|
Foreclosure
Your mortgage lender may start a foreclosure action and sell your home at a Sheriff's sale. If the sale nets less than you owe, there will be a "deficiency balance" that you will own to the lender.
Debtor
The entity seeking protection from creditors under the bankruptcy laws.
Bankruptcy Court
The federal tribunal where cases under the Bankruptcy Code are litigated.
Repo Laws Repossess
The repo laws: If you don't make your car payments for a number of months, your lender may repo or repossess your car. Without a car you may not be able to get to work.
Skeleton filing
Term used at bankruptcy courts to describe a bankruptcy filing in which not all the necessary forms have been filed. Certain courts allow a case to commence if only certain important forms are filed so long as the balance of required forms are forthcoming within a certain period of time.
Exclusivity (period of)
A debtor in Chapter 11 has the exclusive right to file a plan of reorganization for the first 120 days of its bankruptcy. Thereafter, unless the period of exclusivity is extended by the court, other parties may file reorganization plans.
Straight bankruptcy
An informal term for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or liquidation; used more commonly to describe liquidation before the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978.
Chapter Nine
Bankruptcies of municipalities; only a few of these are filed each year; over the period 1980 through 1988 there averaged about 4 Chapter 9 filings per year.
Chapter Thirteen
Bankruptcy proceedings for an individual with the intention of rescheduling the individual's debt (rather than liquidating the individual's assets and debt; an individual files under Chapter 7 to liquidate);
United States Trustee
An agent of the U.S. Department of Justice appointed to assist in bankruptcy cases. The U.S. Trustee administers many of the duties of the court including appointing committees.
|
Did You Know?