Nashville Flood – Questions and Advice – Nashville Attorney John Jay Clark

Today I was interviewed on several nashville radio stations, specifically, 92Q, 97.1 and 99.7 regarding numerous legal issues related to the Nashville Flood. I was impressed by the number of questions that I recieved both on air and by the hosts. Based upon this, I wanted to make a few resources available to people.

What should you do if your home or property was affected by the storm and/or flood?

1. First locate your insurance policy, if you cannot find it, call your insurance company and get a copy as quickly as possible.

2. File a claim even if you dont think it will be covered. Many of the federal grant and relief programs require that you file a claim with your insurance company.

3. File an application for disaster relief with FEMA. Go to www.fema.gov and/or www.disasterassistance.gov. Here you can complete the applications that are necessary to get the process started.

Of course, if you have questions about the numerous forms and documents that need to be completed contact a trusted legal professional to help you through the process. To help find a legal professional to assist you with the process you can go to www.gordonlawgroup.com or to the Nashville Legal Line.

Positive Review for Christina Juris Bennett

When the process finally got started I could not have asked for nor could I have found a more confident attorney as the one assigned to my case. Christina was so reassuring to me and handled my case with the uttmost profesionalism and thoughtfulness. I would readily recomend the law offices of the Gordon Law Group. Thanks for a job very well done.‎

Review of Christina Juris Bennett

Bankruptcy is complicated….‎‎  By Buddy – May 6, 2010 ….unless you have a great lawyer! I have been more than thrilled with the service and attention to detail by Christina Bennett at Gordon Law Group. I am also retaining John Clark on family matters and I hope it goes as smooth as my bankruptcy has so far. I’m very pleased.‎

Reaffirming Your Debt

Reaffirming Your Debt

 

When a client makes the decision to file for bankruptcy, one of the decisions that must be made is whether to reaffirm his debt.  It is a common misunderstanding that debtors can keep certain debts “out of the bankruptcy.”  This is not true.  Every asset and every debt needs to be listed in a debtor’s petition, but there are decisions about whether the debtor wants to “keep” the asset or debt.  For example, if a debtor has filed for bankruptcy, and he wants to keep his house but not his car, then he would need to reaffirm the house mortgages but surrender the car note.  These decisions are marked on the petition and linked both to the asset in question and the debt.  Once a debtor decides to reaffirm a debt, then the debtor and corresponding creditor must submit a reaffirmation agreement to the court.  This generally involves listing the income and expenses, as listed on the bankruptcy petition, and listing the current income and expenses, as the debtor finds them to be while in the bankruptcy.  It is not uncommon for a debtor’s circumstances to change with respect to income and expenses once the bankruptcy has been filed.  The key is that the debtor’s income is greater than the expenses by at least the amount of the monthly payment for the reaffirmed debt. 

 

The benefit of a reaffirmation agreement is that it rewards a debtor for staying current on certain payments and prevents the debtor from being thrown into chaos by losing housing and transportation (the two debts generally reaffirmed).  Remember that the goal of bankruptcy is to help give citizens a fresh start, and so the reaffirmation agreements help the debtors have a foothold for moving forward.  One wrinkle that has been developing over the past few months is that some lending institutions are no longer offering to enter into a reaffirmation agreement.  This puts the debtor in a precarious position.  Generally, the lending institution wants to modify the loan agreement, but if the lending institution is not interested in either of those, then the debtor will not be able to reaffirm that debt.

 

Returning to the house and car example, because the debtor chose to surrender the car, then the creditor will be notified that the debtor is surrendering the car.  The creditor will generally work out a “drop point” for an asset like a car, and the debtor can leave the asset there.  Obviously, any debt left from the sale of the surrender of the asset will be discharged in the bankruptcy.