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Fresno Bankruptcy & Credit Blog
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Blog about Bankruptcy and Credit Issues for Those in the Fresno Area
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FTC Bans Upfront Fees by Debt Negotiators
The FTC enacted a new rule, effective October 27, 2010, that will ban debt negotiators from collecting an advance fee before the debt has been negotiated.
This is a serious problem, as I have commented before on this blog. It has been said that the business of most debt negotiation companies is akin to a [...]
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9th Circuit BAP Tells Wells Fargo No More Freezing Bank Accounts
The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel castigated Wells Fargo for a practice that has been the bane of many debtors and their counsel. Wells Fargo has a procedure whereby it automatically freezes any debtor’s bank account where the total bank balances at the bank exceed $5,000. The bank’s stated purpose is to make sure those [...]
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Debt Negotiators Coming Under Increasing (and Deserved) Heat
We have all heard the nauseating commercials: “If you owe $10,000 or more on credit cards, you may be eligible for a special program that will allow you to settle your debt for a fraction of what you owe! For more information on settling your debt in a government bailout era, call now!”
What they don’t [...]
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Milk Prices Yielding (Small) Profits for Dairies
It looks like milk prices are starting to get a little better, which might be small consolation to dairymen who were pummeled by the twin forces of high feed and low milk costs last year. This story in the Business Journal indicates its going to be a long road back for a lot of these [...]
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Fresno & Clovis Home Values Levelling
Fresno and Clovis home values have been somewhat level for about the last year, although Fresno home values did decrease slightly during that time.
This chart from Zillow.com shows the average home price in Fresno for the last five years.
And this chart shows the average home price in Clovis for the last five years.
This is [...]
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SCOTUS Opts for Reality
When confronted with the question of whether Congress meant you apply the means test mechanically to determine how much a debtor can pay in Chapter 13, even when that would lead to impossible results, the Supreme Court sided with reality, finding that “projected disposable income” is a “forward-looking” term and is not equivalent to “disposable [...]
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Fresno Bee: Many Valley Homeowners Abandoning Mortgages
The Fresno Bee had a nice feature article on May 8 entitled More Valley homeowners abandon mortgages. I commented on the morality of strategically defaulting here, but this Fresno Bee article addresses more of the practical issues involved and the author seems to do a good job of answering all of the common questions. One [...]
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Amendments to California Chapter 9 Bill
As I previously noted, the California Senate is considering a bill that would limit the right of municipalities to file for bankruptcy protection. The primary movers behind the bill are public employee unions, who were none too happy with the result of the Vallejo bankruptcy case. The bill originally provided that cities had to get [...]
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Mr. Fear Will Be Speaking at Two Bankruptcy CLE Events This Summer
The first is entitled Fundamentals of Bankruptcy and is taking place on June 25, 2010 at San Joaquin College of Law. Mr. Fear will be speaking at 2:45 p.m. (different from program schedule) on “Pre-Filing Issues for Debtors and their Attorneys.”
On August 16, 2010, Mr. Fear will participate in the NBI Seminar entitled Nuts and [...]
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Morality of Strategically Defaulting on a Mortgage
This is a very interesting paper on the morality of strategically defaulting on mortgage payments. The paper examines some of the common concerns expressed by borrowers as to the morality of deciding not to pay the mortgage and letting the house go to foreclosure. Concerns include (1) the fact that homeowners “promised” to pay the [...]
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