Behm Law Group, Bankruptcy Attorneys

As tax season approaches, everyone filing has to take time to look at their finances in more detail than usual. For many individuals and businesses, a financial overview may show just how much they are struggling with the weight of debt. For those with too much debt than they know what to do with, tax season may be the perfect time to consider a long-term solution. At Behm Law Group, Ltd., we’ve found that there are many cases where tax season was the most effective time for those considering filing for bankruptcy in Redwood Falls, MN to take the next step forward.

Whether you have credit card debt, mortgages, or most other forms of debt, filing for bankruptcy can act as a recovery system that helps you resolve those debts under government protection. For most with a steady income that overbalances their debt-to-income ratio, the process of Chapter 13 bankruptcy is the most effective as it restructures your debts into a three- to five-year repayment plan suited to your own financial situation.

Because of the demand that a Chapter 13 plan puts on all your disposable income, you will most likely have to forfeit some of your yearly tax refunds you receive to your trustee for the repayment of your unsecured debts. While your trustee may allot some of that refund for you to spend or save, you will not be able to retain all of it.  To get the most use out of your tax refund if you plan to file for bankruptcy, you should plan to use it before you file your petition.

If you use your tax refund prior to filing for bankruptcy, you will have to spend it all or you may have to surrender some of your tax refund to the trustee. To get full use of your refund without being at fault when the time comes to file, you should expect to only use the refund for:

• food and prescription medicine
• mortgage or rent
• home maintenance and repairs
• utilities
• education costs
• clothing
• insurance
• medical or dental costs
• car payments, repairs, and maintenance
• homeowners association fees

The best use of your tax refund if you plan on filing for bankruptcy is for it to go to these expenses. When you use your refund for these purposes, it’s also critical to keep accurate and legitimate records of all your spending. With the help of a Behm attorney, you can record and collect necessary information and documents that will fully demonstrate your use of your tax refund for these expenses rather than other debt payments. Your trustee will most likely require a tax return for the year prior to and the year you file for bankruptcy on top of the additional bankruptcy petition documents.

 Find Professional Help When Filing for Bankruptcy

To learn more about how to use your tax refund before filing for bankruptcy in Redwood Falls, MN, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today.

With the decline that our economy has seen over the past six months, it’s not surprising that many individuals and businesses have had to take on more debt or have had difficulties meeting their debt payments. If you have been struggling to make monthly ends meet, and have been for some time, it may be beneficial for you to consider the debt relief filing for bankruptcy can provide. For those with stable incomes who want to retain their properties, Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a valuable option. Behm Law Group, Ltd., provides legal advice and assistance for individual consumers and business owners who want to take full advantage of filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in St. Peter, MN.

Because Chapter 13 bankruptcy works as a reorganization process, it restructures your debts into a repayment plan with scheduled monthly payments lasting three to five years. This repayment plan is designed to fit your budget and can effectively resolve the majority of your debts without you having to lose any of your property.

Although Chapter 13 bankruptcy is supposed to fit your financial circumstances while allowing you to operate on a daily basis, it can make your spending limitations extremely tight. Sometimes it may be necessary to incur even more debt during the three to five years you spend within a Chapter 13 plan. Fortunately, it’s possible you can roll these new debts into your current repayment plan, allowing for a more manageable structure in the payment of all your debts together.

Post-Petition Debt Types

The debts you are allowed to incur while in a Chapter 13 plan that won’t force your case to be dismissed are tax debts and consumer debts.

• Tax debts may be treated as priority debts (and must be repaid in full) if your creditors petition for priority claim status.
• Consumer debts are only allowed as post-petition spending if you receive court approval. The court often approves post-petition debts if they are incurred on behalf of your household well-being (not for your business).

If you fail to get court approval to incur a post-petition debt, you will be required to pay it outside of your Chapter 13 repayment plan. If you do get court approval, however, you can later request to have the debt rolled into your repayment plan as a priority, secured, or unsecured debt depending on the type of agreement between you and the creditor. To have the debt included in your plan, your creditor and trustee must each accept your request, and your creditor must submit a proof of claim and a statement of agreement.

