On September 16, 2014, New York courts announced rules banning collecting consumer debts which were: a.) not incurred; b.) previously paid; or c.) subject to statute of limitations defenses. The new rules require: a.) creditors submitting affidavits for default judgments with detailed proof; b.) that default applications contain the debtor’s original credit agreement, a detailed accounting of each stop in the debt’s chain of ownership and documentation that identifies the target of the default judgment as the correct debtor; c.) an affidavit from the creditor’s attorney that the statute of…Read More
On June 12, 2014, The United States Supreme Court determined that Bankruptcy Code § 522(b)(3)(C) does not exempt inherited Individual Retirement Accounts (“IRAs”) from creditors’ claims in individual bankruptcy cases. Clark v. Rameker, 134 S.Ct. 2242 (2014). Background Ms. Clark inherited her mother’s $450,000 IRA in 2001. She filed for bankruptcy relief in 2010 after spending the IRA down to $300,000. Her bankruptcy schedules listed the IRA as exempt from paying her creditors’ claims. Ms. Clark asserted that Bankruptcy Code § 522(b)(3)(C)’s exempting “retirement funds to the extent that those funds…Read More
