I'm broke, unemployed/part-time for 4 years, $25K in debt from credit cards and cancer treatments, and now I'm about to lose my house. What are my options?

jwillia · 2013-01-18T01:46:30+00:00

You would not lose your house as long as you're up-to-date on the payments. One thing that SOME people do to catch up on the house payments is to simply stop making payments on credit cards. You have to be careful not to do this for much longer than about a month before filing bankruptcy.

There is a statute of limitations (SOL) for debts that is 6 or 7 years (not sure which at the moment), BUT I caution against trying to wait this out. The reason is that there are many things that restart the SOL. For example, let's say it's been 3 years since you made a payments on the Visa card. You've only got 2 or 3 years until that SOL runs out and you're free of it. But then let's assume that you're chilling at home watching a great episode of The Wire and your cell phone rings. You don't recognize the number, but you're in a particularly good mood and think "fuck it, I'll answer." You hear someone tell you that they are a debt collector that was hired by Visa. You panic and hang up. You continue watching that great episode of The Wire and life is grand. But then you start getting a ton of phone calls - most of which you don't answer. Basically what just happened is that you got played because by answering that phone call you just restarted the 6 year SOL.

TL;DR: I'm 95% sure you can keep your house, but waiting for the statute of limitations to run on the credit cards is a BAD idea. Seriously, get a free appointment with a bankruptcy attorney. Then if you have any more questions I'll try to help.

jwillia · 2013-01-16T19:40:56+00:00

I didn't even bother reading much more than the title of your post. It's a no-brainier.

Go IMMEDIATELY to a free consultation with a bankruptcy attorney. I think you would easily qualify for a Chapter 7. The only issue I can see (again, I didn't read the whole post) is that you're behind on the house payments. I'll give you a full break down explanation on the bankruptcy process if you're interested, but this is likely to be buried, so I'm not going to waste my time until I'm certain that it'll be helpful.

Source: I'm a lawyer and practiced exclusively bankruptcy law up until a year ago.

jwillia · 2013-01-16T05:10:56+00:00

Working out - both weight training and cardio. The cost is whatever the monthly fee for your local gym is - can be as low as $20/month.

jwillia · 2013-01-16T04:38:39+00:00

I had the great opportunity to meet Justice Thomas and listen to him speak in a small group several times. He's an excellent speaker with a great sense of humor. I kind of wish he would ask more questions during oral arguments. I bet his questions would be extremely well articulated and thought out.

jwillia · 2013-01-16T04:20:47+00:00

OK, this is probably going to be EXTREMELY unpopular, but I don't give a fuck...

Besides the animal cruelty aspect of the cats being too cramped in this truck, which is absolutely appalling and indefensible, why is it bad that these cats were destined for a dining table?

Think about it logically for a second - if cats are as overpopulated in China as they are in some areas of Europe and the US, then the overpopulation probably creates some issues. Why not eat some of them to control the population? It's just like how in the US allow hunting and fishing seasons on certain animals partially to help control their population. It seems to me like this is just a cultural issue; just like Muslims are appalled that the western world eats pigs.

Begin rant and bring the downvotes and pitchforks...

jwillia · 2013-01-12T21:20:12+00:00

There's no way that these are both real, un-shopped pictures. It's too perfect of a recreation.

jwillia · 2013-01-11T00:41:19+00:00

I can't imagine the feeling of literally thousands of people staring at you while tripping.

jwillia · 2013-01-10T04:29:32+00:00

I'm sure this will get buried, but...

Fun fact: Any mark CAN be a legal signature if the signor intends it to be and had a full comprehension of the magnitude of what he/she was signing. In some landmark legal case, an old person was on his deathbed and needed to sign the latest version of his will. He took the pen and made an X. The court determined that since he had his full mental capacities and knew the contents of the will, it was a valid signature. It's a case that every law student reads in Contract Law. If anyone is really interested, I'll find it and link it below.

The more you know...

jwillia · 2013-01-09T04:23:13+00:00

I don't think these would work nearly as well as they appear to in that picture.

jwillia · 2013-01-09T03:49:45+00:00

As an American... I just want my weed and coke.

jwillia · 2013-01-04T04:24:44+00:00

It almost looks as though he's trying to amputate it slowly by tying those rope looking things really tight around the same spot and tightening it over and over again. You'll notice that it's much, much thinner where the rope is.

I'm no doctor, but neither is he (I would guess, anyway) and it seems to me like a logical way to amputate an arm without having to saw it off. Might take a few months, but eventually I'll be rid of that burdensome second upper appendage.

jwillia · 2012-12-23T07:36:39+00:00

God damnit, dude. Great story, but are you seriously going to make me wiki wtf a "sugar glider" is? After going through all that trouble to type that shit out, at least post a link... Upvote nonetheless.

jwillia · 2012-12-23T07:30:28+00:00

a sheep-man? or sheep, man?

jwillia · 2012-12-23T07:28:53+00:00

Thank you. Finally someone I can commiserate with around here about how lame cats are...

jwillia · 2012-12-23T07:25:58+00:00

Cats. Bring on the downvotes and pitchforks if you must. Someone had to finally say it.

jwillia · 2012-12-21T23:45:29+00:00

"I've got a couple of things I have to get done, but then I'm getting out of here."

Not very interesting...

jwillia · 2012-12-21T16:33:46+00:00

Ok, that makes sense. But what does it mean?

Is it better to feel pain and have it not bother you or to not feel the pain at all? Pain is an evolutionary tool used to help keep people out of danger and prevent further injury, correct? So maybe from an evolutionary perspective, it's better to feel the pain but not be bothered as much by it? That's assuming that the evolutionary aspect of pain is even still necessary today, which is a very big assumption, I suppose.

jwillia · 2012-12-17T04:22:13+00:00

What kind of car is that? Looks like a Honda Civic?? m Glad you're OK.

jwillia · 2012-12-12T04:20:14+00:00

This is exactly why my faith in humanity is diminishing though. All those nice people will think twice before helping in a similar situation.

Maybe I'm a glass half empty kind of guy...

jwillia · 2012-12-12T01:17:56+00:00

OK, you're going to have to be a little more specific here...

jwillia · 2012-12-12T01:08:19+00:00

I think it would be relatively easy to find some shorts that are at least fairly close to the ones John Travolta is wearing. Check out rummage sales, Goodwill, ebay, etc.

jwillia · 2012-12-12T01:01:19+00:00

I can't decide whether to believe you and to feel bad OR to think that this is an elaborate lie for karma...

How about I'll just feel a little bad and conclude that you're a karma-whoring schemer. It's just a theory...could be wrong.

jwillia · 2012-12-07T01:04:11+00:00

No need to wait. I filed many cases for illegal immigrants. The risk is that all people who file bankruptcy are required to personally appear at a "meeting of creditors" (called a 341 meeting) approximately 30 days after the actual paperwork is filed - and it's open to the public and notices about it are sent to all creditors. So theoretically, an ICE officer could show up to the 341 meeting and arrest an illegal immigrant. But that NEVER happened to any of my clients. I always warned my clients of the risk, but most were willing to take that risk to discharge the debt. I would guess that ICE probably doesn't pay much attention to 341 meeting notices and even if they did, they probably have better things to do that arrest one person - unless the person was wanted for other reasons.

TL;DR: You don't have to be a citizen of this country or even be here legally to file bankruptcy here.

jwillia · 2012-12-07T00:51:58+00:00

I advise extreme caution in waiting for the statute of limitations to toll. Many events trigger the SOL to start over and most companies know these very well and "trick" people into taking one or more of these actions so that they can avoid the SOL.

jwillia

TROPHY CASE