July 29th, 2010 by Emily Chase Smith
A vast majority of our clients are unlawfully harassed by creditors in violation of federal law. The most common violations are:
- Repeated calling
- Using abusive language
- Calling neighbors & family
- Calling at work
- Calling early in the morning or late at night
- Threatening legal action to intimidate
- Continuing to call after represented by counsel
- Continuing to call after being asked to stop
We take this unlawful conduct very seriously. As part of The Doan DifferenceTM, we heavily pursue creditors who violate the RFDCPA/FDCPA, the state and federal laws protecting consumers from debt collectors.
We prepare a letter to all your creditors informing them that we represent you. This letter also puts them on notice that we expect them to abide by the law. Most creditors will comply which means they will no longer call you, your work or your friends and family. We pursue any creditors that continue to violate the law.
Over 50% of our clients that have had creditors violate the law recovered their cost of filing bankruptcy. A law-violating creditor paying for a bankruptcy is sweet irony. Many clients receive a settlement to help them with their “fresh start”. We take all cases on a contingency fee. You pay only a percentage of what is recovered.
We treat our clients like family. Since we wouldn’t let our mothers be harassed by creditors, we’ll make sure you aren’t either.
Tags: bankruptcy law, chapter 13, chapter 7, creditor abuse, doan difference, Southern California Bankruptcy Attorneys, Southern California Bankruptcy Law, violations
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July 23rd, 2010 by Emily Chase Smith
We are often asked if a husband or wife can file bankruptcy separately. The short answer is yes, the longer answer lies in what you hope to accomplish.
By way of background, each debt is the responsibility of the person that took on the debt. For most married couples, that is both the husband and wife. If only one spouse has responsibility for a debt discharged in bankruptcy, responsibility for the debt remains with the other spouse; the entire debt, not half of it. For this reason, it’s generally best to have both spouses file so both can receive a fresh start.
To add a layer of complexity, if all the debt lies with only one spouse, California’s community property laws come into play. Assets acquired during marriage are generally community property (to oversimplify a complicated family law concept). As a result, a creditor can collect a judgment against a community property asset like a bank account or a piece of property. This is a more sophisticated level of collection, but depending on the creditor and/or the amount of the debt it does happen.
Tags: debt, Discharge, joint filing, Orange County Bankruptcy Attorneys, Orange County Bankruptcy Law
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July 21st, 2010 by Emily Chase Smith
As one of the very few bankruptcy firms in the state to pursue creditors who violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Doan Law Firm knows debt collectors routinely behave like heartless monsters and violate federal law and in an attempt to get just one more dollar. A recent CNNMoney.com article interviewed former debtor collectors and here’s what they had to say:
“You’d be surprised what goes on behind closed doors. Every day, you were asked to break the law. If you didn’t break the law, you were asked what was wrong with you.”
“A co-worker at my office overheard another collecting agent telling a debtor in Spanish that she was going to send someone over to his house to beat him with a tire iron, because she didn’t think anyone in the office would understand her.”
“I learned that you can have a certain inflection in your voice or use certain words to belittle or demean people, and this is encouraged.”
“We would call family members and neighbors a lot because that’s the best way to intimidate debtors into calling you back.”
“From making calls day and night to elderly people hard of hearing to faxing a person’s workplace about the money they owed, we had to do whatever it took.”
“If the person we were looking for didn’t answer our calls, we were told to ask neighbors to pin notices on the person’s front door, saying to call us immediately.
Most of our bankruptcy clients have experienced unlawful collection actions and we love making collectors pay. In fact, more than 50% of our FDCPA clients have a creditor pay for their bankruptcy; ah, sweet irony.
Tags: Bad practice, creditor harrassment, Deb Collection, southern california bankruptcy, Southern California Bankruptcy Attorneys, Southern California Bankruptcy Law
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July 16th, 2010 by Emily Chase Smith
- You don’t have an emergency fund. Without an emergency fund, you’re living paycheck to paycheck and are vulnerable to any setback, small or large, like a cut-back in hours, furlough days, an across the board pay cut or a job loss. All of these events are out of your control and any one of them will throw a major wrench into your financial picture and can send you seeking the shelter of the bankruptcy court.
- You’ve maxed out your credit cards or are charging more than you can pay off each month. Maxing you’re your credit cards means that you are using them for living expenses. Charging more than you can pay off means you’re going backwards, losing traction, and it’s just a matter of time until you’re maxed out. Keep in mind credit cards can do pretty much anything they want under their cardholder agreements including unilaterally cutting off credit and raising interest rates, so a card that’s not maxed out today could certainly be tomorrow.
- You pay the minimum balance on your credit cards. When you can pay the minimum balance on your credit cards you feel ok, even as you’re serving up another helping of Top Roman. You’re paying your bills, but the truth is you are one interest rate hike away from total annihilation and the credit cards frankly don’t care. When you call to tell them the hike from 9 to 32% interest makes you unable to make the minimum payment even after you take a paper route before work, they will be less than sympathetic.
- Your business has failed. Most bankruptcies can be traced back to 1 of 3 events, a failed business, medical crisis or family crisis. Some have experienced all 3. If you closed a business, you might be surprised to find how many of the businesses’ obligations you took on personally, even if you had a corporation. Your closed business may haunt you for years as your business landlord, suppliers, partners and creditors show up wanting payment, plus interest and fees.
- You have no health insurance or inadequate coverage. As we noted above, bankruptcies can be traced back to 1 of 3 events, a failed business, medical crisis or family crisis. Having no health insurance or inadequate coverage is a big warning sign because one ambulance ride or one hospital admission can change your entire financial world. If you think health insurance is expensive, take a look at health care itself; absolutely prohibitive.
If any of these warning signs above exist for you, please call Doan Law Firm for a free, no obligation consultation to see how bankruptcy can help alleviate financial stress and give you a fresh start.
Tags: Credit Cards, debt, fresh start, medical bills, Orange County Bankruptcy Attorneys, Orange County Bankruptcy Law, Orange County Chapter 7
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July 14th, 2010 by Emily Chase Smith
One of the major themes of the recent G20 held in Toronto, Canada was the worldwide financial crisis. The G20 endorsed the goal of the richest nations, including the US, of cutting their deficits in half within 3 years.
In their closing statement, the G20 leaders recognized that serious challenges remain in the world’s economic recovery. The leaders said that growth is occurring, but that recovery is “uneven and fragile,” and unemployment in many countries remains at unacceptable levels. The G20 leaders said to sustain recovery, nations must follow existing stimulus plans and work to create conditions for “robust private demand”.
The parallels between the global financial crisis and personal financial crisis’ are clear. At a meeting around the dining room table, we acknowledge we’re in crisis. Cutting our deficits would change our entire world and would restore peace to our lives and our families. We can see a faint light at the end of the tunnel.
The good news is that we have one tool available that the G20 nations don’t – bankruptcy. Our family can receive a fresh start. We can erase past choices and make new ones. We can take the wisdom we’ve acquired and put ourselves in the best position to exceed this year and beyond.
Tags: bankruptcy law, chapter 13, chapter 7, Filing Bankruptcy, financial freedom, riverside bankruptcy attorneys, riverside bankruptcy law
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