Practical guidance on Chapter 7, Chapter 13, foreclosure defense, and debt relief for North Carolina families.
Whether you are filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you will be required to attend a creditor’s meeting (also known as a 341 Meeting of Creditors). The Court schedules the date and time of your creditors meeting after your bankruptcy has been filed and a bankruptcy Trustee has been assigned to your case.
Generally speaking, no. However, there are always exceptions.
Most retirement plans are ERISA qualified, which stands for Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. This law was enacted to protect your retirement accounts from risky investments by your employer or plan administrator. If the plan is ERISA qualified, then your bankruptcy Trustee cannot seize your retirement money to pay your creditors.
No, your employer cannot fire you simply because you have been injured at work and filed a workers’ compensation claim. Any employer who uses retaliatory action such as terminating you from your job due to an injury sustained on the job could be violating a North Carolina law known as the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act, also known as “REDA”. If an employer violates this law by terminating you because of your injury on the job, you should contact a workers’ compensation attorney immediately. In this event, you can bring a court action against the employer and seek damages from the employer. The court may order you to be reinstated to your old position and order that you be compensated for your for lost wages, benefits, and seniority.
As an employee, you cannot sue your employer for a work related injury. If the injury has occurred within the scope of your employment, you must claim your injury through the workers’ compensation system. The workers’ compensation system was set up as a form of insurance for both you and your employer. The system is looked at as a “no fault system” which means that injuries are viewed as an unavoidable aspect of work relationships and there is no need to prove that your employer or a certain person caused your injury.
Workers’ Compensation is a unique area of law. Unlike other areas of the law, if you have a workers’ compensation claim you do not go in front of a jury or even a traditional judge. The current workers’ compensation laws were developed to keep claims of injured workers out of the court.
Situations often arise where a potential bankruptcy client is hospitalized, out of town or out of the country, or otherwise unable to sign the necessary paperwork or appear at the necessary court dates for a bankruptcy filing. Often, these potential bankruptcy clients have a valid Power of Attorney document allowing a loved one to sign important papers on their behalf. The question is, can a loved one use a Power of Attorney to file a bankruptcy on behalf of another person?
A trustee is an individual appointed by the federal government in charge of overseeing bankruptcy proceedings. Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustees are usually bankruptcy attorneys or accountants.
How often you can file a bankruptcy depends on a few things: what type of bankruptcy you filed in the past, when you filed your previous bankruptcy, and were you discharged or dismissed from your previous bankruptcy.
The easy answer to the question of whether or not you can convert from one type of bankruptcy to another is: “Yes, most of the time.” Don’t you love those qualifiers? The best way to explain the “most of the time” is to provide examples of when you can and cannot convert a bankruptcy. However, … Read more
Workers Compensation is a government system set up to provide support to employees that have been injured “on the job” or in the scope of their employment. It’s important to know which types of injuries are covered by workers’ compensation laws.
We answer calls 24 hours a day. A free phone consultation takes 20–30 minutes and leaves you with a clear picture of your options — no obligation whatsoever.
