Bankruptcy Bill

and the following blog-loving bankruptcy lawyers:

• Bruce Weiner (Rosenberg Musso & Weiner) – NYBankruptcyNet (Brooklyn, NY)
• George Haines & David Krieger (Haines & Krieger) (Las Vegas, NV)
• Russell A. DeMott – Charleston Bankruptcy Blog (Charleston, SC)
• Nancy Rapoport (nancyrapoport.blogspot.com), the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law (UNLV)

are pleased and excited to announce the first-ever…..

Bankruptcy Song Contest!

1.  FIRST PRIZE: Announcement of the winning entry in a BAPCPA Man cartoon (which will include a cartoon drawing of the winner as one of the characters), plus a signed print of the cartoon.

2.  SECOND PRIZE: A BAPCPA Man t-shirt (or other item from our fabulous catalog of BAPCPA Man and Bankruptcy Bill merchandise on Zazzle)

PLUS…

3.  DONATION:  Bankruptcy Bill and each of the above-listed sponsors will collectively make a donation to the National Consumer Law Center in the amount of $25 for each song submitted in this contest.*

Submission Deadline: Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 5:30 pm EST

How the contest works:

1. E-mail your song(s) to bill [/at/] bankruptcybill [/dot/] us.  (Up to 5 submissions allowed per person or group.)  Submissions are just lyrics, by the way.  Do not send music.  (That’ll come later.)
2. Include: (1) Your name(s), (2) your law firm name (if applicable and desired), (3) city & state, (4) a short 1 or 2 sentence bio about yourself, and (5) any links or contact info.  (All of this info will appear with your song submission when it’s posted.)
3. After the deadline, all entries will be posted on the Bankruptcy Bill site and readers will be invited to vote.
4. The winning entry will be announced in a BAPCPA Man cartoon strip, and the winner will be a included as a cartoon character in the strip.
5. Stay tuned for a future contest/project where we invite people to submit recordings of the songs.

Comments:  Contest is open to anyone and everyone. Songs must be original, i.e., written by the person(s) submitting.  However, it doesn’t have to be new.  It’s fine if you already wrote it 3 years ago while sitting through a deathly boring CLE presentation.  Songs can be about anything and in any style, as long as they tie in to bankruptcy somehow. You’re more than welcome to indicate if the lyrics are intended for a particular tune or style of music, though it’s not necessary.

Intellectual Property: By sending us your submission, you’re of course giving us permission to post the song lyrics on the Bankruptcy Bill site.  But don’t worry.  Other than that, you keep all the intellectual property rights in the song.

*Contest Modifications: Since this is the first time we’ve tried something like this, we reserve the right to modify the rules or adapt appropriately using logic and common sense if there’s something we overlooked or that needs to be addressed.  Also, if we receive some unexpectedly large number of submissions, we’re not going to bankrupt the sponsors/donors or overly tax their coffers.  We’ll just cap it at some appropriate amount, probably work a reference into cartoon somewhere and just go with that groovy BAPCPA flow.

Why are we doing this? Because it’s fun and educational.  The goal is to draw on the latent creativity out there in the bankruptcy world, come up with some good (or at least half-decent) songs, build on the liturgy of bankruptcy pop culture and have a good time with all of this along the way.

Questions? E-mail bill [/at/] bankruptcybill [/dot/] us

Inspiration: Have a listen to Bankruptcy Lover, the original country song about corporate bankruptcy.  Click here for the lyrics.  (For the record, Bankruptcy Lover is not eligible for this contest.)

Additional Inspiration (11.15.09): Check out this post by bankruptcy lawyer Craig Robins on his Long Island Bankruptcy Blog which includes an already existing bankruptcy song by Michael Silverstein of Bloomberg Financial Press on his website www.wallstreetpoet.com.

Note:  If you are viewing this site using Internet Explorer, you may not be able to view items in the sidebar.  Clicking on any page or post will cause sidebar items to appear.

Special thanks to Gregory A. Holbus, Esq. of  Green Bay, WI for sharing both his bankruptcy expertise and sense of humor with us for this cartoon.  For more of Greg’s bankruptcy expertise, go to Wisconsin Bankruptcy Blog.

Meanwhile, here’s a blog post on the intersection of Halloween and bankruptcy by George Haines of Haines & Krieger (Las Vegas, NV):

• This Year, Halloween is Spookier Than Ever for Those Considering Bankruptcy

Still searching for a Halloween costume?  Go as a lawyer.  Or better yet, go as J.R. Ewing’s laywer.  Here’s an Attorney Directory along with info on Dallas Bankruptcy to give you more ideas.

Be Facebook friends with:

• BAPCPA Man – http://facebook.com/bapcpaman
• Mortgantua – http://facebook.com/mortgantua

Click here to get your BAPCPA Man and Mortgantua T-shirts, Mugs, Cards and More!

*To see more of Gideon Kendall’s work go to www.gideonkendall.com.  Or order yourself a copy of Dino Pets, the wonderfully illustrated children’s book written by Lynn Plourde and illustrated by BAPCPA Man’s favorite illustrator, Gideon Kendall.

