Ask A Seattle Bankruptcy Attorney: Can an Illegal Immigrant File for Bankruptcy?

A scary and uneasy question a Seattle bankruptcy attorney sometimes gets from a client is whether bankruptcy is available to an illegal immigrant. The short answer is that an illegal immigrant can absolutely file for bankruptcy – and its absolutely save to do so in Washington, or anywhere.   Title 11 of the United States Code (abbreviated [...]

Can I Keep My House In A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?

As a Seattle bankruptcy attorney, I’m often tasked with answering questions about keeping a home or condo. While you can definitely keep your home through a Chapter 13 bankruptcy – the money savings of a Chapter 7 is often a more beneficial choice. If your home has no equity (meaning the balance of your mortgage [...]

Low Cost Bankruptcy Scams!

One question I often get asked as a Seattle bankruptcy attorney is why I cost more than some of the competitors. The short answer is that I’m extremely competent at what I do, and I put a lot of time and energy in to make sure I discharge every possible penny of debt possible. That’s [...]

Top 10 Things Creditors Don’t Want You To Know

Seattle bankruptcy attorneys often have to fight through a wealth of misinformation when explaining the benefits of a bankruptcy to a client. Debt solutions are seemingly steeped in bad internet articles written by scammers and creditor ghost writers to keep the publicc wary of a process that can completely change your life for the better. [...]

Congress’ New Tax Bill For 2013

Change in Congress’ Tax Relief Act Seattle Estate planning attorneys were poised and waiting to see what happened with the Bush era tax cuts that were set to sunset at the end of 2012. For most of us, 2012 meant a huge push to take advantage of the $5.12 million dollar gift tax exemption – [...]

Pet Trusts

More and more commonly; a client will come in to task a Seattle estate planning attorney with taking care of a pet if the unfortunate happens to the client/owner. Between 12 and 27 percent of people who draft wills include provisions for their pet.   First, what is a trust? A trust is both a [...]

Tailored Estate Planning

A common initial question asked by clients to a Seattle estate planning attorney are often, “Whats in an estate plan?”. The question is, unfortunately, not easy to answer. Different plans are required by different types of families. There is no such thing as a good one-size-fits-all plan. Here are the U.S. averages according to the [...]

Estate Planning Basics: Capacity Requirements

Sometimes an issue arises in our Seattle estate planning office surrounding capacity. Proper execution of a legal instrument requires that the person signing have sufficient mental “capacity” to understand the implications of the document. Determining when a person has or doesn’t have capacity can be incredibly difficult in the legal perspective; as capacity can be [...]