Where Should I File Bankruptcy: A Guide For The Middle District Of Florida

So, you need to file bankruptcy, but where should you file?  Bankruptcies are filed according to where you reside, or if you have been there for less than 180 days, then it is according to where you have lived.  The below assumes you have lived within a particular area, called a Division (which is part of a District) for at least 180 days before filing.

The state of Florida is broken up into 3 Districts, known as the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts. Each District is further broken up into Divisions. The Middle District is divided into four Divisions known as the Jacksonville, Ocala, Orlando, Tampa and Ft. Myers Divisions.

You would file in the District, subject to certain residency requirements, as follows: 

You would file in the JACKSONVILLE Division if you reside in one of the following counties: Baker, Bradford, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Flagler, Hamilton, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns,  Suwannee, and Union . The place of holding court is Jacksonville.

You would file in the OCALA Division if you reside in one of the following counties: Citrus, Lake, Marion and Sumter.  This place for holding court is Ocala.

You would file in the ORLANDO Division if you reside in one of the following counties: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia. The place of holding court is Orlando. 

You would file in the TAMPA Division if you reside in one of the following counties: Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota. The place of holding court is Tampa. 

You would file in the FT. MYERS Division if you reside in one of the following counties: Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hendry and Lee. The place of holding court is Ft. Myers.

If you plan on filing bankruptcy having lived within a particular District for less than 180 days, you should seek the advise of an attorney to determine where you need to file.

Bankruptcy Attorney Jacksonville: How To Find

I recently received an advertisement from a well known internet service provider letting me know my web site (www.bankruptcyjax.com) would not be found if someone typed in Bankruptcy Attorney Jacksonville. Sure enough, I tried it, and my listing was not found. I am a little surprised they did not include a phrase, such as 

Best Bankruptcy Attorney in Jacksonville.

Or how about Best, Stupendous, Outrageous...well, you get the idea.

What did I find? I found a lot of advertising various attorneys are paying for, followed by sites Google has ranked pursuant to the search criteria.

So, how should you search for the results you are looking for.  I do not have a solid answer, but if you would like a couple of suggestions from someone that knows next to nothing about SEO (that's Search Engine Optimization, not some slanted phrase you are probably thinking of), then here we go.

My suggestion, if you are looking for a bankruptcy attorney in your area, do some research. This involves typing words into search engines various ways. For example, if you type in 

Jacksonville Bankruptcy Attorney

Bankruptcy Attorney Jacksonville

Attorney Bankruptcy Jacksonville

you will get different results. The words are the same, but search engines view these entries as being different, resulting in different results. To narrow the results, you may want to include the name of the area of the city or town you are in, or in larger cities, a general direction. My office happens to be in a more rural area of Jacksonville, so one has a better chance of finding my site if they add the word West to the search criteria.

I recently read that Google tends to place businesses that advertise with them (yep, send them money) in a better position within their search engine. So if you want to find an attorney in your area of town, that has the qualifications you are looking for, you may want to go past the firms that throw money at the search engines, and start looking at the more meaningful ranking of websites.

If you have discovered a good way to bring up the search results you are looking for, please post your suggestions below.

Student Loans: Greater Than 15% While Americans Live Paycheck-To-Paycheck

I recently did a quick search on the internet to see how close Americans are, in general, to needing to file bankruptcy, and whether or not there have been any changes to the default in student loans. This, a least in part, is a reflection on our economy.

If you are contemplating bankruptcy, read the articles below. Hopefully you will not feel as if you are the only one in such a predicament. Even though I have not verified the facts listed within the articles, I find them interesting.

You need to know this. Welcome to America, where half the nation lives right on the razor’s edge. A stunning new report out of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, finds that 44% of Americans are just one financial shock away from complete ruin. Nearly half the nation doesn’t have enough savings to keep them out of poverty for more than 3 months, should they suffer a job loss, an accident, a sickness, or other financial setback. Another recent study out of the Consumer Federation of American, found that 40% of all American households live paycheck-to-paycheck, with virtually no savings. This is what’s become of the once valued American middle class after thirty years of trickle-down Reaganomics. And it’s the main reason why our economy continues to falter – our nation's working people and consumers don’t have enough money to spend. Let’s roll back the Reagan tax cuts – put in place a new wealth tax on everyone making over a billion dollars and redistribute some of that wealth down to working people, who will actually spend it.

