King Bankruptcy Media THE CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY LETTER
 In This Issue: FEB. 16, 2004 
•   ONLINE TAX DISCHARGE RESEARCH
•   DEPRESSION, DIARRHEA JUSTIFY HARDSHIP DISCHARGE
•   BANKRUPTCY MILL SUED
•   MIDDLE CLASS GOING BROKE
•   BANKRUPTCY PENSION REFORM
•   BANKRUPTCY HUMOR
 ONLINE TAX DISCHARGE RESEARCH
You fill out Morgan King's form online and press SUBMIT. Your client's tax transcripts will be analyzed to determine whether or not the tax liabilities meet the statutory criteria for discharge in chapter 7 or chapter 13.

Five years of tax debts are analyzed for a fixed research fee of $375. Additional years are assessed an additional fee of $50 per tax year analyzed.

You may pay the fees online. Result turn-around time is from 10 to 45 days, depending on the information available from the IRS and how long it takes to obtain relevant transcripts. Urgent evaluations are available for with a premium charge added.

You can provide the transcripts, or let King obtain the transcripts. All you have to do is obtain your client's signature on a power-of-attorney. A power-of-attorney form may be downloaded from the web site.

To proceed with a research request, click on the image at left, or the link above.

KING'S TAX DISCHARGE RESEARCH SERVICE

 BANKRUPTCY MILL SUED
MISSOURI SUES BANKRUPTCY MILL

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has filed suit against Critique Legal Services in St. Louis alleging it served as a "bankruptcy mill."

Nixon said the business, at 4144 Lindell, and its employees prepared and filed bankruptcy proceedings and schedules in hundreds of cases in the last two years, but the defendants often failed to appear in court or to meet with creditors. In addition, the company often charged more than the $99 advertised fee, Nixon said. None of the defendants is licensed to practice law in Missouri or in federal court in St. Louis.

"Critique Legal Services and owner Beverly J. Holmes are very good at making promises of professional assistance to consumers who are in serious financial straits," Nixon said, in a statement. "Once they've been paid, however, the defendants -- who are not qualified to handle any of these proceedings -- are very poor at delivering on even the most basic of services, such as showing up in court when you're supposed to."

Nixon is seeking a restraining order to freeze the business' assets and stop any further legal activities. He is also seeking restitution to consumers and penalties.

SOURCE: NACBA ListServe

BANKRUPTCY THIS WEEK

 BANKRUPTCY PENSION REFORM
BANKRUPT PENSION PLANS STIR REFORM STRUGGLE

Failed pension plans are turned over to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a government agency that insures pensions for about 44 million people in more than 30,000 defined-benefit pension plans. Last year the PBGC took over 152 bankrupt single-employer pension plans covering 206,000 people, and saw its deficit rise to a record $11.2 billion

WASHINGTON - Senate leaders yesterday resolved a lingering dispute over Democratic participation in negotiating bills, opening the way for Congress to finish work on a measure that could save employers billions of dollars in pension payments.

Senate Democrats had blocked the holding of a House-Senate conference on the pensions bill to protest what they said was their near or total exclusion last year from negotiations on several key bills. Those included a major energy bill that the Senate later rejected and legislation giving a prescription drug benefit to Medicare recipients that became law.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said this week that he had discussed the issue with Majority Leader Bill Frist, who "indicated that he is prepared to insist that we be full partners in conference."

Without that assurance, Daschle said, "we would be taking ourselves right down that same sordid path" where Democrats were left out of final negotiations on legislation.

The legislation, recently approved by the Senate, would reduce by $80 billion the money that employers have to pay into their defined benefit pension plans this year and next.

SOURCE: AP

BANKRUPTCY REFORM NEWS

 DEPRESSION, DIARRHEA JUSTIFY HARDSHIP DISCHARGE
DEBTOR'S DEPRESSION, DIARRHEA JUSTIFY HARDSHIP DISCHARGE OF STUDENT LOANS

“His mental disabilities range from learning challenges to serious psychological problems. His physician certified that Strand suffers from post traumatic stress disorder to the extent that it interferes with his social relationships and his ability to function in and hold a job. His physical health problems are also troubling from the perspective of employment. He suffers from depression. He cannot lift, sit, stand, or drive. He is in constant pain from angina and arthritis. He has a restricted diet as a result of diabetes and chronic diarrhea. His disability is manifest without even considering the job limitations imposed as a result of his physical and mental inability to cope with stressful settings or situations and social conflict.”

IN RE STRAND, (Minn. 2003)
___________________________

CASE FILED TO THWART CREDITOR DISMISSED

Because a corporate debtor's Ch. 7 case was filed solely to interfere with the efforts of the corporation's single creditor to pierce the corporate veil through alter ego claims against the owners, the case should be dismissed.

In re American Telecom Corp. (Bankr. N.D. Ill 2004)

LAW UPDATES

 MIDDLE CLASS GOING BROKE
NEW BOOK RINGS ALARM ON FINANCIAL STATUS OF AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS

In “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke" (Basic Books, $26), authors Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi report the following alarming statistics:

• In the past 25 years, the number of families in bankruptcy has increased 400 percent, and housing foreclosures are up 350 percent.

• The average middle-class family can no longer buy a house without putting both husband and wife to work.

• Parents with young children are more than twice as likely to go bankrupt than any other segment of the population.

• More than 90 percent of those in bankruptcy would qualify as middle-class.

If these trends continue, the authors contend, more than 5 million families with children will file for bankruptcy by the end of this decade.

"That would mean that across the country nearly one of every seven families with children would have declared itself flat broke, losers in the great American economic game," Warren and Tyagi write.

The book may be purchased online at BankruptcyBooks.com for discount price of $17.50.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THIS BOOK

 BANKRUPTCY HUMOR
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Money isn't everything, and don't let anyone tell you different. There are other things, such as stocks, bonds, letters of credit, checks, traveler's checks, and drafts.

If a man is in the middle of the forest, and there
isn't a woman around to listen to him, is he still wrong?

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© King Bankruptcy Media 2003 CONTACT US AT editor@bankruptcymedia.com  BankruptcyMedia.com

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