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Personal Injury Law Firm Burns & Jain Injury Blog

We have been practicing law in Boston and throughout Massachusetts since 1985. I have represented clients in District Courts, Superior Courts, the Appeals Court, Housing Court, Probate Courts, Federal Bankruptcy Court and the Federal District Court.

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Trial Lawyers Help Massachusetts Consumers

Notwithstanding all the rhetoric promulgated by the insurance companies and the corporate media, trial lawyers in Boston, throughout Massachusetts, and elsewhere, are actually consumer friendly. We are the ones representing the little guy against the insurance companies and other corporate interests. Take the automobile collision resulting in injury or death. Who can afford to hire an experienced corporate attorney, qualified to go to court if necessary and who charges $300 – $500 per hour, to try to get your lost wages and your medical bills paid? Who even knows those lawyers in the towers overlooking the Boston Harbor? No normal folks. However, if you look in the phone book, online, or even on a billboard in town, there will be a personal injury attorney advertising that he or she will represent you on a contingent basis; you pay NOTHING until and unless you get a settlement. Then, you pay a contingent fee, usually one third. There is no chance for overreaching, no need for negotiating a bill, and, all along, you have an experienced attorney, that you chose, on your side representing your interests against the insurance company.

Boston Bankruptcy Clients Question Debt Agencies

Many of our personal bankruptcy clients have tried to consolidate their debt by hiring debt management companies. This generally does not work for a variety of reasons, one major reason being that those companies are often owned by the credit card companies! Whose interests are they going to serve? Not yours! The usual strategy of those companies is to get you to sign an agreement. Then they collect money from you monthly. They send a letter to all your creditors. They try to negotiate with the creditors to obtain two things: first, they negotiate the fee that they will receive from the money you pay, and second, they ask for you to be able to make reduced payments. There is no guarantee that this will work for most creditors, and it rarely works for all creditors. Even if it does work for some creditors, it doesn’t do anything you could not have done yourself; at anytime, you can try to negotiate a reduced payment by speaking with the creditor yourself. By hiring another company to consolidate your debt, now you are also paying a percentage to them! The companies sometimes collect money from you monthly without even paying the creditors (we hear this one all the time from clients); then, when you “default” they will try to negotiate the debt. This works sometimes, but not other times. Your credit suffers, and you have no control over which strategy they are undertaking and how they are doing it.

Massachusetts Bankruptcy Exemptions

There are two ways to exempt assets you want to keep in Massachusetts Bankruptcies. You can use the Massachusetts General Laws, which we largely use when our clients have a home with equity. See our article on Massachusetts Homestead Bankruptcy Law. The federal exemptions, however, are better for most other categories. What are the federal exemptions and how do we use them?

Massachusetts 2009 Rules Changes for Investors; Model Portfolios Update

The “crash” in 2008 has brought fundamental changes to the ways our Massachusetts clients see long term investing in their retirement accounts. Notwithstanding the notion that most of our clients remain invested with a long term plan, there is new evidence that a fundamental shift away from equity (stocks) and toward bonds and cash has occurred. And no wonder; in 2008, the safest asset class of all, U.S. Treasury Bonds, outperformed every other category of assets. The good news is that US investors are saving more. From the post World War II period to the 1980’s, the US savings rate fluctuated between 8%-10%. Then the savings rate fell dramatically to around 1% in 2005. Recent evidence shows that following the 2008 crash, the savings rate is up to over 5% in the second quarter of 2009. But what is actually happening now?

Massachusetts Student Loan Defaults Up – Not Dischargeable in Bankruptcy

According to statistics out this week from the US Department of Education, the rate of student loan defaults is trending up. This is likely a result of the “economic downturn” in Massachusetts, according to the Secretary of Education. This is a website to vent about the problems with student loans in Massachusetts. Many of our Boston clients are students or former students. They often have student loans in addition to outstanding credit card debt, car loans, and monthly bills to pay. Unfortunately, student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. This includes both public and “private” student loans.

Massachusetts Homestead Bankruptcy Law – a simple approach for clients

Many of our clients in Massachusetts have lost their homes. Many others have no equity in their homes. Some of our clients, however, have significant equity in their homes. Nevertheless, there debt is daunting and they consider filing for personal bankruptcy. One of the bankruptcy exemptions in the law is the family home. There are two laws we follow to exempt clients homes from creditors in bankruptcy. First, there is the federal bankruptcy law: 11 United States Code, Section 522(d)(1). That law currently exempts $20,200 in equity in the home. The Massachusetts Trustees will look for proof of the value of your home and the outstanding mortgage(s). If the equity is less than $22,000, we can use the federal exemptions: you can keep your home and we can use the more generous federal exemptions so you can usually keep your other assets.

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Publishes Settlement

The following article regarding our office was published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly on June 1, 2009. Mother of Four Killed, Truck Driver Pleads Guilty October 13, 2006, defendant driver was driving a dump truck weighing 68,000 pounds. The truck was traveling east exiting the rotary, in Concord, Massachusetts. After the Route 2 light turned red and the traffic slowed, he swerved from the right lane to the middle lane at a high rate of speed and ran through the red light. Cars traveling north and south traveled through the green light. The plaintiff’s decedent, a 52 year old woman who had lived in Concord most of her life, was the second vehicle traveling north through the green light when the dump truck struck her driver’s door.

Massachusetts Credit Score Notes

Our clients often ask us about their credit scores before and after bankruptcy. We are compiling a survey of clients following bankruptcy to see what practical tips they can provide. In general it works like ABC: Annualcreditreport.com: Go to that website which will provide you with information to get free credit reports from the three main credit reporting companies: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You can also get your FICO score, named for the Fair Isaac Company, by going to MyFico.com; this only helps if you undertake this exercise regularly to make comparisons.

Divorce Results in Bankruptcy for Many in Massachusetts

While child support and most alimony orders are not dischargeable in bankruptcy, many times it results in our clients not being able to pay their other obligations. Thus, they come to us for a personal bankruptcy. This is especially true when someone loses a job and can’t afford a lawyer to go back to court to modify an existing order. Clients who fail to pay support sometimes end up in jail. More often, however, they end up in Bankruptcy Court. The State House will finally hear from those struggling to balance their obligations when the Joint Committee of the Judiciary will take testimony on September 17, 2009. The Massachusetts Alimony Reform association will have their members present to testify about their experiences with this system. The Joint Committee will be reviewing House Bill Number 1785. This proposed law would change alimony laws in Massachusetts.

Long Term Investment Strategies for Retirement or other Monies

Many of our clients have retirement accounts: 401k’s, 403b’s, IRA’s, Roth IRA’s, or some other type of long term investment account. Under the Bankruptcy Code, we can usually construct the exemptions so that these assets are excluded from the Creditors. Too many of our clients do not get proper guidance for investing these long term monies. Furthermore, we have many clients, especially children, who need a trustee for long term monies. I have managed children’s trusts and special needs trusts for decades for many clients. This article is intended as a primer for folks who need to begin to understand, or who need a refresher on understanding, how to handle long term money. What do we mean by long term money? I mean money that is really not needed for years; more than 10 years. Money that is put away for retirement, for example, that will not be touched for painting the house, sending junior to college next year, or buying a car.