BLOG
Live and Learn!BLOG
Live and Learn!
Bankruptcy Pitfall: Buying A Car Before Bankruptcy
As a general rule of thumb, it is not a good idea to transfer assets or make big purchases right before you file for bankruptcy. However, sometimes a person facing bankruptcy has no choice but to purchase a vehicle right before filing. Remember, in a bankruptcy the statute allows different...
Don’t Gamble with Your Life
As a law firm that frequently handles domestic violence/abuse cases, we felt compelled to have this video made. This issue, and its many variants, are far too often ignored or not taken seriously. The chance that you know someone who is suffering abuse in silence is unbelievably high, so we wanted...
Helping Our Veterans Heal
As the parents of veterans who either came home from the war in Afghanistan or are currently serving, we at Morgan Hill understand the difficulty our vets have in restarting a "normal" life with family and friends. After what they have been through in service to us, “normal” life just doesn’t feel...
Check out the Hands on Children’s Museum!
Everyone here at Morgan Hill is all about staying active, and learning from the world around us. Me personally? I like to hike, play the blues, work on old cars, and pour over my collection of ancient records that only I care about. I thought about it, and I realized that most of the things I love...
Discovery
What Is Discovery? If everything goes to pot and you find yourself in the middle of a big, fat lawsuit, once it’s been filed the court will usually issue what’s called a scheduling order that lays out the different deadlines in the case. This includes a date by which all “discovery” must be...
Filing Bankruptcy After a Personal Injury
Multiple studies over the last ten years have shown that medical debt is the leading reason that individuals file for bankruptcy. If someone is injured in a car accident, he or she may have to take time off work, and if that person had been barely scraping by, a week or two of lost wages can be...
Defending a DVPO
Woohoo, a legal blog! Who would've guessed by that not-boring-at-all title, right? Let's get to it! Domestic violence protection orders (“DVPOs”) are a common mechanism intended for victims of domestic violence to obtain court orders that will prohibit the perpetrator from contact with them or...
Taking Out A Car Loan Before Filing Bankruptcy
Let’s say your financial life is a mess. Your income doesn’t cover your bills, you don’t answer the phone because the bill collectors are screaming at you 24/7, you’re afraid to leave the house because Don Corleone is about to sic Guido the Thumbreaker on you because of the debt you owe to The...
Property and Debt
The first thing to remember in dividing assets and debts in a dissolution or legal separation is that Washington is a community property state, which means that each spouse has an undivided one-half interest in assets and debts acquired during the marriage. Wages and salaries earned during the...
The Wild Card: Spousal Maintenance
Traditionally called "alimony," spousal support is now usually called spousal maintenance. Washington State's spousal support statute provides only general guidance and no specific formulas regarding an award of maintenance, so spousal maintenance can be awarded any time there is a need on the...
Domestic Violence
If you're the victim of domestic violence, a good, experienced lawyer may be part of the solution. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. If you're experiencing a mental health emergency in the South Puget Sound region, call the Thurston/Mason County Crisis Clinic at (360) 586-2800. If you need...
Auto Insurance
Auto insurance can be confusing, and the different types of available coverage can confuse anyone not well-versed in the bewildering terminology of the auto insurance world. Let’s see if we can de-mystify this just a little and define some of the jargon related to auto insurance. After reading...
Settling a Personal Injury Case
The vast majority of all claims for personal injury are settled before trial. Settlements from personal injury cases are obtained from insurance companies in order to help the victims repair or replace damaged vehicles, pay for medical expenses, and receive compensation for the damage to their...
You Were Just In a Car Wreck, What Now?
Uh-oh. Out of nowhere, you were just in a car wreck. Now what? First, it doesn't matter if you are at fault or not; the rules are the same whether you are simply sitting at a stoplight thinking about what you’re going to have for dinner and some knucklehead rear-ends you, or whether you're the...
Cut Rate Legal Advice
This is a picture I took outside of a used bookstore. It's both hilarious and sad, but it sums up the state of legal advice in this day and age. I don't know who owned this book, but I'd bet money that it didn't help them out in the long run. Actually, it probably ended up costing them money....
Using Chapter 13 Bankruptcy to Avoid Foreclosure
There are situations when filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy can help a homeowner save their house from foreclosure. When a debtor files the petition for bankruptcy relief, the automatic stay kicks in, preventing creditors from collecting any debts from the debtor. (Please see our section on the...
The Automatic Stay
When a debtor files for bankruptcy relief, something called the automatic stay immediately kicks into effect. The automatic stay prevents all creditors from undertaking any action to collect a debt from a debtor. Effectively, the automatic stay often prevents creditors from even contacting the...
Common Bankruptcy Concerns
How does filing bankruptcy affect credit scores? A Chapter 7 bankruptcy generally remains on the debtor’s credit for ten years and bureaus may stop reporting a Chapter 13 after seven years. While this sounds pretty bad, usually by the time a person gets to the point of filing bankruptcy their...