Help Stop Foreclosure: On the Minds of Senators Along with Lawyer for Bankruptcy in Indiana

Back in May of this year, I was telling Bankruptcy in Indiana readers about yet another new program that had been created, that particular one in Marion County, to help stop foreclosures in our state. Actually, ever since the housing crisis began, I have been focusing my efforts as an Indiana bankruptcy attorney and debt consolidation lawyer on mortgage modification.

Exactly how can I, along with all the Anderson, Bloomington, Indianapolis, and Columbus bankruptcy lawyers who work in the Zuckerberg bankruptcy law offices help stop foreclosure?

We write letters and handle phone calls to negotiate mortgage modifications with lenders.
We help individuals save their homes through filing personal bankruptcy in Indiana using Chapter 13 bankruptcy law.
We provide bankruptcy information in Indiana, including ways to use bankruptcy to stop foreclosure.

“In Chapter 7 bankruptcy,” notes Texas bankruptcy lawyer Reed Allmand, “debtors can surrender their home and have any mortgage balance discharged…..If they are employed, Chapter 13 allows debtors who have a job to pay off their debt over the course of three to five years and keep their home out of foreclosure.” The problem, notes Allmand, is that the mortgage servicers quickly move to file foreclosure, not giving middle class and working class homeowners a chance to save their home.

Okay, so here we are, six months after I reported on the Marion County foreclosure prevention effort, still tracking (as part of providing up-to-date Indiana bankruptcy information) each and every legislative development that could help homeowners. All the while, people have either not filed or not qualified to file under Chapteer 13 bankruptcy law in Indiana have been losing their homes. Sometimes this relates to small business bankruptcy in Indiana, because business owners pour all available funds into saving their businesses, only to suffer in their personal finances.

Three U.S. Senators have sponsored legislation to “strengthen and clarify the U.S. Trustee’s power to protect homeowners in the bankruptcy system from fraud. The Fighting Fraud in Bankruptcy Act of 2011 was introduced in the Senate and has now been referred to committee.

One of the Columbus bankruptcy lawyers in my office there summarizes the goals of this bill as follows:

Gives the bankruptcy trustee power to take action when creditors are abusing the bankruptcy process. (These powers are both investigative – conducting audits and investigations, and punitive – imposing sanctions for misconduct by creditors.)
Mandates that mortgage servicers certify (under penalty of perjury) that they are complying with the special rules for deployed and active duty military homeowners.

After 25 years as a lawyer for bankruptcy in Indiana, someone who actually helped write part of the new bankruptcy laws of Indiana, I, Mark Zuckerberg, wholeheartedly agree with reporter Elizabeth Brennon in News Junky Journal:

Banks should not attempt to profit from these hard times with improper mortgage fees and other types of fraud!