If you are considering filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in St. Peter, MN, and want to learn more about post-petition debts or how a repayment plan is structured, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd., at (507) 387-7200 today.

If you own a car or house, you are like most other U.S. citizens in the fact that you possess an asset. Additionally, your property may be like most others if it’s tied to a loan agreement. Because of the high cost of housing and vehicles as well as many other necessary or luxury properties, financing agreements are quite common, and there are a range of ways you can enter into these agreements. While loans are very useful for you to acquire what you need in your daily life, they can also pose problems if you are unable to repay your debts. Behm Law Group, Ltd., can help you recover from burdensome debts and protect your property from liquidation by filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Worthington, MN.

Filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy may seem drastic, but in the long term, it can actually be one of the most effective ways to recover from onerous debts that you could struggle with for much longer if you didn’t file for bankruptcy. Though there are compromises you have to face in the process of filing for bankruptcy, the overall advantages can greatly outweigh the disadvantages.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a legal process through which your non-exempt assets (properties) are liquidated (sold). The money from the liquidation/sale process is then distributed by the chapter 7 trustee administering your case to repay some dividend to your creditors (lenders), and in return, your debts are discharged (dissolved). However, because the U.S. Bankruptcy Court does not want to leave people who file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy destitute and unable to reorganize and contribute to the national economy, it allows filers to claim exemptions on their properties.

These exemptions protect certain values or equitable interests as to your properties, from your home to your car to some luxury items. Because of the allowances your claims to exemptions provide, most Chapter 7 individual consumer cases are considered “no-asset” cases because the bankruptcy exemptions are typically sufficient to protect any values or equitable interests that you have in those assets.

No-Asset Cases

While there are technically assets involved in virtually every Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, your trustee and the court take the exemptions you claim into consideration when determining a no-asset case. Simply put, if your claimed exemptions don’t allow the liquidation of major asset values, your trustee will not pay your creditors anything.

This means your trustee won’t get paid any additional amounts from your case beyond his or her typical per case fee of $60.00. It’s similar to the situation of salespeople who are paid commission on top of base wages when they make a sale. If they don’t make a sale, they aren’t paid any extra commission wages.

Your trustee may also consider your case to be no-asset if the majority of your properties are exempt from the bankruptcy process. From the perspective of bankruptcy filers, a no-asset case usually bodes well because they will be able to protect their property from liquidation.

If you are considering filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Worthington, MN, and want to learn more about exemptions, assets, and liquidation, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd., today at (507) 387-7200.

If you are struggling with overwhelming debt as an individual or business owner, filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy may be the best way to resolve those debts in a government-approved legal process. Chapter 7 is the most frequent type of bankruptcy for both individuals and businesses with extreme debts and low incomes. If you choose to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you can free yourself from a wide range of financial obligations, including anything from credit card debt to past-due medical bills. Behm Law Group, Ltd., offers legal advice and guidance to help you work through the process of filing and to help you understand the workings of bankruptcy code in Owatonna, MN.

Basic information to know about Chapter 7

• To qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you must pass the Means Test (your income must be lower than the state median for a household of your size or be unbalanced by your debt ratio)
• Chapter 7 bankruptcy code outlines the process of liquidation of assets (selling properties to gain a value that is used to repay your creditors) in exchange for debt discharge (dissolving the debts tied to the properties sold).
• Chapter 7 bankruptcy code also provides some protection for your properties in the form of exemptions (exemptions allot certain amounts you can claim on your home, car, and other properties that protect them from liquidation)

Exemption amounts are determined by federal and state bankruptcy laws, and in Minnesota, you can request state or federal bankruptcy exemptions. If you file for federal bankruptcy exemptions, you can claim Title 11 U.S. government allotted amounts (e.g., you can claim $23,675 on your home as of 2018). If you file for state exemptions, you can claim Minnesota Statute allotted amounts (e.g., $390,000 for your home as of 2018).

