Bankruptcy and Credit Scores

Posted On: 2006-08-18Length:

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Hey everybody this is Debt Podcast #68. My name is Jay Fleischman. You know, I've been taking some time off from the podcast. Some of it was voluntary and part of it was involuntary. The voluntary part was because a brand new problem has surfaced in my professional world, and I'll share that with you in a moment. But the involuntary part was the fact that I lost the entire contents of my computer about a month and change ago. Now, that loss was not from any data problems. My data was all properly backed up. Unfortunately, all the software that I had on my computer was gone. And it's taken quite some time to reassemble the software over a period of time. And I'm glad to report that as of now, I've got the vast majority of everything back. I do not, however, have Castblaster back. So you'll notice there aren't any whole vocal effects and tricks and such, rather I'm just using audacity, back to basics, as it were, to record this for you. I don't even consider it a show, much less an audio comment for you all to listen to.

Today is August 10, 2006, so it's been almost an entire two months since the last time we spoke. And going back to the voluntary reason. The voluntary reason that I've been gone is because there's been a problem that I've noticed. And I mentioned at the outset, a minute and some change ago, that this was a brand new problem. Unfortunately it isn't a problem. You see folks, as a bankruptcy attorney for almost 11 years now, I have helped a lot of people get out of debt and have helped them to restart their financial well being. Now over the course of time, I've received a number of telephone calls from old clients, going to a mortgage closing table, who've called me in a panic, telling me that they needed a copy of their bankruptcy papers. And in the past I have been quite frankly, more than a little bit peeved to have to deal with these issues. It's been a source of continual consternation for me because it's involved me going back into old files, pulling them out, making copies of bankruptcy papers and discharged, getting them over to clients, and invariably it takes longer than the client wants them to take. And sometimes these are cases that have been closed for 3, 4, even 5 years or in some cases, even more than that. And clients call up and they're panicked. And the reason is, that some mortgage company has pulled their credit report and seen that they still owe money as far as their credit report is concerned. A variety of creditors may still be reporting them as past due and outstanding. And even though the creditors aren't sending them letters, the mortgage company looks at the balance due on the trade line on the credit report, and tells the client that either they need to provide proof that the debt was discharged, or they're going to lose the loan. The client of course calls up and is panicked. They don't want to lose the loan, they're finally getting the good rate, and they're scared, and unfortunately, they are also in...