According to a 2018 study, the average person in the United States has $38,000 in debt not including a mortgage. Virginia residents who are unable to pay a debt balance may receive phone calls from creditors or agencies. While it may be stressful to receive those...
Northern Virginia Law Blog
Debt reduction should prioritize interest and not payments
Tens of millions of people in Virginia and around the country are struggling with overwhelming debt. Many Americans begin taking on debt as college students and continue to borrow throughout their lives, and making the monthly payments on their loans and credit card...
The difficulty of discharging student loans in bankruptcy
People in Virginia who have student loan debt are not alone. The total student loan debt in the United States is $1.59 trillion. Unfortunately, many people are struggling to pay off these loans, and they usually cannot discharge them in bankruptcy. However, there are...
Avoiding taxes on forgiven mortgage debt through bankruptcy
Virginians who lost their homes through short sales or foreclosures were previously allowed to exclude up to $2 million in forgiven mortgage debt before 2018. However, the provision that allowed people to exclude forgiven mortgage debt ended in 2017. This means that...
Is it time to prepare for your estate planning meeting?
Perhaps you have decided now is the time to tackle estate planning; you have put it off long enough. What is your game plan? Which estate planning tools best address your situation? With an idea in mind and a little advance preparation, the task will be much less...
Patients face mounting medical debt
Medical treatment can leave people in Virginia struggling with massive quantities of medical debt. People across the country are facing costly medical bills that they cannot afford to pay, even when they have health insurance in place. In fact, medical debt is the...
A judgment may not be dischargeable in bankruptcy
The purpose of Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy is to provide a fresh start for an individual who has fallen behind on obligations to creditors. Most Virginia residents are aware to some degree that certain categories of debt are not dischargeable in accordance with...
Estate planning is vital for unmarried LGBTQ+ couples
Who can forget the overwhelming joy many in the LGBTQ+ community felt when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision to effectively legalize same-sex marriage across the United States? That said, that decision obviously did not mandate every LGBTQ+ person to...
Credit card debt at highest level since 2008
According to Federal Reserve Data, Virginia residents and others have combined to accumulate $1.05 trillion in revolving consumer debt as of the fourth quarter of 2018. Consumers have accrued $870 billion in credit card debt, which beats the previous record high set...
Federal law protects consumers against debt collectors
Debt collectors in Virginia and around the country have become increasingly aggressive in recent years, and daily calls demanding payment have become the norm for people who are struggling to make ends meet. The tactics used by third-party bill collectors often border...


