Bankruptcy Mastery

Delay Division of Community Property At Peril of Bankruptcy

Cathy Moran, Esq. — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:22:53 +0000

Put off the division of community property in a marital dissolution at your peril. Hesitate and you risk all of the community property being swept up in a bankruptcy by the other spouse. And you’ll have little control where community property assets fall. Community property is all in The threat begins with the bankruptcy law […]

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How to avoid bankruptcy blunders

Cathy Moran, Esq. — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:12:38 +0000

Avoiding bankruptcy malpractice is a learned skill and necessary for professional survival. If word of mouth from happy clients is the world’s best advertising for a bankruptcy lawyer, loud complaints from unhappy clients in the internet age is professional poison. So, for both client and lawyer future wellbeing, it’s worth considering how to avoid bankruptcy […]

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Voluntary Retirement Contributions Not Disposable Income in the 9th

Cathy Moran, Esq. — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:17:55 +0000

Contributions to an employer-sponsored retirement plan going forward are excluded from disposable income in Chapter 13, says the 9th Circuit in Saldana, 122 F.4th 333, 19 years after BAPCPA became law. What took so long? Words in the statute matter Congress, in its BAPCPA-typical awkward fashion, said right there, in 541(b)(7)’s hanging paragraph, that amounts […]

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2026 Brings Larger California Homestead

Cathy Moran, Esq. — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 16:27:50 +0000

It’s time to check out the California homestead numbers for 2026. The 2021 expanded California homestead not only brought the exemption amount closer to the real cost of housing, it provided for annual adjustments for inflation. The original legislation created a $300,000 floor on the exemption and a $600,000 cap for homeowners, based on the median price of a […]

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Putting the spotlight on Chapter 13

Cathy Moran, Esq. — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 16:31:22 +0000

My fellow author at ConsiderChapter13.org Jen Lee called for the bankruptcy bar to do a better job of pitching the manifest strengths of Chapter 13. Ditch the jargon and focus on the facts that are Chapter 13’s strenght. Her advice to use head to head comparisons with alternative approaches to debt for the client is […]

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BOLO Alert: Community Property in Unexpected Places

Cathy Moran, Esq. — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 22:26:13 +0000

In law enforcement, BOLO stands for Be On the Look Out. But even outside of law enforcement, BOLO alerts operate. In this case, we as bankruptcy lawyers need to be on the look out for community property. It’s easy to think that community property is an issue only for practitioners in the 9 community property […]

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The Trick To Getting Paid For All Your Work In Chapter 13

Cathy Moran, Esq. — Wed, 28 May 2025 12:45:00 +0000

Tired of eating fees at the end of a Chapter 13 when the debtor-client gets a discharge and you get a write off of the unpaid fees? The problem– attorneys fees incurred during the case but unpaid at case end are uncollectible when the debtor gets a discharge. It happens all too frequently when you […]

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