In most cases when you file bankruptcy to protect your home from foreclosure, you will enter into a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. Under Chapter 13, you must continue to make your house payment on time and make your payments to the bankruptcy trustee in order for the bankruptcy protections to remain in place.

The report also breaks down the figures for homeowners who did not keep up with the payments under their Chapter 13 repayment plan in the bankruptcy courts in Fort Worth and Dallas:

“The U.S. bankruptcy court in Fort Worth, which handles filings from Tarrant, Comanche, Erath, Hood, Jack, Wise, Palo Pinto and Parker counties, handled 3,154 properties affected by a post-bankruptcy filing. That was a 3 percent increase from 2008, when 3,064 properties were affected. The dollar volume, based on assessed value, was $464.5 million in 2009, a 10 percent increase from 2008’s figure of $420.4 million, the firm said.”

“In Dallas, 4,764 properties were affected by a filing in 2009, a 21 percent increase from 3,952 properties in 2008. The dollar volume jumped 38 percent, to $757.9 million in 2009, from $548.4 million in 2008, the report said.”

If you are facing financial difficulties and want to protect your home from foreclosure, talk to your bankruptcy attorney so that any issues you have with the repayment schedule can be addressed before you fall behind.

According to The Docket, which is the blog of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Joel B. Rosenthal ruled it would be an undue hardship to force Denise M. Bronsdon to repay $82,000 she owes in law school loans.

Ms. Bronsdon, now 65, graduated in the top half of her class at Southern New England School of Law in 2005. She has since failed the Massachusetts bar exam three times and is currently unemployed, drawing Social Security and living in a room at her father’s house.

The lender appealed the ruling and the U.S. District Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf reinstated the debt and said that Ms. Bronsdon was eligible for a debtor-repayment plan.

Rosenthal has issued a new opinion in response that again discharges the debt and said that putting the debtor into a repayment plan was “a pointless exercise.”

Reading the news today that Barry Corbin (famous for his roles on TV’s Northern Exposure, Dallas and on film as Uncle Bob in Urban Cowboy) has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, it occurred to me that many seemingly successful people end up in bankruptcy court.

What I think I am getting at is that no matter what your financial situation is one day, the next you could be in over your head. It takes good planning and advice to restructure your debts when you end up over your head in debt.

Many people find asking for help with debt problems to be embarrassing. What you need to know is that it is nothing to be embarrassed about. The first thing you should remember is that every debt you have is a business transaction. Business deals go bad everyday.

Facing your financial problems head on, and with proper advice and assistance, is the best way to handle your business dealings.

The first step to overcoming a debt problem is recognizing that you have one. If worries about your credit cards, car note, or mortgage are keeping you awake at night, you probably already know that you are in over your head. But if you have been cruising along, juggling credit cards and happily spending, you may not yet realize just how dangerous the path you are on is for your financial future. If you find yourself in any of these situations, think seriously about addressing your debt.

1. You routinely spend more than you earn.
2. You make only the minimum payment required on your credit cards.
3. You’re unsure about how much you owe or what may be on your credit report.
4. You skip payments on some bills in order to pay others, or use cash advances on one credit card to pay off another.
5. You find yourself arguing with your spouse about money. Or, you are afraid to talk to your spouse about money at all.
6. You are borrowing money from family or friends to make ends meet.
7. You’ve recently been turned down for credit or a loan.
8. You panic when faced with an unexpected expense, such as a car repair.
9. You owe more on your car than is worth.
10. Creditors are calling you about overdue bills.
11. You’re thinking it would be better to just stop making payments on your debts.
12. You have no money in savings to cover emergency expenses.

A report released by the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that the housing market has a few more bumps to get past before it sees a meaningful recovery.

The report says that fixed-rate home loans made to people with good credit account for 33 percent of the 4 million homeowners who are in foreclosure or at least 3 months behind on payments as of September. At the same time last year, they made up just 21 percent of the number of homes sinking toward foreclosure.

With many companies still not hiring and unemployment at around 10 percent, there may be more families struggling to keep up with the payments on their homes.

Facing financial hardship isn’t fun. A sudden illness may have hit your finances hard, or the recession may have cost you your job. The first thing you have to do is prioritize your spending. Keeping a roof over your head has to be a priority.

