Lanigan & Lanigan, P.L.
831 W. Morse Blvd., Winter Park, Florida 32789
407-740-7379
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Bankruptcy
Spending up to your credit limit on your credit card and then filing bankruptcy and submitting that credit card debt as part of the bankruptcy is a serious crime because it’s intentional and fraudulent. If you’re going to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you submit debts for discharge and list creditors who you owe and the balance. Your credit cards should not be used after speaking with a bankruptcy attorney for any reason. The debt incurred on the card has to be legitimate or the spending will be flagged and you can be charged with fraud. Winter Park bankruptcy attorney Eric Lanigan and Roddy Lanigan will explain in the first meeting with new clients the do’s and don’ts of bankruptcy. There are basic practices that can be questionable in court. This includes: Inflating or lying about assets Shopping or spending sprees Shopping for expensive items after you consult with an attorney Take a vacation, buy a new wardrobe Spend over $500 multiple times and then file bankruptcy Spend up to your credit limit in increments under $50 Use your credit card when it has been recalled Suddenly buying luxury items Cash withdrawls up to the limit Using the credit card knowing you can’t afford to pay it, i.e., you lost your job Applying for credit and filling the card before filing bankruptcy Carefully consider credit card use if you know or are even considering filing bankruptcy. You need to be aware that all of your bank accounts, savings, investment accounts are up for review and intense scrutiny when you file bankruptcy. This applies to Chapter 7 bankruptcy,...
Bankruptcy
Liens Without Consent During Bankruptcy Creditors will do what they have to in order to get their money. When you fall behind in your bills but you own property, have assets and haven’t filed bankruptcy, you’re open to liens. Liens are a tool commonly used in bankruptcy by creditors. Creditors can get some of these liens without the individual’s agreement. These types of liens are called non-consensual. Non-Consensual Liens Creditors Use 2. Statutory lien: created automatically when certain statutory bankruptcy requirements are met 3.Tax lien: If you don’t pay your taxes you’ll find out that the government can impose a tax lien on you 1. Judicial lien: After an individual has been sued and a money judgment imposed, a judicial lien can be imposed against an individual creating a property lien Other steps including recording the lien with state or local government may need to be taken to turn a judgment into a lien. It’s important to know what creditors are legally allowed to do. Find out what you can do to stop the creditors from coming after your assets by meeting with Winter Park, Florida, bankruptcy attorney Eric Lanigan or Roddy Lanigan. The Lanigans will ask questions, provide answers and options specific to your financial situation. Eric Lanigan has 36 years of experience in bankruptcy...
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy can give a debtor relief from debt that is too deep to repay but only bankruptcy attorneys determine which bankruptcy to file Chapter 7, Chapter 11, or Chapter 13. Winter Park bankruptcy attorneys Eric Lanigan and Roddy Lanigan find clients overwhelmed by debt that includes credit cards, is caused by divorce, medical debt, homes under water and foreclosure. When this occurs bankruptcy Chapter 7, Chapter 11 or Chapter 13 are possible relief options. What Bankruptcy Can Do Bankruptcy can stop creditors from harassing you and allow you to take a new look at your financial picture to find a plan that will allow you to start over. Bankruptcy Chapter 13 may be the plan to help to deplete the amount owed by a debtor. But many people do not know much about this process and how to sort through the legalities, contractual obligations and laws. This is where the Lanigans will help you. You should always hire an attorney to handle your bankruptcy and decide whether Chapter 7, Chapter 13 or if your business is involved, Chapter 11 bankruptcy is an option for you. Video Explains Difference Between Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 Watch this video on the Lanigan’s YouTube channel to see what the differences are between Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Filing – Florida. Do-it-yourselfers can help themselves by downloading free forms for filing bankruptcy but have no clue the danger they can be in. A lot depends on how complicated the person’s financial affairs are and how well he or she understands business law. The lawyer’s responsibility is to know the law and advise...
