Kent & Wittner, P.S.

09/21/2016

The Washington state legislature is thinking of changing the law on fraudulent conveyances and this change could have a major impact on bankruptcy cases. If the legislature is not careful, it could result in people who have done nothing wrong being sued by bankruptcy trustees.

Here is an example: A husband and wife sold their house several years ago to somebody they did not know. Unknown to them, the person who purchased the home was operating a Ponzi scheme and eventually filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy trustee sued the husband and wife because some of the funds from the sale came from stolen funds. Even though the wife had died and the husband was suffering from dementia, and did absolutely nothing wrong, they were required to return more than $900,000 to the bankruptcy trustee.

Here is another example of a third party being who did nothing wrong being sued by bankruptcy trustees:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/bankruptcy-trustees-claw-back-college-tuition-paid-for-filers-kids-1430869820

Several schools have paid up in an attempt to avoid lawsuits.

08/05/2016

Here is an old but interesting article from the New York Times about zombie debt. Zombie debt is any debt that is legally uncollectible due to bankruptcy, a prior settlement, or statute of limitations. Even though the debt cannot be collected upon, there is a growing market whereby debt buyers purchase this debt and illegally try to collect the money, hoping that they will get lucky and get paid. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/debts-canceled-by-bankruptcy-still-mar-consumer-credit-scores/?_r=0

05/19/2016

Payday loans can be discharged in bankruptcy. Here is a tragic story of a family that lost their home because of $2,500 worth of payday loans. http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/credit/how-payday-loans-of-dollar2500-left-one-man-dollar50000-in-debt/ar-BBtcYxB?ocid=spartanntp

How Payday Loans Of $2,500 Left One Man $50,000 In Debt

10/25/2015

Debtor's prisons apparently do exist. http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/pay-debts-with-blood-or-go-to-jail-the-new-reality-if-you-dont-have-cash/ar-BBmmD1H?ocid=spartanntp

A judge recently told defendants to give blood or face jail time. Is this really what happens to the poor when they can't pay a traffic ticket?

07/10/2015

Here is some interesting news from the Department of Education regarding student loans. Perhaps they will be less likely to object to discharge in cases moving forward. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-rhode/department-of-education-r_1_b_7753076.html

The Department of Education has just released guidance on how it will handle bankruptcy discharge requests for government backed student loan debt. And while the guidance is helpful, it's also a bit disingenuous in that it places the burden on students who believed what schools and colleges sold the…

07/06/2015

Please do not fall for IRS tax scams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y5z0kWgBcM

The IRS warns taxpayers about an increasing number of tax scams in communities across the country. For even more information go to IRS.gov and type “scam” in...

05/08/2015

I successfully filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the owner of this building to stop the foreclosure and ensure that all creditors, including more than $2 million owed to the city of Tacoma were paid in full. This is a great success story for downtown Tacoma.

The sale has been in the works for almost a year, but it closed on Tuesday. The new owner plans millions in renovations that could start any day.

04/08/2015

The Washington State Supreme Court ruled on April 2, 2015 that if you own real property in another state, you cannot use Washington bankruptcy exemptions to protect the equity that you have in that out of state property. This is not good news to people in financial distress who own land in another state.

03/06/2015

To serve our clients in Seattle and King County, we have an office located in Tukwila near the Southcenter Mall. The address is 6000 Southcenter Blvd., Tukwila, WA 98188.

02/25/2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImVp1vvVK90

http://www.dexknows.com/business_profiles/-b946891 Kent, & Wittner PS