Category Archives: Legal

The Major Difficulties When Claiming Bankruptcy

The decision to claim bankruptcy should not be rushed into. It might help you solve your financial problems quickly and efficiently, but it certainly places a strain on your future finances. Many people don’t realize that it stays on your credit record for up to seven years and makes simple things, like getting a credit card, difficult. Most average people don’t know how to claim bankruptcy and will utilize the services of a lawyer. However, even with professional help it is still common for problems to occur with the process. The following are the difficulties that many people face when filing for bankruptcy.

Documentation

Filing for bankruptcy requires that you have lots of supporting documentation. The lawyer will tell you how to go bankrupt and what you need for your application, but you will be responsible for supplying all the required paperwork. You should also make at least 3 copies for the different claims paperwork that you will be required to submit. Don’t be lazy in this area, it is not unheard of for a claim to be denied because of one missing piece of documentation.

Paperwork

Paperwork must be filled out correctly otherwise application is rejected and you are subject to an exclusion period of up to 180 days from filing again. Make sure all your information is correct (double check it) and that you provide the court with all the required information. Withholding any detail is not a good idea because, if found out, your application will be denied.

Creditors

Creditors can file a petition against the claim and although this isn’t a major cause of rejections you should be aware that it can happen. This is why it is always a good idea to open a dialogue with your creditors and try to negotiate with them. Even if it fails at least you will have a record that you tried to work things out with them.

There are ways to make sure that these problems don’t affect your claim, such as hiring a specialist bankruptcy attorney, but nothing beats spending a little extra time double checking everything. By doing this you will stand a much better chance of having your claim approved.

Once the creditors start hounding you, it becomes a trapped situation with no way out and so you need to hire someone as powerful as a bankruptcy lawyer from San Diego to help you out from debts because California, being the largest state, has an abundance of talent so that they may file petitions and keep the case going for sometime.

What is Corporate Bankruptcy?

In very simple terms, corporate bankruptcy happens when a company loses cash or is in some kind of liability. Under the United States Federal Bankruptcy Law, a company that goes bankrupt is given a chance to realign its business and try to gain profit again. The management of the business could still continue their job, but important decisions affecting the business are forwarded to and approved by a bankruptcy court. This is under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code that refers to the reorganization of a business. In Chapter 7, the company is deemed to have ceased the running of the operations and the business comes to a full stop. When this happens, a trustee is assigned to sell all the assets of the company. The money from the sale would be used to pay off the remaining debts from creditors and investors. Even when a company has already filed a bankruptcy, the trading of their stocks could continue. Those who hold bonds, as well as creditors are usually the new owners of the company. However, if the company is included in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the reorganization will cancel the equity shares.

Companies choose to file bankruptcy because creditors would not be to take action against them. Unsecured creditors, for example, do not receive payments during the case. On the other hand, creditors who are secured, usually have protection. Examples of secured creditors are those who have control on the debtor’s property. Unsecured creditors include vendors, credit card companies, and everyone else not having security interests in any of the bankrupt company’s property. Usually, companies are qualified to file bankruptcy if any of the situations exist. A company files for bankruptcy if it has contracts that continue to contribute to operating losses. In order to legally terminate those contracts or leases, the company files for bankruptcy. If there is lack of cash and the company experiences liquidity, it also files for bankruptcy. When company losses do not abate, it has no choice but to shut down. Long term obligations or extraordinary judgments from government departments pertaining to product liabilities often result in a company filing for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy san diego and other bankruptcy lawyers help business leaders drive their companies through bankruptcy. The involvement and participation of bankruptcy lawyers are very crucial in such trying situation. Bankruptcy is no joke. It requires extensive and professional support from lawyers.

Filing for bankruptcy could either be voluntary or involuntary. When you say voluntary, a company decides to file for a bankruptcy petition. In an involuntary filing of bankruptcy, someone else files a petition that compels a company into bankruptcy.

Aside from Chapter 7 and Chapter 11, there are two more types of bankruptcy proceedings. Chapter 12 is applied to family farmers. The reorganization in this proceeding is patterned to Chapter 11. The one who owes retains the property and pays the creditor out using future income. In the last proceeding, Chapter 13, the main intention is to enforce a repayment plan, but only for individuals. This proceeding is beneficial to the debtor because it protects him from collection action. At the end of the plan, any unpaid balance of dischargeable debts is simply wiped out. This proceeding allows a debtor to regain control of his financial state.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth for DS

When developers at Capcom pitched the idea of a video game about lawyers, I am willing to bet that there were some skeptics. To perhaps everyone’s surprise, however, the game has been a huge success, as many innovative games turn out to be. Ace Attorney Investigations is the 5th game in this series and takes it in a new direction by taking the main character, Miles Edgeworth out of the courtroom and into the streets to investigate crime scenes.

