Posts Tagged ‘divorce’

Domestic Support Obligations and Bankruptcy- Attorney Mike Greiner


Hi my name’s Mike Greiner, I’m a bankruptcy attorney with the Financial Law Group located in Warren, Michigan and I’m here to talk to you today about domestic support obligations and bankruptcy.
Domestic support obligations are non dis-chargeable in bankruptcy, so don’t even ask about it. One of the bigger concerns that I’ve seen though is where the other spouse or the ex spouse comes in and is concerned about the facts that child support that’s owed for example, it would be discharged when someone files a bankruptcy. That type of debt is non dis-chargeable in bankruptcy and there’s nothing that the ex-spouse can do to get rid of that.

You as the ex-spouse who is owed this money, you do not need to do anything to make sure that that debt gets protected  as your former spouse is going through their bankruptcy. That type of debt is non dis-chargeable under any circumstances. It does not require any kind of law suit or any kind of action on your part to make sure that it does, that it does stay non dis-chargeable. There are certain kinds of debts that are created that through  bankruptcy that might require something action on your part to make sure that they stay non-discharged- for example: I have 1 client who as part of the divorce decree.  The spouse who filed for bankruptcy was going to be responsible for certain tax debts. My client was concerned by the fact that she was being chased by the IRS, so she ended up paying the tax debt and then ended up suing this other person, the ex-spouse who is filing bankruptcy to try to collect on that tax step-down that she paid.

The attorney for the spouse who filed bankruptcy believed that, that debt would be discharged in the bankruptcy. I do not believe it is, but either way when there is a circumstance like that, what I would suggest is that we actually take steps to make sure that the court order gets entered stating clearly that the debt is not discharged to the bankruptcy case. There is a time limit during which that needs to be done and it’s typically within two months after the first meeting of creditors or sometimes in some cases, even a month after the first medium creditors. So there’s a very limited of time during which you have to take steps. If you’re concerned about the destructability of certain kinds of domestic support obligations, feel free to give me a call. I offer free consultations at my office. We’re located here in Warren at 12 and Hoover. My phone number is 586-693-2000 and my website is financiallawgroup.com.

Posted by Michigan Bankruptcy Attorney - Michael Greiner Aug 26, 2011
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Michigan Bankruptcy Attorney- Divorce Real Estate

Hi. My name is Mike Greiner and I’m a bankruptcy attorney here with the financial law group located in Warren, Michigan in Macomb county. Our website is financiallawgroup.com and our phone number is 586-693-2000. We do offer free consultations for people interested in this process. I’m here to talk to you today about the interaction between divorce law and bankruptcy law in particular with respect to real estate. Now something that’s become an issue in a lot of cases has been the fact that divorce decrees often have some type of requirement whereby the spouse whose keeping the house after the divorce would have to refinance the house within a certain period of time, often times that’s two years. Well the problem that a lot of people are finding right now is because of the real estate market and the drop in real estate values, that they’re not able to refinance the houses. And it really creates quite a quandry for people going forward. What I’ve suggested to some of my clients actually is instead of some type of drop dead line by which the house needs to be refinanced or, then something needs to be done.

Something which usually nobody really has any idea how to resolve it, because the house can’t be sold, because it’s not worth as much the, as is owed on the mortgages, and the house can’t be refinanced, because it’s not worth as much as our mortgages. What I’ve suggested instead is some type of obligation whereby the spouse who’s keeping the house has to make an application to refinance the house every year, and provide proof of that application to the spouse who’s not keeping the house, and that if it’s turned down, then the obligation rolls over to the following year, and that just continues until the house is able to be refinanced. And then, upon the house being refinanced, the spouse who’s not keeping the house signs a quick claim deed over to the spouse who is keeping the house.

I found that, that might be a better way to address this problem, because it really is quite a quandry and especially some of the divorce attorneys think that they’re really accomplishing something by forcing the spouse who’s staying in the house to refinance the house by a certain date, but it ends up being a moot point because they cant refinance, they can’t sell the house and there is really nothing either spouse can do. So I found this to be a much better way to address a problem which down the road can lead to a lot of heartache.

Again my name is Mike Griener. I’m bankruptcy attorney with the financial law group in Warren and our phone number is 586-693-2000 and our web site is financiallawgroup.com

Posted by Michigan Bankruptcy Attorney - Michael Greiner Jun 24, 2011
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Michigan Bankruptcy Law and Divorce

Hi, I’m Mike Greiner. I’m a Bankruptcy Attorney here with The Financial Law Group located in Warren, Michigan in Macomb County. We’re located right at 12 mile and Hoover in Warren, Michigan. I want to talk to you today a little bit about the interaction of domestic relations law (divorce), in particular Michigan divorce and child support issues with bankruptcy. One thing I suggest to a lot of my clients is that before you actually go through a divorce, that the two of you – you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse file bankruptcy. What we can do through Michigan bankruptcy is we can get rid of your debts. Once you’ve gotten rid of your debts, and that’s one more issue that does not need to be dealt with through your divorce. Once you’re going through divorce, for example, you might have in your divorce decree an issue as to who’s gonna pay this debt, who’s gonna pay that debt. By just eliminating the debts so you don’t need to, then you don’t need to pay for any of them. And that can often be a very helpful thing that you’re going through the divorce process. Because there can be a lot of financial pressures as you’re going through a divorce.  One other reason why I suggest that is that once these issues have been finalized in the divorce decree.  Often times you can not get rid of those debts and bankruptcies. So often times, it makes sense to file bankruptcy first, get ride of those debts. And it’s just one more issue that doesn’t need to be dealt with in a divorce decree.

One more thing to bear in mind, too, is that even while you’re still a married couple. As a married couple, you can file a bankruptcy jointly. And it doesn’t cost any more to file jointly it, than it does individually. So if you wait until after your divorce. And essentially, you have just doubled your price to file bankruptcy to get rid of all these, to get ride of all these debts. So I think that’s an important thing to bear in mind when you’re, when you’re considering a divorce.

One more thing to bare in mind here. And I think this an important issue. Is that any liability that you have for child support is non dischargeable in bankruptcy so if you have any or if you have any ongoing debts with respect to child support that would not be discharged with the bankruptcy and it’s one thing that I think is important for ex-spouses to be aware of. The fact that your ex-spouse is filing bankcruptcy, that does not mean that any child support that’s owed to you is going to be wiped out.

If you want to find out more about bankruptcy or the relationship between bankruptcy and domestic relations law (Michigan Divorce), please feel free to call my office for your free consultation. My phone number is 586-693-2000 and my website is FinancialLawGroup.com.

Posted by Michigan Bankruptcy Attorney - Michael Greiner Jun 09, 2011
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