Consulting a bankruptcy attorney can help you map out a plan to get out of debt and hopefully keep your home.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman writes in his opinion – “When a person uses the Internet, however, the user’s actions are no longer in his or her physical home; in fact he or she is not truly acting in private space at all. The user is generally accessing the Internet with a network account and computer storage owned by an ISP like Comcast or NetZero. All materials stored online, whether they are e-mails or remotely stored documents, are physically stored on servers owned by an ISP. When we send an e-mail or instant message from the comfort of our own homes to a friend across town the message travels from our computer to computers owned by a third party, the ISP, before being delivered to the intended recipient. Thus, ‘private’ information is actually being held by third-party private companies.”

Gives me a chill to think about all the client communications that many attorneys use email for these days. It also scares me to think that emails from your credit card companies, banks, even your grandmother could be read by the government without you knowing about it.

A good friend of ours at the firm, Mitchell L. Allen, released a book this summer called A Survival Guide To Debt: How to Overcome Tough Times and Restore Your Financial Health. With that he also launched the Web site www.asurvivalguidetodebt.com.

The book has been weel received and he has been making the rounds of radio talk shows and television news programs talking about the advice he offers in the book from his years of experience runing the Debt Education and Certification Foundation, a non-profit group that helps educate consumers about their responsibilities to their creditors.

I mention him today because I think the book will help many people facing financial problems to regain their confidence and understand one of the fundamental things that Mitchell has been saying for years and that this firm shares with all its clients – You Are Not Your Debt.

The debt you have accumulated should not define you. You are a person, not a business transaction. Business transactions go bad everyday. You are not the only one to have accumulated debt you can’t afford, the news has been full of stories about that for the last year and a half.

I encourage anyone who is struggling with financial problems to go to the Web site and get a copy of the book, or look for it in the self help or financial sections at Barnes and Noble or Borders.

Just over 1,800 homes are set to be auctioned on the courthouse steps Tuesday, November 3, according to Foreclosure Listing Service in Addison. George Roddy Sr., president and chief executive of the company which tracks foreclosure listings across the country, told the newspaper that the figures may sound bad, but the number is down 8 percent from October of this year.

Roddy also said that only about 40 percent of those homes will be sold in the auction, the rest will reach some sort of agreement that will cure or postpone the sale.

One of the ways to stop the auction of your home is to declare bankruptcy. Schedule your free consultation now to find out how bankruptcy can stop the sale of your house in a foreclosure auction and restructure your debts so that you can afford to keep your home.

Cartwright earned a Bachelor of Science in political science from Tarleton State University in 2005. He is a 2008 graduate of Texas Wesleyan School of Law in Fort Worth, where he was Associate Editor of the Law Review and a Marshall for the Phi Alpha Delta Legal Society. Cartwright recently completed his Master of Laws in Taxation at the Sturm School of Law in Denver, Colorado.

“I am happy to be back in Texas and beginning my legal career as an associate with Higgins & Associates,” Cartwright said. “I look forward to helping clients create a brighter financial future by clearing their burdensome debts.”

Cartwright is a member of the Texas Bar Association and sits on the board of directors of Jake Remembered, a non-profit organization that raises money for scholarships. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, playing golf and snowboarding.

“We are pleased to have Ethan join the firm,” said Robert A. Higgins, senior partner of Higgins & Associates. “His knowledge and caring heart will be a great asset to us as our firm continues to grow.”

The Law Firm of Robert A. Higgins & Associates is a Fort Worth based firm that focuses on personal bankruptcy cases. Its offices are located at 112 Goliad, Suite A in Benbrook and 800 Forest Oak Lane, Suite C in Hurst.

Sole proprietors are on the hook for all the debts incurred running their business. Any debt you accumulate in the business name may still go after you as the owner of the business. This leaves your personal assets, such as your home, cars, even your furniture at risk.

Most entrepreneurs who start out as sole proprietors will incorporate into limited liability corporations or limited liability partnerships.  These structures offer some protection for your personal property, but in the current economic climate many banks have begun asking business owners to sign personal guarantees for business loans. These guarantees are usually very broadly written and will allow the bank to come after your personal property should you not be able to make the payments.

Bankruptcy filings were up 36 percent to 711,550 in the first six months of 2009. In the same period last year, there were only 522,205 bankruptcies filed.

With the economy recovering slowly, I think that it may be a long road ahead for many small business owners. Consulting with an experienced personal bankruptcy attorney could help you understand your options if you are having a hard time keeping everything afloat in the current economic climate.