can a person who failed to pay the compensation in a defamation suit being adjudged and declared bankrupt? any authority to support the answer ( in laws)? i’m referring to UK law. TQ

I have a friend in FL that is filing bankruptcy. I thought they passes a law a few years ago that stated you could not include credit card debt in bk. Is that true? They are telling me that you can include credit card debt.

1. Middle Eastern terrorist
2. Domestic policy and laws designed to protect us from terroist.
3. Unbridled government spending which could drive our system into bankruptcy (ie. see USSR history for example)

Ok, first and formost I am asking for a friend. Any one who reads this can believe it’s me if you want, however if you look back through my posts then you will see I do lots of questions for friends and family.
About 6 1/2 years ago my friend filed bankruptcy. She has since got herself in way over her head again. I don’t know if her first bankruptcy was Ch. 7 or 13. She says she don’t remember either and can’t find the papers. It was the less harshfull one. Anyway, can she file again at 7yrs. Can she put collection agency’s on there? Also, her car was repoed about a year ago. They sold it for half of what she owed. Can she claim the rest of what she owes on bankruptcy. Do bankruptcy laws say anything about the law controlling your finances for 12 months. Any information any one has would be greatly appreciated. Specially links so I can print off information. She doesn’t have a computer but she is here with me for a few hours yet. Oh and of course she does live in Nebraska (like me).

My wife and I are the victims of a scam artist who is seemingly untouchable by the courts. We had very strong evidence that proved we were scammed but the judge threw it all out do to some legal speak (I dont know enough about the law at my age to describe it any better). Since he threw out all of our evidence, we had no case to present, and now we apparently owe 275K to the very people who robbed us. My wife has been crying for the past three days. We have a small income already burdened by health issues and have no means of paying these amounts. Our attorney was of no help and did nothing but send us a bill for an additional 20K.

Whats the best way to recover from this? Can we declare the total 295K under a bankruptcy? We’re desparate and any advice would help, thanks to anyone who responds.

I think all this stuff about the economy is bad because of the law that changed about filing bankruptcy. Before you could wipe your slate clean but now you have to pay it back. Fortunately i beat the deadline before it went into effect but others were not so lucky. I’m not really quite sure what really is going on but thats just some of my thought of whats helping push the stock market on a further decline.

What can I expect? I have a car payment, no house (I rent), I do work, but it’s not enough. The child support payments are coming few and far between. Thankfully though we have a hearing coming up soon for that.

I just can’t afford my bills anymore, is this the best thing for me to do? How does a bankruptcy filed for divorce reasons effect my credit? (I’ve got horrible credit as it is) Can you even file bankruptcy due to divorce? I know each state has different laws, but I just need a general idea. Any info will be greatly appreciated…thanks!

Debtors prisons were here before but only for poor non custodial parents who could not pay support(those that could pay did before being jailed) And even those non biological parents that DNA had excluded but the court still imposed support for the benefit of the child(about 30% nationally jailed and NOT the biological parent). This carries a felony conviction which also takes away your right to vote(among other rights). NOW you can be hit with the same contempt charge for being too poor to pay your credit off. This can also put YOU in jail with the same Felony conviction.. How do you feel about the new industry in the United States being Jail construction and maintainence to house all the poor that will now be classified as felons(and that includes you who have difficulty paying your bills now)? After already losing freedoms through the patriot act are we now at risk of losing our liberty? I may be wrong but I thought this was the United States of America. Our forefathers disgraced..

The new bankruptcy law makes it difficult to discharge student loans through bankruptcy (before there used to be a seven-year waiting period), but allows a judge to do so for reasons of hardship. What states, courts, or judges have been most willing to do this?

Democrats think they’re striking out at the rich, they’re actually jeopardizing the retirement portfolios of millions of middle-income Americans. Firemen, police officers, and teachers, to name a few, are all represented by the big state and city pension funds.

