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Court Refuses Request to Discharge Student Loan Debt

Most Florida residents know that Jacksonville, Florida is home to Florida Coastal School of Law, a private law school, and frequent readers of this blog, know that the discharge of student loans in bankruptcy is a hot topic.  Today we’ll be talking about a recent bankruptcy decision that involves them both, Tetzlaff v. Education Credit Management Corporation.    The Debtor’s Situation The debtor, Mark Tetzlaff, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2012 seeking among other things, disc[...]

Negative Ruling for Paragraph 22 Defense

The so-called “Paragraph 22” defense to foreclosure has been the subject of prior blogs and we have yet another update on the defense out of Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal (“DCA”).  As a refresher, the defense is rooted in Paragraph 22 of the standard mortgage agreement, which provides a number of requirements that lenders must comply with before filing for foreclosure.  In short, homeowners have successfully argued for dismissal of cases where lenders didn’t comply with al[...]

Bankruptcy and Workers Compensation Benefits

For individuals injured on the job in Florida, worker’s compensation provides necessary wage replacement and payment of medical expenses related to the injury.  Worker’s compensation payments are paid out weekly or if a settlement agreement is reached, in one lump sum.   The wage replacement benefits paid under Florida’s worker’s compensation laws are less than the wages employee would have received if they had not been injured and continued working.  For this, reason, injured e[...]

11th Circuit Rules Business Debtor Owes Default Rate Interest

This summer, the 11th Circuit, the court that provides precedent for Florida Bankruptcy cases, came down with an unfavorable ruling for bankruptcy debtors regarding default rate interest in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, in re: Sagamore Partners, Ltd.  As with all bankruptcy cases, having an understanding of the background helps:  Key Pre-Bankruptcy History The debtor, Sagamore Patners, Ltd (“Sagamore”), owns a namesake hotel in Miami.  In 2006, Sagamore took out a secured loan for $31.5[...]

How do Foreclosure Proceedings in Florida Work?

The foreclosure crisis that began in 2008 and is slowly subsiding has been a hot topic for years now, particularly, here in Florida where the number of foreclosures continues to beat the national averages.  Yet, the average understanding is that when you don’t pay you mortgage, the bank comes and takes your home.  And while at a very broad level, this is true, the process is a lot more complicated and open to alternative outcomes.   The Home Financing The foreclosure process actually be[...]

Debtor Rights

At Adam Law Group, we work with a lot of clients that are currently having trouble making payments on debts owed or have had such troubles in the past.  The reasons for these difficulties are varied – from market changes to job loss to a bad deal to excessive medical expenses to simply taking on to many debts.  Whatever the cause, such financial difficulties often lead to dreaded, persistent efforts from creditors to collect.   We’ve found that many consumers don’t know the debtor rig[...]

Getting a Dollar out of 50 Cent Bankruptcy

In the early 2000s, 50 Cent rapped, ““I don't know what you heard about me.  But a [person] can't get a dollar out of me.”  (We removed the unnecessary explicative.)  We will soon find out whether this is true. The 50 Cent bankruptcy was recently filed and the national (and international) news was flooded with headlines like this: “50 Cent files for bankruptcy” ...and this: this: “Rapper 50 Cent claims he's broke, laying out $28M of personal debts in federal Bankruptcy Court fili[...]

"Estate" Defined in Bankruptcy Action

Former business partners, multi-million dollar lawsuit settlements, and offshore accounts sounds like a recipe for a complex bankruptcy action, right?  All were involved in the In Re Daniel W. Allen, Sr. bankruptcy action.  Yet, in the words of the deciding judge, the case’s “ultimate resolution involve[d] nothing more exotic than interpretation of the Bankruptcy Code.”  The underpinnings of the case began in 1989 when Daniel Allen, Sr. and Gary Carpenter formed a company, ATN, that res[...]

Updates on Student Loan Debt

Student loan debt remains a huge problem in the United States. It seems like there is a near endless stream of stories coming out about students who are unable to obtain employment at a level that will allow them to make substantial payments towards their student loans.  These students are left with the daunting realization that they will be making student loan debt payments for life.  And many still won’t ultimately pay off all of their debt.  This is more than an anecdote, statistics have[...]

Supreme Court Disappoints Lien Stripping Homeowners

At the beginning of this term, there was hope that the United States Supreme Court would issue an opinion in Bank of America v. Caulkett that would provide homeowners with the opportunity for lien stripping second mortgages  during bankruptcy.  Earlier this month, the Court issued its ruling and opinion and those hopes were crushed.  Lien Stripping Background The Court’s decision addressed two consolidated bankruptcy cases with substantially the same facts.  In each case, the bankruptcy de[...]