In some cases, it will be more beneficial for filers to choose state exemptions because they will typically have more wiggle room and because they can claim additional federal non-bankruptcy exemptions.

Federal non-bankruptcy exemptions cover a wide range of miscellaneous assets you may want to protect in a Chapter 7 liquidation process. These include:

• retirement benefits for military, civil, and foreign service, and pensions for veterans, social security, railroad workers, CIA employees, and Medal of Honor recipients
• death and disability benefits for government employees, longshoremen, and harbor workers as well as war, hazard, death, or risk compensation
• survivor’s benefits for military, court, and lighthouse workers
• miscellaneous benefits ranging from military deposits to savings accounts to certain Native American tribe homesteads

When it comes to filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, it can be difficult to navigate through the exemption claiming process and the bankruptcy code as a whole. Contact Behm Law Group, Ltd., at (507) 387-7200 today to learn more about the filing process and bankruptcy code in Owatonna, MN.

When you take on a loan agreement of any kind, you’re responsible for repaying that debt for as long as you’re able to meet monthly debt payments without detriment to your wellbeing or the wellbeing of the members of your household. In the event you’re unable to keep making debt payments, you have several options for negotiating around this difficulty, one of which is to enter into the legal process of bankruptcy. If you find you’re having difficulties meeting debt payments from month-to-month, Behm Law Group, Ltd. offers the assistance and counsel of a knowledgeable, experienced bankruptcy lawyer in Mankato, MN.

If you choose to file for bankruptcy, you’re entering into a legal proceeding that’s designed to provide a fair outcome for all parties involved. No matter what type of bankruptcy you file for, the parties involved include you as the debtor, your creditors, and the bankruptcy trustee who is assigned by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to oversee and administer your bankruptcy case and who is, essentially, a fiduciary or advocate for your creditors.

Your bankruptcy trustee may oversee the administration of your case, but each party still has a role in determining the outcome. Part of this outcome relies on whether there are adversary proceedings involved in your case.

What are adversary proceedings?

In a nutshell, an adversary proceeding is a complaint from one of the parties involved in your case that is issued as an official file to the court. It is a separate and distinct legal proceeding from the bankruptcy filing itself.  This filing can come from you, one of your creditors, or your bankruptcy trustee, and it can be a result of a number of aspects of your case.

When do they happen?

Adversary proceedings can be filed for a wide range of complaints about your bankruptcy case. Common complaints filed as adversary proceedings include:

1. A creditor claims your debt cannot be discharged because you incurred the debt through fraudulent activity.
2. You have multiple mortgages on your home and want to strip the junior liens to handle them as unsecured claims in your case.
3. Your bankruptcy trustee discovers you made fraudulent transfers of accounts or properties within two years of filing.
4. Your bankruptcy trustee discovers you made preferential transfers of accounts or properties within 90 days of filing.
5. You have a jointly owned property and your trustee wants to force the sale of that asset in a liquidation case, possibly forcing both you and the co-owner to forfeit the possession of the property.
6. Your creditor or trustee objects to the discharge of any particular debt or to your entire discharge/debt relief in your case on the grounds of your possible fraudulent activities as a debtor.

With the guidance of a knowledgeable bankruptcy lawyer, you can avoid many kinds of adversary proceedings that could render your case illegitimate or, when warranted, file your own adversary proceedings to affect positive change in your case.

 Find A Bankruptcy Lawyer Today

If you’re considering filing for individual or business bankruptcy, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 to get started with an experienced bankruptcy lawyer in Mankato, MN today.

If you own a small business anywhere in the U.S., your livelihood depends on countless factors ranging from market competitors to economic recessions. Maintaining a business with a steady flow of income and output of products or services is difficult, even with a strong foundation. No matter how old or young your business is, it’s possible to face financial struggles. If you’re having a hard time making debt payments from month-to-month, Behm Law Group, Ltd. can help you decide whether filing for business bankruptcy in Luverne, MN, is the right choice for your business.