…

The situation for college students in America continues to deteriorate. A new report published by FICO Labs, finds that the student-loan delinquency rate rose 22% from 2005 to 2007 – with more than 15% of all students being forced into default on their loans. The rapidly increasing price of college tuition, the cutbacks in government assistance for students, and the non-existent job market, are all conspiring together to saddle our next generation of leaders with enormous piles of debt. As the report notes, “in 2005, the average U.S. student loan debt was $17,233. By 2012, it had ballooned to more than $27,253 – an increase of 58 percent in seven years." How are our American workers supposed to compete with the rest of the world, and take risks, when they’re so deep in the hole by the time they graduate? We need to be sending our young people to college for free, like many advanced European nations already do.

Source: Truth-Out.org/news; On the News With Thom Hartmann: New Reports Finds 44 Percent of Americans One Financial Shock Away From Ruin, and More, January 31, 2013.

The bankruptcy code states, in general, student loans can not be discharged.  This means you will continue to owe the debt even after going through bankruptcy.  However, the bankruptcy code also provides for the discharge of a student loan if it is an "undue hardship".  The interpretation of what an undue hardship is varies greatly from court to court around the country.  If you owe a student loan and are contemplating filing bankruptcy, you should seek the advise of a competent bankruptcy attorney in your area.  You may also want to contact an attorney member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) to find out where their efforts stand with congress in getting student loans discharged through bankruptcy.

Can I File a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy: Who Can File?

So, after speaking with some attorneys (not your bar buddy that professes he knows the law) and doing some research, you believe a chapter 13 bankruptcy is what you need in order to achieve the relief you looking for. So now the BIG question is, “Am I eligible?”

That's right. Not just anyone can file a chapter 13. First, only an individual (or unincorporated business) can be a debtor in a chapter 13. This precludes a corporation or partnership from filing this chapter of bankruptcy; they may have to look at either a chapter 7 or chapter 11.

Secondly, this chapter of bankruptcy requires you have regular income. How this income is defined changes from one jurisdiction to another, but for the purpose of this discussion, we will presume you have a job that pays you on a regular basis, or you have bills paid for you on a regular basis. That's right, if someone else is paying you bills on a regular basis, this will be considered income an may help you in your filing of your bankruptcy.

Next, we need to look at your level of debt. Did you know you can actually have too much debt to be able to file bankruptcy. According to section 109(e), your unsecured debts must be less than $360,475, and your secured debts must be less than $1,081,400. I know what you are thinking...where in the world did they ever come up with these numbers? These numbers are actually based on the consumer price index, and change periodically.

Some other things you should consider include whether you have previously filed a chapter 13. That is, if you previously filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy, how long to you have to wait in before being able to file another chapter 13 bankruptcy?  An individual cannot file under chapter 13 or any other chapter if, during the preceding 180 days, a prior bankruptcy petition was dismissed due to the debtor's willful failure to appear before the court or comply with orders of the court or was voluntarily dismissed after creditors sought relief from the bankruptcy court to recover property upon which they hold liens. 11 U.S.C. §§ 109(g), 362(d) and (e).

And just like filing a chapter 7, an individual must have received credit counseling from an approved credit counseling agency, either in an individual or group briefing, within 180 days before filing. See 11 U.S.C. §§ 109, 111. (Note: there are exceptions in emergency situations or where the U.S. trustee (or bankruptcy administrator) has determined that there are insufficient approved agencies to provide the required counseling.)

So, there is a little more to filing an chapter 13 bankruptcy than you thought, isn't there? If you are thinking of filing a Chapter 13 (especially a chapter 13), you should seek the advise of a competent bankruptcy attorney in your area. Many attorneys offer free consults for people contemplating bankruptcy.