Sure, Mortgantua doesn’t have the most engaging personality. And you wouldn’t want to invite him over to your house, per se. But he does make a great Facebook friend.  Click below to be his friend and we promise that he’ll leave you and your home alone.  Well, probably.

Mortgantua

facebook.com/mortgantua

Note:  If you are viewing this site using Internet Explorer, you may not be able to view items in the sidebar.  Clicking on any page or post will cause sidebar items to appear.

For more information on Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy, here are some blog posts from bankruptcy lawyers:

Haines & Krieger (Las Vegas, NV)

• Chapter 7 or Chapter 13?
• What Happens During A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?
• Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Tip – Watch Out for Scammers

Bruce Weiner (Rosenberg Musso & Weiner) – NYBankruptcyNet (Brooklyn, NY)

• Who Are Your New York Chapter 13 Trustees?
• The Means Test and the Unemployment Trap

*To see more of Gideon Kendall’s work go to www.gideonkendall.com and gideonkendall.squarespace.com/journal.  Or order yourself a copy of Dino Pets, the wonderfully illustrated children’s book written by Lynn Plourde and illustrated by BAPCPA Man’s favorite illustrator, Gideon Kendall.

We’re very excited to announce that BAPCPA Man now has his very own Facebook page!  That means now you can be Facebook friends with BAPCPA Man himself.

Here’s the link:  http://facebook.com/bapcpaman

(We told you his powers were great and many.)

Also, in case you missed them, you can see the Bankruptcy Bill cartoons about Facebook here (#1) and here (#2).  And everyone is always welcome to join the large and growing Bankruptcy Bill Facebook Group.

• Click here to tell the ABA Journal if you think the Bankruptcy Bill site (including the Bankruptcy Bill and BAPCPA Man cartoons, bankruptcy haiku and the “Bankruptcy Lover” song) should be included in the Top 100 law blogs:  http://www.abajournal.com/blawgs/blawg100_submit Deadline is October 2.
  

Note:  If you are viewing this site using Internet Explorer, you may not be able to view items in the sidebar.  Clicking on any page or post will cause sidebar items to appear.

*Click here for all previous BAPCPA Man cartoons, or here for all cartoons on the site relating to consumer bankruptcy.

BAPCPA

See below to get a sense of what lawyers in the blogosphere are saying on topics related to BAPCPA.  And here’s some general information about Los Angeles bankruptcy and Atlanta bankruptcy.

Steven Jakubowski, Esq.  (Coleman Law Firm) – Bankruptcy Litigation Blog (Chicago, IL)

• Denver’s Judge Sidney Brooks Joins the BAPCPA Bashing Bandwagon as the Litigants Submit Poetic Dirges Lamenting BAPCPA’s Incomprehensibility
• BAPCPA’s “Plain Meaning” Requires That a Consumer Debtor’s Feet Be Held to the Fire
• BAPCPA Outline: Part I, Section A – Judicial Commentary on BAPCPA: Venting
• The “Mother of All BAPCPA Consumer Bankruptcy Law Outlines,” Soon Available for Your Reading Pleasure
• More great BAPCPA posts from Steven Jakubowski

Craig D. Robins, Esq. – Long Island Bankruptcy Blog (Woodbury, NY)

• Portion of New Bankruptcy Laws Declared Unconstitutional. Court of Appeals Strikes Down Provision which Prevented Attorneys from Advising Clients
• With New Laws In Place Two Years, Panel Discusses Current Bankruptcy Practice

Reed Allmand, Esq. (Allmand & Lee) – Reed’s Bankruptcy Attorney Blog (Dallas and Ft. Worth, TX)

• U.S. Supreme Court to Determine Constitutionality of Some BAPCPA Rules
• Has 2005 Bankruptcy Law Increased The Number Of Foreclosures?
• Financial Management Course Required After Filing Bankruptcy

Bruce Weiner (Rosenberg Musso & Weiner) – NYBankruptcyNet (Brooklyn, NY)

• What you should know about the credit counseling requirement
• Annie Leibovitz avoids mandatory credit counseling in New York

George Haines, Esq. and David Krieger, Esq. (Haines & Krieger) (Las Vegas, NV)

• Can I Still File for Individual Bankruptcy in Las Vegas?
• The “Means Test” and the Median Income for Nevada

*To see more of Gideon Kendall’s work go to www.gideonkendall.com and gideonkendall.squarespace.com/journal.  Or order yourself a copy of Dino Pets, the wonderfully illustrated children’s book written by Lynn Plourde and illustrated by BAPCPA Man’s favorite illustrator, Gideon Kendall.

Just a quick FYI to let readers know that I’ve joined the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA).

I’m glad to be a member and look forward to learning the secret handshake if one exists.  If it does, it would be great if someone out there could email me the protocol.  Or perhaps send me a YouTube video so I can observe and practice?  (I promise not to have it illustrated in a cartoon.)

Secret handshake or not, I look forward to meeting and connecting with fellow NACBA members.

• Click here to tell the ABA Journal if you think the Bankruptcy Bill site (including the Bankruptcy Bill and BAPCPA Man cartoons, bankruptcy haiku and the “Bankruptcy Lover” song) should be included in the Top 100 law blogs:  http://www.abajournal.com/blawgs/blawg100_submit Deadline is October 2.
  

