John Paul Eggum's Answers

I live in Illinois and have a few returned checks written to Casinos are they dischargable in Chapter 7

The previous attorney response was right on target. This answer is merely to add to it. You should be especially careful about filing a chapter 7 if you owe debts to casinos. As a business, casinos worry about taking bad checks and letting customers gamble on credit. They know that sometimes those debts will be uncollectible, and they accept that as a business risk. Generally, they'll try self collection and collection agencies, and they might, after a time, sell the debt to a third-...

Does errors in a reaffirmation agreement cancel the aggrement?

The very broad answer to your question is "no" but that doesn't mean you are stuck with the reaffirmed debt. Let's change course a bit a discuss whether the creditor can "enforce" the agreement. You got a discharge, which means that the creditor can't try to collect the discharged debt from you anymore. This is a "defense" -- if they tell you tomorrow that you owe money, you say you don't have to pay it because you have a defense and that defense is that the debt is discharged. In legal-...

Do I have to report severance pay in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy?

Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not completely clear. Every month, you make a payment of some amount - we'll use $1,000 as an example -- and that money goes to pay your creditors. The reason you are paying that amount is that, when you filled out the chapter 13 form plan and submitted it to the court for approval, $1,000 was your "projected disposable income" that would be received during the plan period. The Bankruptcy Code doesn't specifically require that plan payment to be...

Bankruptcy Did Not Reaffirm Home Loan - Now What?

Homeowners in your situation often find themselves wondering what they should do with their home post-chapter 7 discharge. A bankruptcy discharge does alleviate a debtor from liability on most pre-petition debts, including liability on mortgage loans. Assuming your liability on the promissory note secured by your mortgage was discharged, you can simply walk-away from the home. If you are like most of my clients, however, staying in the home is likely important to you, notwithstanding the...

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Is it legal to demand post judgement interest if it was not originally in the papers?

Generally, when a judgment creditor obtains a judgment against you, the law entitles that creditor to post-judgment interest. Although I'm licensed in Illinois and not Indiana, I am aware that Indiana Code 24-4.6-1 (http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title24/ar4.6/ch1.html) provides for post judgment interest in certain situations. You should contact a lawyer in your area and have them review the original contract and the small claims court file to determine whether the amounts the debt...

Homeload Modification "hardship letter" help?

Hardship letters are required for both in-house modifications and the government's Home Affordability Modification Program ("HAMP"), which is part of the Making Home Affordable program ("MHA"). The lender is looking to see why you had a default (missed payments) and why you'll be able to make payments on-time on a going forward basis. If you have not defaulted, the letter should explain why you're in "imminent risk" of default. A typical borrower's example might be: (1) Borrower always paid...

Approx. 1 1/2 years ago I had a PDL and called to set up payments and they would not so I stopped payments to this company.

"ACH Electronic Withdrawals" - the official name for the automatic withdrawals from you account, are extremely hard to stop and often create problems for debtors like yourself. Even after the commencement of a bankruptcy case, I've seen great turmoil over trying to get a creditor to discontinue making the automatic withdrawals (even though, of course, such withdrawals violate the Bankruptcy Code's "automatic stay"). I advise my clients that they probably shouldn't allow ACH Electronic...

We live in CA. and are 2 years into a ch.13 bankrupcty. Our loan company send our mortagage to a collection agency is this legal

The first thing you should do is contact your bankruptcy lawyer and ask him or her about the status of your case. You want to ensure that (1) your case has not been dismissed, and (2) that the chapter 13 trustee is not seeking to dismiss your case for failure to make all required plan payments. In many cases, chapter 13 debtors (like yourself) pay their mortgage "outside the plan" - that is, directly to the mortgage company. Nonetheless, the mortgage company probably shouldn't be contacting...

The home that i am renting has now been auctioned and sold yesterday, now the new homeowner wants to kick me out, what do i do?

The answer to your question depends on the laws of your state. In Illinois, assuming the lender complied with the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Law and properly foreclosed your interest, the purchaser would still have to take steps to have the County Sheriff evict you from the property. It is unlikely that your state provides for a "self help" remedy - the purchaser almost certainly can't just change the locks on you and throw your stuff on the street. I'd find a tenant rights attorney in...

Can I convert from chapter 13 to 7, after once filing for chapter 7, 8 yrears ago.

Dear Debtor, You should consult a lawyer because the specifics of your overall situation make it difficult to know if you should dismiss and refile rather than simply convert, since dismissing and refiling may have negative consequences for you. Here's some general information that helps answer your question: First, you've recognized that getting a new chapter 7 discharge is problematic if you received a discharge in your 2001 case. You can look up these statutes by going to a law...