Bankruptcy
Orlando area bankruptcy attorneys Eric Lanigan and Roddy Lanigan explain the facts and myths of filing bankruptcy are. What exactly does it mean to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy? In a word, bankruptcy is dissolution of debt. Bankruptcy as a legal proceeding is the dissolving of a person’s assets to repay creditors. Things You Should Know About Bankruptcy While no one generally loses their home in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding, a Chapter 7 could be used to slow, hinder, even stop a foreclosure proceeding. Florida is among a minority of states that allows filers of bankruptcy to discharge debts and be able to still live in their homestead. If you’re considering bankruptcy as a legal move, it helps to know that. Any debtor filing bankruptcy action can have certain items of property exempted from the trustee’s order to sell a person’s belongings for debt reduction. There are some states that allow as little as four thousand dollars equity to be kept in a house while others don’t allow a house to be touched. Very few items can actually be taken from debtors by bankruptcy trustees to be sold, but the amount of the property exempted in actuality is small. In Florida there are very specific possessions mentioned as being exempt from being liquidated for sale. Florida generally has few non-exempt items an individual would have to worry about losing. No one’s backing a truck up to your home to take away your things to sell to satisfy your creditors. Don’t listen to family, friends, associates who tell stories about having to relinquish furniture, TVs, electronics, computers, etc., relax. Bankruptcy Property Exemptions Vary by State...
Bankruptcy, Podcasts
Click to Listen. Right Click Audio as it’s playing to download to your device. Many times in the midst of a bankruptcy, people who are filing bankruptcy remember or discover a joint account of which they’re a part. However, the other party listed on the account is not filing for bankruptcy. There are many different accounts in which this can occur and it’s completely innocent on part of the person filing. This complex issue is discussed in a YouTube video on the LaniganPL channel called Resulting Trust Bankruptcy – Co-signers on Accounts or Loans. “Very often our client comes in and says that there’s an account that they’re on which they didn’t honestly recall,” said bankruptcy attorney Eric Lanigan. “For example, a couple who was on the title to their son’s car, but who didn’t make any of the payments and had no involvement in the car. All payments made were made by the son. The only reason that they were on the title is because at the time the car was purchased the boy was a minor.” Lanigan said. “Therefore, the parents had to be listed on the title. But they don’t have any money in the car and they never used the car. But the car is included in the bankruptcy that they file.” The other example is bank accounts,somebody might have a bank account and they list another family member, a father mother sister or brother jointly on the bank account so that if something happens to them there’s someone to step right in who has authority to write checks to pay bills as they...
Bankruptcy, Podcasts
Click to Listen. Right Click Audio as it’s playing to download to your device. Dischargability of federal income tax liabilities is one of the common issues that Winter Park, Florida bankruptcy attorney Eric Lanigan and Roddy Lanigan deal with in Florida bankruptcies. Eric Lanigan has a video on the Lanigan and Lanigan, P.L., YouTube channel “Dischargability of Federal Income Tax Liabilities – Florida Bankruptcy.” Most people come into the office believing that if it’s a federal income tax liability that it is not dischargeable. And that is not correct. “As a very simplified rule we say if the tax liability is old, it’s dischargeable,” Eric Lanigan said. “If it’s new it is not dischargeable. Well that then begs the question what constitutes an old tax liability? Two Criteria for Discharging Tax Liability “This is an area that can get very complicated so I’m just giving you a general overview here,” Lanigan emphasized. “But generally you can say that if it is a). more than three years from the year in which the tax liability accrued…for instance if I have a tax liability for the year 2007. Now I didn’t file that tax return until April 2008 but the year in which the tax liability accrued was 2007. Now has it been more than three years since that tax liability accrued.” Second Criteria Lanigan said that the second criteria is whether it has been more than two years since that tax return was filed or since the tax in question was assessed? Has it been more than two years since the tax was filed? Use the same example of...
Bankruptcy
Eric Lanigan explains in a new video that one of the biggest traps in bankruptcy is dealing with federal income tax refund and what to do with it during bankruptcy. This is a common problem, seen all the time in bankruptcy and the video that Lanigan has on YouTube that explains this situation called, “Preventing Forfeiture of Tax Refund in Florida Bankruptcy. This tax refund issue is something that people have to be very careful about. Very often as we reach the end of the year we tell people that what we’re going to do is get everything ready to file their bankruptcy said Lanigan, a Winter Park, Florida, bankruptcy lawyer. You Have to Know When to File “But we are not going to file it until they have filed their tax returns and spent it so that there will be nothing left for the trustee to claim as non-exempt assets.” Lanigan said that a tax refund is a debt owed to you by the federal government and while it’s like any other debt that you may have people often forget to state that it’s coming to them. A tax refund, Lanigan said, is an asset that you own and if it’s not exempt the bankruptcy trustee is entitled to take it and he said the trustee will take it every single time. If you are filing a bankruptcy petition October 1, 2013, it is the first day of the fourth quarter of the year. You will have already accrued nine months or three quarters of the refund. But you are not going to get it until the following February...
