The Law Planet Blog

I am not a bankruptcy lawyer. But my sister is one. We were talking about the mortgage "crisis" and she pointed out a flaw in the bankruptcy code that remains unaddressed.

Unlike virtually every other form of debt, a debtor in bankruptcy cannot modify a home mortgage loan. I can buy three investment properties and force the lender to accept less money as part of my bankruptcy plan, but I can't do it with my home mortgage. I'm wondering, aloud, how that makes sense.

Andrea turned me on to a blog called Creditslips where bankruptcy people hang out. In a recent posting there, Mortgage Modification in Bankruptcy: Redux, the commentator intelligently discusses this issue.

And for all you free market fans out there, this would eliminate the need for the giant bureaucracy that Congress is about to create. One of the commenters on Credit Slips wondered if there was a connection between the bankruptcy code revisions in 2005 and the problems we're facing now.

Somebody has to sweep up after the elephants when the circus leaves town. Looks like it's the taxpayer once again.

That's the view from The Law Planet, Jupiter, Florida.

Posted by Marc S. Dobin | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Legal Issues

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This has nothing to do with the law, but everything to do with how I see the world. As I was backing my car out of the driveway, I heard an ad on the radio for a product called "Ass effects". I assumed that it was a gag ad on the talk show I like.

It wasn't. There is a heartburn remedy called Aciphex that is a heartburn remedy. Apparently, the folks developing the name didn't account for the potential for a regional pronunciation which, instead of pronouncing the "i" as "ih", the "i" is pronounced as "uh", thus giving us "ass effects".

Just thought I would share that with you.

That's the windblown view from The Law Planet, Jupiter, Florida.

Posted by Marc S. Dobin | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Items of Interest

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I will admit, I have a small firm. in fact, you can't get much smaller than a law firm of one lawyer. I like to think that I am conscious of the costs of running a business and hiring a lawyer. If a document can be scanned an emailed, that's the way I send it. Unless someone requires me to do so, I will not fax something and then send it by overnight delivery service.

Today I received a discovery request from a large firm in Chicago. It was something that they previously had faxed to me. So they didn't violate my "no fax and overnight" rule. But the envelope, which was oversized, seemed heavy to me. My assistant weighed the empty envelope. It weighed an ounce.

Under the new postage rules, the envelope itself costs 83 cents. Now 83 cents is not a lot of money. But it shows how insensitive lawyers can be to expenses. If they charged this postage expense back to the client, then the client paid 83 cents before the envelope was filled. What bothers me is that noone at this law firm thought to themselves that these heavy envelopes end up costing someone more money than necessary.

I'm not suggesting wrapping stuff in cellophane and sending it. But I am suggesting that lawyers need to be more sensitive to the expenses they incur on behalf of their clients.

That's the view from The Law Planet, Jupiter, Florida.

Posted by Marc S. Dobin | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Law Practice Management

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