The Cares Act Is a Governmental Relief Program and It Has Changed the Bankruptcy Code Temporarily
Video Transcribed: How has COVID affected your rights in relief in bankruptcy? Edward Kelley here, bankruptcy attorney for Wirth Law Office. And I’m going to give you a quick overview of the benefits that you can get from the government as to your bankruptcy because of the impact of COVID.
So, the big thing is the CARES Act. So, the CARES Act as a sweeping governmental relief program, and parts of it have changed the bankruptcy code temporarily. Your biggest help is in a chapter 13. So, for those of you who are in a chapter 13, typically, it can only last 60 months or five years.
But with COVID, lots of people have dropped down, or not able to make their payments, have fallen way behind in their plans, or getting ready to be kicked out, which is terrible because you’ve been paying for years, and now it’s sort of all for nothing.
But the CARES Act has extended the time that you can have in your 13 for up to 72 months. So, it’s giving you an additional year. So, if you’ve gotten behind, you can file a new plan, something I’ve done for several clients, and extend that plan out, pop in what you got behind into that extra year, and come out successful and complete it. And that is a big deal.
Some not specific to that statute benefits that have happened because of COVID all to all hearings, you have your little 341 creditor meeting, as you may recall from a earlier video. In sevens and thirteens that’s a quick meeting where the trustee makes sure that you provided all the information that it’s correct.
And if creditors have a beef with you, usually, they talk to the attorney first, but if they have a right to show up and question you, and find out your intent on collateral and things like that. Usually a very quick meeting.
Now, they’re all being done by telephone. So, my office is completely COVID friendly. Everything can be done remotely. And, now, what the court doing that you can do a Oklahoma bankruptcy, literally, without leaving your house.
So, this, in addition to all the outside of bankruptcy relief measures that are being offered by mortgage companies, car companies, you really can get yourself back on track through the combination of utilizing those resources on the assets that have loans on them that you want to keep, and doing a bankruptcy.
So, in addition, trustees are very forgiving, and understanding about, maybe it looks like you made too much money. Typically, they go by your last six months as to how much money you make. But when you’ve been impacted by COVID, and although your last five months show a good income, but now you’ve got nothing or severely reduced.
Whereas, in the past, they might be skeptical of your claim that you’re now not making money, now they completely understand. So, lots of benefits of COVID Bankruptcy, so take advantage of that. And, as always, you can reach out to me personally, or to any of our other Tulsa bankruptcy attorney here at the firm in a variety of practice areas at makelaweasy.com. So, talk to you soon.
