Bankruptcy Laws Are Different in Each State: Understand Them in Arizona

What laws govern when you file an Arizona bankruptcy?

Because it’s common for people to move from state to state, it is also common for people filing bankruptcy in Arizona to have property, both personal property and real estate, in other states.  Because of this, there are three common questions that my clients will ask me: When can I file bankruptcy in Arizona? What state laws control the outcome of my bankruptcy?  What state laws protect me outside of bankruptcy?

When can I file bankruptcy in Arizona?

Anyone who has lived in Arizona for at least 91 consecutive days prior to filing may file bankruptcy in Arizona (Please keep in mind that even if you have not lived in AZ for 91 days you may still be able to file in Arizona. In

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Watch China

Earlier, I was saying “Watch the Euro”. Well, now might be a good time to watch China.

A couple of possibly correlated events happened in the past few days in China. Days after intense media attention on those 10 Foxconn suicides + 3 unsuccessful attempts at the huge 420,000-employee factory in Shenzhen China which churns out, among other things, Apple iPhones, Sony Playstations, and various gadgets for many other companies including HP, Nintendo, Motorola and Dell, it has been announced that the workers there have been given a 20% pay raise on Friday. Around the same time, workers at a Honda factory are still on strike, coming into its second week, even after it was announced that Honda would be giving out a 24% pay raise – inflation expectations, anyone?

Next, we’ve got Bloomberg reporting that : “Chinese manufacturing expanded at a slower pace in May 2010, adding to signs that growth may moderate in the world’s third-biggest economy. The Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 53.9 from 55.7 in April, seasonally adjusted.

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Occupy Vancouver movement almost takes over Catholic church

 

Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miler anticipated the march of protesters and requested extra police protection outside the cathedral to prevent the disruption of the mass.

Organizers of the Occupy Vancouver movement almost took over the Holy Rosary Cathedral in downtown Vancouver on Sunday morning.

Vancouver Police stopped the protesters from disrupting mass at the Catholic church. A spokesman for the group, which renamed itself Occupy Vatican, said the purpose of the aborted church takeover was to bring to the Catholic Church’s attention the thousands of residential school survivors who suffered under the clergy.

However, some members of the Occupy Vancouver movement said that the Occupy Vatican movement did not secure consensus at their Saturday night general assembly and was not supported by the majority of protestors.

Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miler anticipated the march of protesters and requested extra police protection outside the cathedral to prevent the disruption of the mass.

In the U.S., protesters from Nashville and San Diego were arrested over the weekend after police moved into their camps at night.

Nashville police used a new law that banned overnight camping near the Tennessee state capital. Sa

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O Max Gardner III’s Top 12 Predictions for 2012

1.     Home Values: Home values will continue to decline during 2012 and I do not expect the bottom of the real estate market to be reached until the 3rd Quarter of 2014. My best guess for any type of sustained recovery in the housing market is no sooner than the 3rd Quarter of 2021.  The number of homes in foreclosure will double or triple from 2011 levels and home values will drop by another 15% to 20% by the end of year.  I do not expect to see any real recovery in the housing market until at least 2022.  A massive number of bank-owned homes (Real Estate Owned or REO property) will be turned into rental properties by the banks and/or mortgage servicers and many more foreclosed on homes will be sold in bulk sales to investors for the same purpose.

2.     New Home Construction:  At its peak at the end of 2005, homebuilding accounted for about 6.2 percent of overall economic activity. Now, it is only about 2.4 percent.  U.S. housing starts in April 2009 hit their lowest level on records dating to January 1959. While multifa

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Can Creditor Hold Debtor In Civil Contempt For Failing To Transport And Assemble In Florida The Debtor’s Out-Of -State Assets?

I am frequently  asked whether a creditor can get a court to hold a debtor in contempt of court for not paying a civil judgment. This past week one of my clients explained that he had recently moved to Florida but maintained a car, bank accounts, and collectibles in his former residence. He asked me whether his creditors could obtain a Florida court order commanding him to transport the car and collectibles to Florida and move his money to a Florida bank, and if they could, whether he could be held in contempt and put in jail if he did not comply with the court order.

I am not been involved in any case where a court has threatened to hold my client in contempt if he did not move his own assets from another state into Florida where a creditor could more conveniently levy upon the assets. Essentially, a court would be ordering a debtor to collect his own assets to pay his creditor and threatening to put the debtor in jail for non-compliance.

 

Courts can order the conveyance of property to remedy a fraudulent transfer or conversion, and courts can hold people in contempt for failure to pay alimony and domestic support obligations. H

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Beware this year’s holiday shopping craze: mobile mania

Photo courtesy of flickr user Yutaka Tsutano

Our fancy mobile devices are meant to make our lives easier. But am I the only one feeling like the smartphone in my purse is complicating holiday shopping?

 

Retailers like Target are luring customers through social networks, offering special deals if you check the store’s Facebook page or respond to a tweet. Sites like Gilt Groupe, Amazon, and HSN are aggressively emailing you about sales during peak shopping times (like they did on Black Friday and surely will continue to do), in the hopes that you’ll abandon your spot in line to shop online. And location-based mobile apps like Foursquare and Shopkick offer you rewards points and discounts by simply recognizing when you walk into a store.

 

Head spinning yet? T

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Fourth Circuit Rules Trustee May Appeal Order Denying Attempt to Dismiss Bankruptcy – McDow v. Dudley

In bankruptcy, a trustee stands in for the people who filed for bankruptcy, assuming financial responsibilities that most people handle for themselves. Depending on the situation, the trustee may not serve the best interests of the debtors; he or she has obligations to creditors as well. So our Riverside consumer bankruptcy lawyers were interested to see a recent bankruptcy appeals ruling that pitted debtors against their trustee. In McDow v. Dudley, David and Anne Dudley of Virginia filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2008, but converted to a Chapter 7 case. Their bankruptcy trustee, W. Clarkson McDow, Jr., then moved to dismiss the case as abusive, but the bankruptcy court denied it. On appeal, the district court ruled that the order was not appealable and dismissed it. The Fourth Circuit reversed, finding that a motion to dismiss for abuse is appealable.

McDow originally moved in bankruptcy court to convert to a Chapter 7 case or dismiss, so the Dudleys moved themselves to convert to a Chapter 7 case. After this was granted, McDow moved to dismiss for abuse.

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Is it acceptable to make your Christmas gifts?

If you read our previous blog on How are you funding Christmas? you would have read that the average spend per person this Christmas will be 364. People are looking at ways of cutting down the cost of Christmas with things like Secret Santa, registering gift lists and gift certificates. However there is one other way that can cut your spending by creating and making your own gifts.

If you have a craft is there anything wrong with making your own gifts?

Here are a few ideas: