Reboot Your Life: Tampa Student Loan and Bankruptcy Attorney Blog
Under Florida law, a creditor has up to twenty years to try and collect a judgment. That’s an intimidating number, two whole decades. Something not to take lightly. To become a lien on real estate, a certified copy of a final judgment must be recorded in the public records in the county in which the real property is located.
Once recorded, Florida law provides that the judgment acts as a lien on non-homestead real property for an initial period of ten years. See Florida Statute Section 55.10. The judgment can be re-recorded and act as a lien for an additional ten years. Prior to 2004, a recorded judgment acted as a lien for only seven years, but could be re-recorded up to two additional times for a total of twenty years.
In comparison, a bankruptcy remains on someone’s credit report for 10 years. However, the last 18 months is the most important time period in anyone’s credit history and often the bankruptcy after it gets old enough is considered irrelevant.
There are several exciting things happening in mortgage modifications lately. The modification puzzle pieces seem to be falling into place, albeit four years after the foreclosure crisis began. We hope to take full advantage of this and get as many of our clients through a mediation this fall as possible.
It will take less time than you think to qualify to buy a home after bankruptcy. I generally advise my Florida clients that they will likely qualify within 2-5 years.
In Florida, typically someone who is sued is served with the lawsuit and given 20 or sometimes 30 days to file a response. If the lawsuit was filed in small claims court, you are given a date to appear at a pretrial conference instead of filing a written response.
Do this to Stop Calls to your Cell Phone.
In a strong opinion favoring Florida homeowners, the Eleventh Circuit slammed the door in the face of debt collectors and mortgage servicers in foreclosure cases making it abundantly clear that calling homeowners multiple times in one day after they have hired an attorney to represent them, using abusive and offensive language and lying about foreclosure sale dates and other unscrupulous behavior would no longer be tolerated. In 
Too late for many, but at least a step in the right direction, Senator Al Franken (D-Minn) introduced the 
Last month, it was well publicized that student loan interest rates were about to double unless Congress acted. Actually, this only involved subsidized Stafford loan interest rates. However, President Obama made the most of it and traveled around the country garnering support to help students. At the last minute, Congress voted to stop the increase. 
This debtor in South Florida recently lost his free and clear car in bankruptcy (actually the debtor was allowed to pay for the one-half interest in a Chapter 13 so it wasn’t quite as bad as it initially appears). Joint ownership is getting murkier and legal advise is definitely needed to preserve vehicles, money in bank accounts and even real property. Other bankruptcy cases in South Florida have recently attacked the “bare legal title” concept. These situations often arise when debtors share bank accounts, vehicles or even real property with parents, children or other relatives. Generally, we can show that the debtor held bare legal title only for probate or other purposes and the property is not subject to turnover by the bankruptcy court. However, the law in this area is getting rather murky. The facts in this case were as follows: a vehicle purchased by a debtor’s mother, but titled in the name of the debtor and his mother, and the debtor paid the insurance and maintenance. In re Fletcher, 2012 WL 2062394 (Bankr. S.D. Fla., March 6, 2012).