Bankruptcy Law
Pro-Deadbeat Texas Laws Keep Bankruptcy Lawyers Busy, Exempt Street-Legal Bulldozers
Posted Nov 18, 2008, 11:06 am CST
By Martha Neil
With a strong job market and generous state-law rules about going bankrupt, as far as debtors' assets are concerned, Texas is a mecca for deadbeats and others who can't or won't pay their bills.
Especially given the high number of mortgage foreclosures in Texas and neighboring states, that means lots of work for Texas bankruptcy attorneys—as well as opportunities to apply the law creatively, reports Bloomberg.
Attorney Marjorie Britt of Houston, for instance, once advised a client to get license plates and turn signals for a $40,000 bulldozer, to make it street-legal so that it could qualify as exempted personal property.
"The court never even questioned it,'' she says of the strategy. "You wouldn't want to drive it to the grocery store, but you could've.''
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