Mail Scam

From time to time, I run across a new for of fraudulent activity, otherwise known as a Scam, and when I do, I try to disseminate it by posting it here. I know this is not directly bankruptcy related, but any time I come across something that could end up costing one of my clients money, or their identity to be stolen, I consider it relevant.

Recently in Palm Beach, Lee County, Florida, the news media reported a scam involving the United States Postal Service. The report is as follows:

If you're planning on shipping holiday packages this season, beware. The Lee County Sheriff's Office wants to warn you about bogus emails claiming to be from the post office or other shipping companies.

Fraud specialist, Beth Schell, with the sheriff's office, says the emails contain false information about a package that could not be delivered.

How to tell it's not real?

"Some of the grammar and the spelling was incorrect. On the top it said USPS. But inside the label they forgot one of the 'S's," explained Schell.

Here's the most important thing: the USPS says it will never send an email regarding packages it cannot deliver. "Basically the consumer needs to be aware of receiving any emails they don't solicit with instructions to click," Schell said.

If you do click, it could activate a virus that can steal your personal information.

Can I Go To Jail For Filing Bankruptcy?

File bankruptcy and go to jail? I know what you are thinking, “You kidding, right?”.  Whenever you ask someone about this, you hear there is no way you could end up in jail; after all, there is no Debtor's Prison in the United States.  

Well, the simple filing of the bankruptcy is not what can put one in jail, however, the circumstances surrounding the filing could. For example, if you make a false statement on the papers filed with the court which are signed under penalty of perjury (which is almost everything that is filed), one of the penalties for doing so in bankruptcy is not only having the case dismissed, but referred to the U.S. Attorney for prosecution. That's right, this becomes a criminal offense.

Next, you are probably thinking this never happens. If it did, then you would have heard about it, right?

Well, think again. The following is a short article of a high profile case involving bankruptcy fraud:

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are asking that former All-Star outfielder Lenny Dykstra serve a 2½-year prison sentence for pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors said in court documents filed Thursday that a 30-month sentence is appropriate for Dykstra because he has acted as if he was above the law for years.

Dykstra could face 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in July to charges that he hid and sold sports memorabilia and other items which were supposed to be part of his bankruptcy filing.

Dykstra is currently serving a three-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3.

Homestead Exemption: Should I Claim?

So, you are in Florida, need to file bankruptcy, and your house is upside down.  Well, not literally; upside down means your house is worth less than what is owed on it.  In Florida, if you do not claim a homestead exemption in your bankruptcy, you are eligible for a $4,000 wild card exemption.  This means you will be able to keep $4,000 of property that would otherwise be property of the bankruptcy estate, and sold by the trustee (usually sold back to the debtor).

So, what is the problem?  The problem arises when you do not claim the household exemption, you expose your property to being administered by the Trustee.  That is, the trustee could sell your house.  Of course, if you claim the homestead exemption, the property is protected, though the creditor may continue to hold a secured lien.

In the past, the practice has been to simply not claim the homestead exemption when the home is upside down, thereby entitling the debtor to the wildcard exemption.  After all, the property has negative equity, and who would want to purchase property for more than what it is worth.  Also, the trustee could only administer the estate (sell the property) if there is money to distribute to unsecured creditors.

Well, there are some Trustees in Florida currently administering property that is upside down.  Apparently, the Trustees have found investors willing to pay a small sum to acquire parcels of real property.  The investors acquire property with a low monthly mortgage payment, with financing in place, and rent the property for enough to hopefully show a positive return on their investment.  This is happening despite the property be acquired blindly, that is, the investor has no idea how much money will need to be spent on the property in order to put it into rentable condition.

In the specific case I am thinking of, as of today, an investor may be acquiring property in one of my cases, only having to bring the electric up to code, and repairing the roof.  There may be, of course, unknown problem, such as termite damage, mold, and possible plumbing problems.  After all, this property is owned by a debtor that is filing bankruptcy.  They have not had money necessary to properly maintain the property.

It will be interesting to see if this trend continues as investors acquire these properties with increased risk.