Changing laws

Hello everyone:

I was at a 341 (meeting of creditors) in Kansas City, Kansas this morning. After watching the Trustee conduct several meetings, it made it clear to my client how much the bankruptcy law is still up in the air. We are waiting for the ruling on our 910 car in Missouri (what happens when the debtor purchased the car within 910 days of the bankruptcy filing and they roll into the loan the upside down part of the trade-in car). Kansas has several issues before the 10th Circuit Court including what interest should be paid on the 910 cars and what to do when they have rolled in the upside down part of the trade-in car.

My client heard the Trustee say that the issues have not be decided and it really hit home with him. I think partly because he has a 910 car. My client comment that he heard the Trustee say that the new law is still very new. That really hit home with me. It was just 2 years in October that we filed our last case under the old law. Now, we are in the brave new world still up in the air ... awaiting judges' rulings.

This year has been crazy. I think that everyone who is walking in my door is facing foreclosures, repos, and law suits. My clients have waited to see a bankruptcy attorney until they had no choice. I think that we had everyone file that was even thinking about bankruptcy before Oct 17, 2005 (last day of the old law). Now we are seeing people that never thought about bankruptcy before the rush to file. Some clients are more prepared and others are still babes in the woods.

I will update you all when the Judge issue their rulings on these issues. It will be an interesting year next year!

Bye for now, Susan Bratcher, attorney at law ....

Foreclosures in Missouri

Sorry that I have been away so long. Bankruptcy filings are rising. We are seeing it every day. November is normally a slow month for my office, and this year here I am at 3 p.m. on Saturday with several new clients begging to get in to see us. The mortgage foreclosure rates show just how hard Missouri is being hit. I am not seeing the same numbers from my Kansas clients. It could be that because my office is in Missouri that I just see more. It is hard to see people losing their homes just because they took out a loan that they can't afford to pay because the interest rates have sky rocketed.

We hear it every day. I even get calls from real estate agents begging us to help them. I do not have the power to make everything better. In bankruptcy, I can help clients get the arrearages current by paying them through the plan. (The arrearages are the amounts that the debtors are behind on their payments.) However, clients must be able to make the on-going mortgage payments. I don't have the power to change the interest rates in general.

Also, as I have said before, refinancing is hard to do that first year of bankruptcy. I want to point my clients towards some banks that have been working with my clients. Hats off to these business: Platte Valley Bank and Lawson Bank. My clients received wonderful treatment by these banks, and I want to say thanks to them. (I don't have an account or a relationship with either of them.)

My clients are done filling out their paperwork ... so I have to go.

Hello to all of my clients and readers.
Susan Bratcher