The latest assault comes courtesy of House Democrat Sander Levin. Late last week, he introduced a bill that essentially would abolish the 15 percent capital-gains tax preference for risk investing, and raise it by 20 percentage points to the 35 percent corporate and personal rate. This goes beyond an earlier tax attack on a public offering by the Blackstone Group, and would slam into all private partnerships, including buyout funds, hedge funds, venture-capital firms, real estate partnerships, and oil-and-gas deals.

Incidentally, while attacking capital gains, the congressional Democrats are killing initiatives for across-the-board cuts on wasteful appropriation bills. According to the Club for Growth, House Democrats defeated separate measures that would cut spending by 4 percent, 1 percent, and 0.5 percent.

Does this mean the Democrats favor tax hikes over real spending control? It appears so.

Washington economist Kevin Hassett says this is part of the Democrats’ “war against winners,” and he’s right on the money. In particular, these willy-nilly changes of the tax rules would have a chilling effect on capital formation, and could constitute the biggest attack on capital since the 1930s.

As mentioned, the lightning rod in this tax-hike endeavor was the Blackstone Group, the private-equity giant that went public last week. Blackstone’s investment-fund profits are taxed at the 15 percent cap-gains rate, and since these profits come from high-risk investments, that’s how it should be. But Democrats in Congress view these profits as plain income, and greedily want a higher take.

But plain ol’ income this is not. The recent crack up of two Bear Stearns sub-prime-mortgage hedge funds shows just how risky these ventures can be.

Yes, there’s big money to be made when these private partnerships click. But the economy at large also is a beneficiary. Private buyout funds often save highly troubled companies from bankruptcy. They insert skilled managers who streamline operations and make businesses more efficient, a process that can ultimately lead to greater profits and business expansion. You know a lot of these companies: Chrysler, Staples, Sears, Domino’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Toys“R”Us, Clear Channel Communications, Hospital Corporation of America. All of these firms were brought back from the dead thanks to private partnerships.

Nobody knows for sure whether Congress will green-light the Democrats’ anti-growth agenda. The hope is that President Bush will veto any tax hike that lands on his desk. But the mere threat that Congress would embark on such a program of wealth destruction and economic impoverishment — all in the name of taxing “rich people” — has investors reeling.

Ironically, a lot of today’s anti-cap-gains momentum is the handiwork of former Clinton Treasury secretary Robert Rubin. He actually believes a low cap-gains tax has no economic growth impact at all. However, back when Clinton and Rubin were running things, the personal income-tax rate was lifted from 31 to 40 percent, while the cap-gains tax was reduced from 28 to 20 percent, making for a 20 percentage point tax advantage for cap-gains over regular income. Flashing forward, the current Bush administration lowered the income-tax rate to 35 percent and the cap-gains rate to 15 percent, preserving that 20 percent differential.

Hmm . . . Is Rubin saying the cap-gains tax advantage was good for the Clinton boom, but not the Bush boom?

Truth is, that differential provides a strong incentive for entrepreneurial risk taking and higher-risk, cutting-edge investment — both of which lend real torque to the economy.

Another unfortunate irony is that while Democrats think they’re striking out at the rich, they’re actually jeopardizing the retirement portfolios of millions of middle-income Americans. Firemen, police officers, and teachers, to name a few, are all represented by the big state and city pension funds. And these funds are heavily invested in the hedge and private-equity funds that the Democratic tax machine is targeting. Is this fact lost on the Democrats? And don’t they realize that two out of every three voters in recent elections owned stocks — either directly or indirectly? Are they attempting to commit political suicide?

If the Democrats get their way, job creation will be adversely affected, too. Clearly, you can’t create new jobs in the private sector unless there’s a new or expanding business to create those jobs. And since new and expanding businesses require capital for investment funding, if you tax that capital more, you get less investment and fewer jobs.

In short, you can’t have capitalism without capital. The process works for “rich people” and the middle class.

Whenever Democrats wage war against the rich, the middle class becomes the collateral damage. This may be the law of unintended consequences, but it is something this Congress fails to understand.