Filing for business bankruptcy is a highly effective way to recover from severe debt. When you file for a business bankruptcy, you can choose Chapter 7 and liquidate your assets (shutting down your business in the process), or you can file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy and propose a restructuring of your debts into a manageable repayment plan (allowing your business to continue operating as you repay debts under the supervision of a bankruptcy trustee).

Whichever type of bankruptcy you file for, your trustee will rigorously examine your case for information about your past finances, business format, debts, income, living expenses, and contract agreements with your creditors. This examination determines how your assets will be liquidated and your debts discharged or restructured. Once your trustee has all the necessary information submitted with your petition and you have met all pre-bankruptcy requirements (credit counseling, bankruptcy fees, Means Test, and 341 hearing), the liquidation process will being in a chapter 7 case or you will propose a repayment plan in a chapter 13 case.

Behm attorneys can work with you to draft a repayment plan taking into account all your debts (priority, secured, and unsecured) and determine which debts you are liable to repay in full or have discharged in part from 0%-100%. One concern many business owners have in bankruptcy is whether they’ll be personally liable for the debts their business cannot repay. In the majority of cases, you will be personally responsible to pay debts your business can’t because it’s likely you made a personal guarantee agreement with your creditor when the loan was given.

Personal Guarantee: When you make a business loan agreement, the creditor needs to know they are protected in the event you cannot repay that debt. To resolve this issue, most creditors will not extend loans to businesses without requiring the owner to sign a personal guarantee agreement stating they are responsible as an individual to repay that debt in the event their business can’t meet payments.

Personally Liable: In short, you will be personally liable for your business debt when you file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy if:

1. You have a sole proprietorship
2. You have a partnership
3. You made a personal guarantee on a debt

To learn more about filing for business bankruptcy in Luverne, MN, or to find out about personal guarantees and debt liability, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 today.

Bankruptcy in the U.S. is a nuanced system for individuals and businesses alike. Like other legal processes, it’s best to proceed with a trained professional who can protect and counsel you from start to finish. Because filing for bankruptcy in Redwood Falls, MN, is rarely a straightforward process, taking advantage of the knowledge and professional standing of a bankruptcy attorney is key to a successful case. Behm Law Group, Ltd. bankruptcy attorneys are dedicated to providing expert counsel to our community households and local businesses.

If you’re struggling with overwhelming debt, filing for bankruptcy may be a viable way to recover for long-term financial stability. Filing for bankruptcy without a bankruptcy attorney, however, is not something we recommend. Not only is bankruptcy a difficult process to tackle without professional training and a working knowledge of the U.S. legal system overall, but without the protection of a lawyer, you’ll be vulnerable to aggressive creditor judgments and other potential claims against your case. Additionally, you may set yourself up for accusations of bankruptcy fraud, intentional or not, without the counsel of a bankruptcy attorney.

Even if you’re not criminally charged with bankruptcy fraud, the consequences of a case dismissed based on fraudulent behavior can be hard to come back from if you ever find yourself in the position to file again. This is because of the strict rules set in place through the federal bankruptcy fraud statute of limitations. A bankruptcy attorney can help you navigate this.

The statute of limitations is based on evidence of bankruptcy fraud and dictates when an individual or business can file a petition after a case dismissal or charge against them for fraudulent behavior. A limitation period is set into place for each filer’s own situation and the fraud committed, and that period determines a time period during which the government may press criminal charges.

This time period is dictated depending on certain circumstances unique to each case. Primarily, the limitation period depends on the type of crime committed in a case:

1. If a filer commits a crime as a single event, like falsifying a document or lying under oath, the limitation period begins on the date of the crime.
2. If a filer commits a crime in multiple events, such as a crime that takes several actions to complete, the limitation period begins when the last action is performed.
3. If a filer commits a continuing crime, like hiding an asset or account, the limitation period starts with the beginning of the crime and continues until the property is revealed.