Premise

For those unfamiliar with the Ace Attorney series, the game works basically as an adventure/graphic novel. Much of the game is interesting and dramatic storyline, which is broken up and made interactive by puzzles that the gamer has to solve. Most of these games have you assume the role of lawyer who must cross examine witnesses, examine evidence, and other such lawyer duties. In this game, Miles Edgeworth follows similar tactics in his quest to examine crime scenes and get to the bottom of things.

Storyline

As always with Ace Attorney games, the storyline is one of the highlights. Hilarious characters and unforgettable dialogue occurs throughout this game. With so much light-heartedness, it seems remarkable that it’s a game about crime. The writers of this game have a fun outlook on life that really shines through and makes the game something worth experiencing.

New Game Features

All of the old tricks to solving cases are still around, but Capcom has also added a few new features. One of the new tricks that Miles Edgeworth brings do the game is his ability to “logically” connect evidence. As Miles examines the scene, he will make notes of things that seem interesting in his notebook. By using your stylus to draw a line between two related notes, you can connect them, which will help you solve the case. An attempted wrong connection will drain a special health bar. Another technique, which is certainly beyond the ability of real investigators, is a virtual reality machine, which will allow you to play out the crime scene to see which elements of your theory do not fit. This will help you literally see what you may be missing. For the first time in the series, you can also walk around as a character, though this really doesn’t make too much of a difference, aside from making you feel a bit freer. In reality, these new features do not greatly change the gameplay, which could be a good thing if you’re a real fan of previous games in the series. The use of the two screens and microphone is present as always, which has become something of a requirement with DS games.

Verdict

The game in many ways is different and yet much of the same. This may be a disappointment to some fans, who really want a change from the ordinary formula of clever dialogue, puzzles, and objections. The game can be frustrating at times because it requires players to solve puzzles in only one way, when there are other ways that seem possible. The game developers would have saved a lot of grief to just create multiple answers to the same problems. In that same vein, the game has no replay value, since the plot and puzzles can only be enjoyed once. All of that aside, the game is really very good and fans of Ace Attorney will rejoice at new opportunities to enforce the law. Reviewers give it a 8-9/10.

5 Legal Matters that Don’t Require Lawyers

Lawyers might be in every town and city in the country, but that doesn’t mean they are a necessity. It can cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer for just a few appearances and meetings. For most people, a lawyer isn’t an affordable option. Fortunately, they aren’t always needed to handle a legal matter. Here are some legal issues and cases that don’t require an attorney.

Small Claims Cases

Virtually all small claims cases are done without lawyers. In fact, they are typically barred from representing someone in a small claims court because parties are supposed to represent themselves. Lawyers shouldn’t even be considered in the first place because small claims cases usually have limits of only a few thousand dollars per case. Hiring a lawyer for such a case would be completely pointless. Therefore, you can’t use an attorney for a small claims case and you wouldn’t want to either.

Traffic Violations

For most traffic violations, there is no reason to get a lawyer involved if you committed the violation or don’t want to fight it. We’re talking about smaller violations, such as speeding or parking illegally though. Using a lawyer for DUI or DWI cases is always a good idea. Otherwise, you don’t really need a lawyer to walk into court and face the fine for a speeding ticket. The same applies for parking violations, texting while driving, and all the other things that are illegal. There’s really no point in spending thousands of dollars to fight a ticket that may be anywhere from $100 to $600.

Changes of Name

To change your own name, you will have to go through a somewhat lengthy but simple process that doesn’t require a lawyer. You can do the entire process by yourself from start to finish. The only tricky part about the whole situation is updating all of your accounts and whatnot with your new name. Still, lawyers aren’t necessary. You just have to fill out a bunch of paperwork, advertise your name change, and then wait a few months for the change to become official. People change their name all the time for whatever reason, so the process is fairly simple but can take a long time to process.

Copyrighting

You don’t need a lawyer to copyright something either. In fact, you automatically own the copyright to anything that you write or draw. Otherwise, you will need to apply for a copyright for other items. The entire process involves some forms, some fees, and then the issuing of a copyright certificate. You can but do not need to hire a lawyer during any part of the process. For the most part, people shouldn’t have a problem copyrighting something that they created or they own the rights to.

Removing Your Own Works from Another Unauthorized Website

For writers or poets, it is fairly simple to police where your work gets published and where it doesn’t. You hold the license to your works in most cases unless you have given partial or full rights to someone else. Therefore, you can get an unauthorized publication of your work off the Internet through various steps. You can start out by e-mailing the webmaster with a demand to remove the content. After that, you can appeal to the host of the website, which is normally obligated by law and terms of service to shut the site down if the content isn’t removed. None of this needs to involve a lawyer.

No Lawyer Necessary!

Lawyers do serve a necessary and good purpose, but they are just so darn expensive for the average person. On top of that, not all legal matters require the representation of an attorney. A regular person still has plenty of ways to deal with their own legal matters. Of course, a lawyer is suggested for more serious matters, especially when a person doesn’t have any legal experience.