Bankruptcy
“If you’re asking me who is filing bankruptcy today, it really runs the gamut,” said Winter Park bankruptcy attorney Roddy Lanigan. Demographically, everybody from a single mother, to the head of a large family. Professionally, it’s CEOs of large companies, school teachers and even airline pilots. The one thing they all have in common–it’s the economy. Credit Card Debt is the No. 1 Cause of Bankruptcy The economic downturn has spared no industry and no demographic group. People are suffering in all walks of life. The causes of bankruptcies are as equally diverse as the people that are filing bankruptcy. Generally speaking, the number one cause of bankruptcy is credit card debt. What type of credit card debt? Credit cards are often used by people that are experiencing a crisis in their life. Whether it’s financial or personal, cards are used to supplement a loss of income somewhere else. But people feel guilty about credit cards, they really do. And they really think that they should pay those bills. They really do. I’ve gotten somewhat immune to it because I see it all the time, but I can see when they come in that there’s a little bit of a sense of guilt with it. And um so they do feel that they should pay those cards. And then I try to explain to them that they took the creditor took risk when they issued that card to you. For whatever reason the deal didn’t work out. They understand that and they’ve calculated accordingly. That’s why you were charged such a high interest rate on the card. So don’t...
Bankruptcy
Five Financial Situations Will Help Lead You to Final Decision Eric A. Lanigan, of Lanigan and Lanigan, P.L., has seen clients walk into his office unsure of whether to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy or Chapter 7 bankruptcy since 2007. Lanigan created a video showing five personal financial situations you may be in that will help decide the filing of Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. “It can be confusing for those who do not know what the basics of bankruptcy entail,” said (Winter Park, Florida) bankruptcy and foreclosure attorney Eric Lanigan. “There are five deciding factors that will help you determine which to file a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. These Five Financial Issues Help Determine Which Bankruptcy to File: You have a co-debtor on your debt You have non-exempt property You own investment or rental property You have a tax obligation or student loan You’re behind on your car payment or your mortgage Knowing when is it preferable to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy vs. Chapter 7 starts with what the basic differences are: Chapter 7 is a liquidation and elimination of debts “In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy all your debts, other than debts which you specifically reaffirm such as a car loan, or a home mortgage, or debts which are not dischargeable, such as federal taxes, or student loans, are discharged,” Lanigan said. Chapter 13 is a reorganization of debts to be paid off over a three to five year period “However, in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the unsecured debts or some portion of them, typically a small portion of them is paid off over a...
Bankruptcy, Podcasts
Click to Listen. Right Click Audio as it’s playing to download to your device. When is it Preferable to File a Chapter 13 bankruptcy vs. Chapter 7? First let’s talk about what the basic difference is. Chapter 7 is liquidation of debts. In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy all your debts other than debts which you specifically reaffirm such as a car loan, or a home mortgage, or debts which are not dischargeable, such as federal taxes, or student loans, all other debts are discharged. Whereas in a bankruptcy, the unsecured debts or some portion of them, typically a small portion of them is paid off over a period of time three to five years. So taking that fundamental distinction between Chapter 7 and 13 into consideration what are some reasons why a Chapter 13 might be preferable? Well, I’ve listed five and not necessarily in any particular order. First of all, someone’s behind in their mortgage or their car loan they want to make up the payments but the bank is saying no, you’ve got to pay it all at one time. In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the court can require that the lender accept the payment of the backdue payment over a three to five year period during the course of the plan. Another, number two would be if you have a tax obligation or student loan which is not dischargeable in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the creditor whether it be the IRS or the student loan lender is required to accept whatever payments the judge approves within the Chapter 13 plan. Which may be significantly less than...
