An Interview with Mr. Cris Shale relative to his thoughts Post-Bankruptcy/Divorce
Valuable Advice For Others Facing The Same Bankruptcy Dilemma Post-Divorce
Several years ago, I posted an article to the Ohio Family Law Blog about my son and one of my clients who had both elected to file a Bankruptcy proceeding following a divorce and following a marital residence being “upside down” with the total mortgage liability. In layman’s terms, the value of the marital residence, as appraised, was way below the mortgage indebtedness associated with the home. Cris, with a high child support obligation and other associated bills, could not afford to keep the mortgage current on his former marital residence. So, he sought counsel and filed a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
Before meeting with Cris, I sent to him several questions to stimulate our Bankruptcy discussion:
- Were there any negative outcomes or effects from taking the Bankruptcy?
- Were there any positive outcomes or effects from taking the Bankruptcy?
- What advice would you offer to others contemplating a Bankruptcy action?
- If you had the same set of facts today, would you again take the Bankruptcy?
- What steps have you taken to re-establish credit and improve your credit score?
Question 1: … Read More... “Bankruptcy In Post-Divorce: Hire An Attorney Before You File!”
Since the beginning of the recent housing crisis, I have had the experience of working with clients who have fallen behind with mortgage payments which resulted in the mortgage lender filing a foreclosure action with the Court. This course of events often leads to the filing of a personal bankruptcy action to discharge the mortgage indebtedness. In order to get the information to write this article, I chose to interview my son, who will be known as CS, and a divorce client, who will be known as RP. CS and RP have some commonalities: (1) both had experienced a divorce proceeding; (2) both had experienced a decline in the value of their homes causing them to be “upside down”; and, (3) both of them had support obligations (child support or spousal support) resulting in each having less disposable income with which to pay their monthly mortgage payments. Having a house be “upside down” simply means that the amount of the mortgage balance is far greater than the actual fair market value of the home. Both men filed a