Note:  If you are viewing this site using Internet Explorer, you may not be able to view items in the sidebar.  Clicking on any page or post will cause sidebar items to appear.

*Click here to see BAPCPA Man #7 – BAPCPA Man vs. Mortgantua – Part 1, and here for all previous BAPCPA Man cartoons, or here for all cartoons on the site relating to consumer bankruptcy.

More information on MORTGAGES, FORECLOSURE and LOAN/MORTGAGE MODIFICATION:

Here’s a nice “infographic” on the steps in the Foreclosure Process in Nevada made available in PDF format by the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.  And if you’re just looking for bankruptcy information, here’s a helpful bankruptcy link.

Below are some useful posts from bankruptcy lawyer blogs on the topics of mortgages, foreclosure, loan modification and the Making Homes Affordable Program.  (Go to the BK Lawyer Blogs page on this site to see a full state-by-state list of bankruptcy lawyer blogs. And get in touch if you have a blog and don’t see it listed.)

George Haines, Esq. and David Krieger, Esq. (Haines & Krieger) (Las Vegas, NV)

• Do you qualify for a loan modification?
• Should I intentionally miss mortgage payments to qualify for loan modification?
• Loan Modification: The NOT Making Homes Affordable Program
• Nevada has highest foreclosure rate in the U.S. for 31st straight month
• What’s so great about foreclosure mediation?

Bruce Weiner (Rosenberg Musso & Weiner) – NYBankruptcyNet (Brooklyn, NY)

• Brooklyn Judge gives New York homeowners a fighting chance against foreclosure
• New York foreclosures likely to continue as ARMs begin to re-set over next 4 years
• Can I keep my home if I file for bankruptcy in New York?
• Subprime loan modification companies

Craig D. Robins, Esq. – Long Island Bankruptcy Blog (Woodbury, NY)

• Why I Won’t Negotiate Loan Modifications
• Many New York Foreclosure Suits Are Dismissed Because They Are Defective
• Is a Short Sale a Reasonable Alternative to Foreclosure on Long Island?

Jonathan Ginsberg, Esq. – theBKLaw (Atlanta, GA)

• Loan Modification Myths Busted
• If I Do Not Reaffirm My Mortgage in Chapter 7, Do I Automatically Lose Title to my House?

Reed Allmand, Esq. (Allmand & Lee) – Reed’s Bankruptcy Attorney Blog (Dallas and Ft. Worth, TX)

• Mortgage Modification in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
• Selling Your Home When You’re Broke
• Congress Passes Anti-Foreclosure Bill

*To see more of Gideon Kendall’s work go to www.gideonkendall.com and gideonkendall.squarespace.com/journal.  Or order yourself a copy of Dino Pets, the wonderfully illustrated children’s book written by Lynn Plourde and illustrated by BAPCPA Man’s favorite illustrator, Gideon Kendall.

Update 9.17.09

There’s a thoughtful and entertaining article in the September 2009 Issue of the ABI Journal titled “Restructuring the Misperception of Lawyers:  Another Task for Bankruptcy Professionals” written by Nancy Rapoport (Gordon Silver Professor of Law at UNLV’s William S. Boyd Law School and the author of the book Enron: Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications), and by bankruptcy lawyer and humorist Eric Van Horn.

However, it turns out that while we received permission from the authors to re-post the article here, we do not in fact have permission from the ABI to re-post the article.  So, after further consultation with our own in-house intellectual property counsel, IP Aileen, we have decided that the prudent course of action would be to remove the article from this site.

If you’d still like to read the article (and it is a good one), please fee free to e-mail Eric Van Horn at chapter8humor [at] gmail [dot] com and he’ll be happy to e-mail you a copy.  (It’s either that or shell out $300 for ABI membership to get your own copy of the ABI Journal.)

(Click here to tell the ABA Journal if you think the Bankruptcy Bill site (including the Bankruptcy BillBAPCPA Man cartoons, bankruptcy haiku and the “Bankruptcy Lover” song) should be included in the Top 100 law blogs:  http://www.abajournal.com/blawgs/blawg100_submit ) and

Two nice mentions of the Bankruptcy Bill site:

1. A very flattering post by LA-based bankruptcy lawyer and BAPCPA Man fan Christine Wilton, Esq. who writes the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Law Monitor.  Here’s a clip:

Considering the negative stigma around bankruptcy law and in light of our nation’s economic woes, these cartoons are a refreshing departure.  They’re easy to read and understand.  They take the law and break it down into layman’s terms; a gift I rather admire.

We’re also pleased that Christine was moved to compose her own bankruptcy haiku.  Always good to see bankruptcy lawyers releasing their inner poets.

2. An  appreciative mention of our recent fantasy football/structured finance commentary by NYU Professor of Political Science Josh Tucker on The Monkey Cage, a blog written by a group of political science professors.  (Full disclosure: Josh is not only my cousin but also manager of Cluck U which competes against the BAPCPA Men in the Dzhankoye fantasy football league.)