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Matrimonial Attorney Violates Automatic Stay Despite State Court Having Held No Such Violation Occurred in Contempt Sentencing Hearing.

1/8/2020

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Author: Andrew M. Thaler

The Bankruptcy Code provides for the imposition of an “automatic stay” of the commencement or continuation of actions against the debtor that were or could have been commenced before the bankruptcy filing or to recover pre-petition claims against the debtor unless an exception applies.
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In a recently decided case, the Debtor was embroiled in state court divorce proceedings. Debtor was found to be in willful violation of the state court’s pre-petition order. The state court scheduled a contempt sentencing hearing which took place after the debtor filed bankruptcy. The state court found that the automatic stay did not apply to the hearing and ordered the immediate incarceration of the Debtor for 90 days or until such time as he paid $20,000 to Debtor wife’s attorney for attorneys’ fees incurred in connection with the divorce that had been reduced to judgment pre-petition.

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Intersection of Bankruptcy and Matrimonial Law: Tenancy by the Entirety in Bankruptcy

3/17/2016

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Author: Spiros Avramidis

As most attorneys know, spouses that own real property as tenants by the entirety (“TBE”) enjoy protections not provided to other types of ownership interests. TBE arises when real property owned as husband and wife. In New York, TBE protects real property from being used to satisfy the debt of only one of the owner-spouses. In other words, if only one of the owner-spouses is obligated on a debt, a creditor cannot force a sale of the entire real property to satisfy the debt because only one of the owner-spouses is obligated on the debt. Real property owned jointly (rights of survivorship) or in common (no survivorship) does not receive the same protection and is subject to sale or partition.

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Intersection of Bankruptcy and Matrimonial Law: Do I Still Have to Pay These Attorney’s Fees?

2/29/2016

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Author: Spiros Avramidis

​As explained in a prior post by Andrew M. Thaler, it’s general knowledge among matrimonial attorneys that debts classified as domestic support obligations (“DSO’s”) cannot be discharged. Furthermore and maybe not as generally known, attorneys’ fees owed to a non-debtor spouse, whether directly or indirectly, by a debtor can survive a bankruptcy discharge. First, there are some interesting quirks to whether a DSO can be discharged.  For instance, a debt does not have be payable directly to the non-debtor spouse for it to be excepted from discharge. Courts look at the substance and the nature of the debt rather than the identity of the payee; for instance, does the non-debtor spouse benefit from payment to the third party? The fact that the obligation is payable to the attorney and not the non-debtor spouse will not necessarily make the debt dischargeable.

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Intersection of Bankruptcy and Matrimonial Law

2/24/2016

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Author: Andrew M. Thaler

​The intersection of matrimonial and bankruptcy law can leave parties to a divorce both confused and aggrieved. Matrimonial courts are charged with straightening out the affairs between the spouses.  That often includes allocation of property rights without consideration of the rights of creditors who are not parties to the divorce proceedings. When creditor rights are impacted by divorce proceedings problems can arise.  If one of the spouses files for bankruptcy the non-debtor spouse's rights may be negatively and substantially affected by the interests of the filing spouse and his or her creditors.

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Thaler Law Firm PLLC
675 Old Country Road
Westbury, New York 11590
Phone: (516) 279-6700 | Fax: (516) 279-6722

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