In bankruptcy cases, crimes generally include asset hiding – which provides a limitation period starting when the court grants a discharge, dismisses the case, or denies the discharge – or all other types of bankruptcy crimes – which provide a limitation period of five years.

 Protect Your Case With a Bankruptcy Attorney

If you’re considering filing for bankruptcy in Redwood Falls, MN, protect yourself from accidental fraud and get the help you need to file a strong, successful case. Get started with a bankruptcy attorney from Behm Law Group, Ltd. today and contact us at (507) 387-7200.

Bankruptcy is a form of debt relief available to U.S. individuals and businesses alike, and while there are several versions of reorganization or liquidation bankruptcy, the overall goal of giving debtors a viable opportunity for financial recovery remains the same. If your limited liability company (LLC) or corporation chooses to file for bankruptcy, you can take advantage of the benefits a reorganization case provides through Chapters 11, 12, and 13, or you can liquidate your assets and receive debt relief through Chapter 7. With the advice and guidance of Behm Law Group, Ltd., you can choose the right type of bankruptcy in Luverne, MN, for your business and file a successful case for long-term financial stability.

While reorganization bankruptcy is an effective option for high-income businesses dealing with equally high debts, the best choice for businesses struggling to stay above water may be a Chapter 7 liquidation case. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the most common format for individual bankruptcies, but because of the differences in how a case is handled for corporations and LLCs, this process can also be a viable option for companies going out of business.

Debt Discharge

For individual consumers, Chapter 7 bankruptcy works to liquidate non-exempt assets (properties including anything from homes and vehicles to jewelry and appliances the values of which are in excess of your applicable bankruptcy exemptions) and discharge many of their debts in return (including credit card debts, medical bills, mortgages, car loans, and more). In a Chapter 7 business case, the debts of the business are also discharged.  However, in a business Chapter 7, the business does not have the benefit of asserting bankruptcy exemptions to protect at least some assets.  Instead, the bankruptcy trustee will generally liquidate all business assets and use those funds to repay at least some dividend to creditors. When this process is accomplished, the business usually closes. Regardless of whether the business closes or stays in operation, its debts are discharged just as in an individual Chapter 7 and its creditors are unable to legally collect the discharged debts from the business.

Time and Place

An LLC or corporation might choose to file for Chapter 7 if they’re ready to close down and cut their losses. For example, if a technology company’s product becomes obsolete and they can’t alter their production to fit the changing market, the owners of that company can benefit from filing for Chapter 7. A company may also choose to file for Chapter 7 to stop creditor harassment and alleviate concerns of fraud that may lead to lawsuits.

On the other hand, it may not be time to file for liquidation bankruptcy if the majority of your business debts will become personal liabilities after filing—debts you’ll be responsible for even after your business is closed. The types of business debts that are considered personal liability after bankruptcy include trust fund taxes, alter ego claims, and fraud claims and debts of the business for which you may have signed personal guarantees.  Sometimes, one needs to file a business Chapter 7 bankruptcy and, thereafter, file an individual Chapter 7 bankruptcy to discharge debts of the business that one personally guaranteed.

f your corporation or LLC is failing to meet debt payments and gain steady revenue, Chapter 7 bankruptcy might be the right step to take. Contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 to start your case today and get the most out of filing for bankruptcy in Luverne, MN.

Over the past 50 years, bankruptcy law has seen changes that have affected how individual consumer and business cases are handled today. The most recent overhaul in bankruptcy law came in 2005 when the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) was enacted to prevent the possibility of filers taking advantage of the system and to protect creditors involved. The BAPCPA played a significant role in shaping what we know as the current bankruptcy process.

While large changes like the 2005 bankruptcy act don’t happen frequently, there are little changes that come every few years that affect the way the court may approach a case and the way individuals and businesses can file. If you’re considering filing for bankruptcy in Waseca, MN, Behm Law Group, Ltd. offers the guidance and legal support you need to navigate the nuanced court system.

