The same is true for restitution for a crime, and tax debts can’t be removed if you have not filed tax returns.

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 Posted on February 26, 2013 in Chapter 7 bankruptcy

According to Casey Anthony, the infamous mother of Caylee Anthony, she owes about $80,000 to various creditors and almost $500,000 to her defense attorney. Because of this, she has now filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court.

This article from KHOU, a CBS-affiliated station in Houston, Texas, shows that filing for bankruptcy also allows all lawsuits against Anthony to be frozen—including the one filed by Texas Equusearch.

Equusearch, a non-profit organization, helps police look for missing persons. In the case of Caylee Anthony, they spent about $119,000 on the search, and enlisted over 4,200 volunteers from all over the country. The lawsuit claims that no matter the truth in Caylee’s death (the defense claimed she drowned in a pool and the parents covered it up; prosecutors said Anthony murdered her with chloroform), Anthony knew her daughter was dead—the search never would have happened with this knowledge.

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