Category: Business

NO matter how the economy does, there are always reasons for people to file bankruptcy. During the period of 2008-2012, more than 1.5 million people filed bankruptcy year after year. This was during the height of the foreclosure crisis. Millions of homeowners were struggling with unaffordable mortgage payments, unemployment and failing businesses. As much as…

HOW do you answer this question? Let’s check what the Bible has to say about debt. The Bible says that one should neither be a lender or borrower. It does not seem to recommend the assumption of debt. Otherwise, it should say, it’s OK to be a borrower, but not a lender or vice-versa. This…

AN employee may be asked to sign some documents at the time of termination. One of these documents may be a severance or separation agreement. This is a contract between an employer and an employee who is about to leave the employer’s employment.  In a typical severance agreement, the employer agrees to give the employee…

THERE are times in life when we’re sometimes caught unprepared for what we have to do in order to deal with an ongoing problem that simply will not go away. The problem is there before you sleep at night and it’s still there when you wake up in the morning. One of these problems might…

THE client is 50, divorced, and used to own a business that had a commercial lease for retail space. He operated the business for 10 years. On the 11th year, sales started to plunge for an unknown reason such that the debtor could no longer pay the commercial lease of his retail space.  He still…

Q: I recently applied for a job and I was asked to sign an arbitration agreement as a requirement to being hired. I heard arbitration agreements are not fair to employees. Is this true?    A: Yes. Arbitration can be unfair to employees as well as consumers. Arbitration is a procedure to resolve disputes without…

For about 12 years, Blanca Ramirez worked at the Jack in the Box in San Fernando, CA as a team leader.  She reported to the employer’s anonymous hotline that another manager may be romantically involved with a 17-year old cashier at the restaurant. Ramirez claimed that she was harassed and retaliated against for doing this….

Businessman considers BK  for $400K lawsuit Client is 68 and married. He just received a notice of bank levy on his accounts for a judgment against his wife. He asks if they can levy his bank accounts since the judgment is only against his wife. Yes, they can because there is a legal presumption in…

ARE you in debt and in a constant state of worrying about your financial situation? Perhaps like most people, you live paycheck to paycheck and are barely surviving but you’ve made the mistake of borrowing more money than you can pay back. You’re not alone. This happens to a lot of people. But worrying and…

IF you’ve accumulated more credit card debt than you can handle, you may get this sick feeling in your stomach not knowing what to do about it. As a bankruptcy attorney, I find that this type of debt is the number one cause of financial problems that could lead to bankruptcy. Not because you’re making…

“The FBI investigates the scam and tells the client they can get their money back if the money is still in the account.” THE first clients are business partners who happen to be married to each other. They run a business that has been very profitable before President Donald Trump instigated his trade wars. From…

DR. Sheila Hudson worked as a Senior Associate Athletics Director and Title IX Coordinator for California State University, Los Angeles. She filed a lawsuit against her employer, alleging retaliation after complaining about the sexual harassment of young female employees by the athletic director. Dr. Hudson alleged that the director used “degrading, sexist names such as,…

ARE you seriously in debt and don’t know what to do? Individuals who have accumulated excessive debt are often left to ponder whether bankruptcy is their only realistic way to get out of debt. However, they hesitate to do so because of all the negative things they’ve heard about bankruptcy. Sometimes, these people feel that…

THE creation of technology-driven industries has given rise to new business models that may not follow the traditional employer-employee relationship. Companies, for example, may practice “outsourcing” or “crowdsourcing” where they obtain the services from the general public, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. This has led to the rise of the “on-demand economy” or…

THE first client is 34. She is recently married and now has a one-year-old son. She used to be employed making a gross of $50,000 yearly. At the same time, she was doing a home-based business using credit cards to finance the purchase of goods for people who had no credit.  She would use her…

I WAS in line at the grocery store the other day and noticed the man in front of me smiling and looking at me as if he wanted to say something. I only had a couple of items in my hands so he proceeded and asked: “Do you want to go ahead of me?” I…

THE client is 48, married and has a good job paying him $100,000 gross a year. A family emergency has caused him some financial hardship because money meant to pay for the house and credit cards were used instead for the medical expenses of his brother abroad.  His brother is only 35 and single and…

Off-the-clock and “Unapproved” Work Hours are Still Compensable Q: I work as a nurse at a hospital that has a strict policy of no unapproved overtime. We don’t ask for approval since we risk being written up for “too much overtime.” We just clock out and go back to work to finish our charts. We…