Some of the most recent changes to bankruptcy law were put into effect on the first of December in 2017. These alterations are minor in the overall framework of bankruptcy law, but they may still affect how your case is handled from start to finish.

1. Chapter 13 Repayment: One change to bankruptcy law was made to the structure of how you file a Chapter 13 repayment plan. This change dictates that filers must use federal forms for a repayment plan, or local forms that comply with the amended federal rules (Rule 3015). This provides greater efficiency for creditors to review the proposed plan and streamlines how the court organizes your case information.
2. Time Restrictions: Deadlines for plan objections and case confirmation hearings have changed in regard to Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The court now requires a notice within 21 days to object to a Chapter 13 plan confirmation (for creditors). An objection cannot be filed later than seven days before the confirmation hearing unless the court allows for an extension.
3. Claim Amounts: While the amounts of secured and priority loan claims may not have altered overall, the way the court determines the amounts of those loans has. The court can now decide the claim amount even after it has been filed with motions and/or objections. That determination is binding for a secured claim holder even with a contrasting proof of claim. This alteration forces creditors to examine the proposed Chapter 13 plan of the debtor before agreeing.
4. Proof of Claim: Under the 2017 amendments, your creditors must prove their claim of debt to be repaid in any type of bankruptcy. This includes filing the necessary documents for proof of claim within 70 days of your bankruptcy filing date. These claims must also include attachments that prove loan ownership including mortgage deeds, car titles, and other paperwork proving your responsibility to pay a secured loan.

These minor details may not be the most exciting part of a bankruptcy process, but they are important to understand in order to file your case without error. Contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at (507) 387-7200 to learn more about filing for bankruptcy in Waseca, MN.

When you file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, your debts will be restructured into a three to five-year repayment plan that fits your income and financial situation. For those with incomes too high to pass the Means Test or who wish to hold on to most of their nonexempt properties, Chapter 13 is a highly effective way to resolve debts and get a fresh financial start. Organizing your documents, files, forms, and information into a structured repayment plan proposal that the court will accept is a difficult task to manage without the help of a trained bankruptcy professional. Behm Law Group, Ltd. offers the legal support and assistance you need to file a strong case for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Luverne, MN.

After you propose a Chapter 13 repayment plan that’s accepted by the court, the bankruptcy trustee administering your case will collect monthly payments that may vary based on the disposable income information you provide. The amount you’ll be required to repay in your plan depends on your creditors and your disposable income. For example, you must fully repay your priority unsecured creditors, such as certain tax debts, child support debts, alimony and court fines, while your unsecured creditors only need to be paid much less as determined by several factors. Changes may be made to your plan depending on other claims, income, and financial gains or losses. To prevent your case from being dismissed within your three to five-year repayment period, continued communication with your attorney and the bankruptcy trustee is key.

You may also find yourself facing unforeseen circumstances that make it impossible for you to complete your Chapter 13 repayment plan.

If you find yourself in these circumstances, you may be eligible for the Hardship Discharge. This discharge works similarly to a discharge granted in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.  You will no longer have to make a plan payment.  Like in a Chapter 7 case, certain debts, including unsecured debts like medical bills, credit card debts, and more, are discharged. However, priority debts like tax debts, child support debts and alimony are not subject to the Hardship Discharge.

Eligibility: To be eligible for the Hardship Discharge, you have to prove your conditions render you unable to continue with your repayment plan. If you’ve failed to meet repayment requirements for more than a month due to burdens that are out of your control (“for which you should not justly be held accountable”), you have the chance to make your case for a hardship discharge. You improve your chances of the court granting you a Hardship Discharge if you can prove your circumstances are permanent (physical disability, for example) and if you’ve already repaid to your unsecured creditors what they would have received if you’d filed for Chapter 7.

For more information about the Hardship Discharge and filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Luverne, MN, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. at