Judgments do not collect themselves. Experienced collection attorneys have many options to enforce judgments. If the client can supply a bank account or employment information for the debtor, then the attorney can immediately proceed with a levy or wage execution. If not, the New Jersey court rules provide a simple method to try to obtain that information: the information subpoena.
You may be able to protect your car in bankruptcy. If you are filing a Chapter 7 petition, it is important that you be current on your car loan or lease. A Chapter 13 filer can pay any loan or lease arrears through the bankruptcy plan, but must resume the loan or lease payments immediately after filing.
It is not unusual for a home to be worth less than what the owner owes on the mortgage. This is commonly referred to being “underwater”. As long as the owner pays the mortgage on time, eventually the mortgage will be paid down and the house may appreciate in value. However, when the owner becomes delinquent on the mortgage, severe consequences may arise with the IRS.
Say your home is foreclosed and you don’t care because you decide that an underwater house is not worth saving. If the house is sold at the sheriffs sale for less than what you owe on the mortgage, your lender can decide to release you from the deficit on the loan payoff. But then your lender will issue a 1099 to you, documenting its forgiveness of that debt to the IRS. The IRS considers that to be taxable income to you. You will have to report that amount on your tax return and pay tax on it.
In a recent Federal court decision, the court granted a store summary judgment on a plaintiff’s slip and fall claim. A woman and her husband were shopping at the store when she slipped and fell in a pol of water created by melted snow from a cart left in the aisle. The store asked the court to dismiss the case prior to trial, arguing that there was no evidence that the store or its employee had actual knowledge of the melted snow in the aisle. The court agreed.
As I have stated in prior blogs, the owner of a location where an accident occurs is not automatically liable for the accident just because that accident occurred at that location.
Rather, the accident victim and counsel must show that the owner had a duty that the owner breached. One primary duty is to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition. The meaning of “reasonably safe” is the subject of myriad New Jersey court decisions.
Most of you know Habitat for Humanity as a charitable organization that builds houses for the economically disadvantaged. Its most famous volunteer is former American President Jimmy Carter. Central to the Habitat program is the concept of sweat equity, where the home recipient puts in a mandated number of hours of labor alongside the volunteers. Habitat is dependent upon private donations of materials, funds and volunteer labor. I was pro bono counsel for a Habitat chapter for 22 years, during which time we built 30 houses. I handled real estate purchases and sales, zoning applications, subdivision approvals and general corporate representation for that affiliate.
If you are anxious, sleepless or ashamed about your situation, give me a call. I will review your situation in detail over the phone initially and help you to determine whether you qualify for bankruptcy, whether you should file and which bankruptcy chapter is right for you. I will also tell you if bankruptcy is not for you and whether you have other options.
In the recent reported Appellate Division decision in Raji v. Saucedo, the trial court determination barring a tenant’s counterclaim against the landlord was upheld. The facts were that the landlord filed an eviction action for non-payment of rent. On the trial date, the parties negotiated an agreement that the tenant would make some rental payment in exchange for being allowed to remain in the house for a couple of months. That agreement was entered by the court as a consent judgment.
Our client, a North Carolina resident, was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike in the early morning hours when she was rear-ended by an Alabama driver. She was seriously injured,
and transported to an area hospital where she underwent surgery and received treatment for her injuries. She contacted me from her hospital bed, and I immediately went to the hospital to meet her and to provide her with advice about her rights against the other driver. She retained me to represent her on her personal injury claim.
In a prior blog, we discussed a New Jersey Supreme Court decision barring accident victims from recovering their medical expenses from the negligent driver causing the injury. The plaintiff in that case had chosen a $15,000.00 personal injury protection (PIP) limit on his insurance, and the Court stated that therefore, he was limited to recovering a maximum of $15,000.00 for his medical expenses related to the accident from the other driver’s insurance company, where his expenses were far in excess of that limit and where the other driver was responsible for the accident. We invited the Legislature to step up and right this wrong.
