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Alabama has a good consumer law for any consumer to use if he or she has been wronged by a business. Alabama statute section 8-19-1 provides for the Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act. This law states, as its legislative intent under section 8-19-2, that “the public health, welfare and interest require a strong and effective consumer protection program to protect the interest of both the consuming public and legitimate business person.”

Jefferson County, named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, was established on December 13, 1819, by the Alabama Legislature.  It currently has more residents than any other county in the State of Alabama.  At the time the 2010 census was conducted, the county’s population was 658,466.

YES! You can use bankruptcy to stop a foreclosure on your real estate. If a foreclosure is imminent and you wish to keep your home, the most common form of bankruptcy used to stop a foreclosure is called Chapter 13. Chapter 13 is a form of bankruptcy that works similar to, and is often referred as, debt consolidation. The premise is to take all of your debt and put it into one monthly payment plan.

This week, NBC News released an investigative report about the Equifax credit reporting agency. In this report, it is stated that employers disclosed employment and salary information to Equifax who in turn sold it to debt collectors and other financial institutions. It is alleged that Equifax has access to over 190 million employment files covering roughly one-third of American citizens.

Casey Anthony filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief last week.  This young mother, who was accused of and acquitted in the death of her 2 year old daughter, Caylee, listed $792,000 in liabilities in her bankruptcy schedules to be discharged, including debts for her lawyer fees, federal income tax and court fines and costs.  Will she be able to discharge these debts?  A Chapt

In the majority of cases where the court denies a chapter 13 plan, it is because a debtor did not comply with requirements outlined by your attorney or the court.  In order for your chapter 13 plan to be confirmed, you must:

1)      Attend the mandatory 341 hearing (also called meeting of creditors hearing) – see blog post “Will I have to go to court after I file for bankruptcy” posted on December 7, 2012.

Simply stated, a reaffirmation agreement is an agreement that a debtor in a chapter 7 bankruptcy enters into with a creditor that reaffirms or re-obligates the terms of the original contract with that creditor. Reaffirmation agreements are applicable in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  If there is no undue hardship to you, you may have a creditor that you want to continue to pay after filing a chapter 7 (straight) bankruptcy.

For some reason, although it may be in their best interest to do so, people avoid meeting with bankruptcy attorneys.  Folks that do come in to see us often tell us that they put off doing so for days,weeks or even months.  In many cases, we could have done a lot more to have helped them if they had come in earlier.  Our clients tell us that they were embarrassed about  calling our office to schedule an appointment.  They felt like it meant they were a failure.  If they just waited a little bit longer, things would get better.  Instead, things often got wor

I often have clients in my office who are worried that they owe too much money to file for bankruptcy.  They believe that they will not be allowed to file because of the amount and types of debts that they owe.  Most of the time worrying about this is futile since the debt limits outlined for chapter 13 are set very high in comparison to most debts owed by individuals.

 
First of all, if you are contemplating filing any form of bankruptcy it is imperative that you are up to date with filing all of your federal tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service and it is strongly recommended that you keep legible copies of all of your federal tax returns that have been filed.