Governor of New Jersey stops all foreclosures and evictions The governor stopped all the pending foreclosures and evictions in New Jersey effective today.

Below is a link to the New Jersey Unemployment site, if you are laid off, reduced hours or unable to work for family/health reasons, click on it to learn about getting benefits. You paid into the fund, and you are entitled to get paid out of it. The button below will take you to the state website that will explain what you can do and how to do it. Information about getting unemployment checks when I am laid, hours reduced or can't go to work.

Even more on bankruptcy. What is a bankruptcy estate? The "bankruptcy estate" is a term that comes up a lot in bankruptcy, because it is the most essential part of any bankruptcy case. It is all the property rights, "the stuff" that the court can control during the bankruptcy case. When the petitions field (the papers that start the bankruptcy case) the "estate" is created. like when someone dies, what they leave behind is the estate, but here no one is dead. The estate is everything the debtor has a right to, whether he has control o it when he files or can get control over it later, so it is pretty broad as to what it contains. There are lots of disputes over what is and what is not part of the estate- is a lawsuit that is not filed, or even unknown at the time of filing, part of the estate? If your uncle died and left you money but you haven't received it yet, is that part of the estate? That's stuff bankruptcy judges decide. Big p

A bit of bankruptcy education. What is bankruptcy? A  voluntary (meaning someone, be it person or company chooses to file a bankruptcy petition, there is such a thing as an involuntary petition, but it's unusual) bankruptcy case is a legal proceeding, brought by a debtor, that seeks relief specifically provided for by a federal statute (a law written by Congress), the Bankruptcy Code.  The bankruptcy is not an idea that congress just came up with, it's actually specifically identified in the U.S. Constitution, see Article I Section 8 Clause 4 .  A  bankruptcy case starts by filing, that is, papers and sending them in, to the correct U.S. District Court, which has jurisdiction (the authority, under the constitution to decide) over all bankruptcy cases, but because it's a very specialized area of the law, most District Courts have established specialized bankruptcy courts, like the bankruptcy court here in the district of New Jersey. So the actual bankru

TAXES AND BANKRUPTCY  Can I get out of paying back taxes? Being tax season, or close enough, I though I would repost an article I wrote for my work website, www.wwwlawofficeofedwardhanratty.com. The take away is, you dont necessarily have to pay all your past due taxes, if you file bankruptcy, but you do have to file all of your returns.  The bankruptcy code is an effective tool for the management of any debt, even tax debts.  Under the bankruptcy code , a debt can be discharged (declared legally not due), or modified, depending on its status under the bankruptcy code, which is totally independent of its status under any other body of law.  Bankruptcy can be an effective tool to avoid offsets from various taxing authorities, elimination of tax debt, or compelling taxing authorities to accept payments plans outside of what would normally be permitted by the taxing authority.  The rules cited for the IRS are also the rules followed under the code for any other taxing authori