Most of the time in Chapter 7 Bankruptcies, they are over 90% of no asset cases.  What that means is that there are a lot of exemptions, and they are either under the state or federal exemptions, which basically allows people to keep the variety of property that they have.  In Massachusetts, it has some exemptions and that the federal exemptions, generally for most people, it would allow them to keep a residence exemption; there are also cars exemptions.

          They can be tricky though, you need to make sure that whoever you have with the Bankruptcy is able to go over the exemptions to protect them as much as possible.  One of the things that have to be looked at carefully; is the valuing of property and it also means that even if you are able to keep the property; particularly a secured property, you still would have to pay that off.  So certainly you would not get off the car loan that you owed if you wanted to keep the car.  You can let the car go or you can keep it, but you would have to keep the loan. Same thing with a house, in general, if you wanted to keep the house you still have to pay the mortgage payments on the house.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is one of the few avenues that you can permanently get rid of most forms of unsecured debt.  Unsecured debt includes credit card bills, medical bills, bank loans, finance loans and credit union loans; also it can potentially help you get rid of debt from failed businesses, personal guarantees and also help you get rid of the interest.

This is in a Chapter 7; some of the things that you cannot generally do are student loans, domestic obligations; like child support and alimony.  The reason behind this is that the government found that it was good for society to let people honest debtors get a fresh start and it works even with certain issues.

The American Bar Association provides tips which are very useful if you are facing a deposition.  The first one is the most important is to tell the truth. Second, is to listen very well to the question. If you need to pause and think as long as necessary before answering and make sure that you understand the question and don’t answer unless and until you do.  Third, if you don’t understand the question, say so, ask a question or to explain to repeat or rephrase.  Make your answer be as clear and concise as possible.  If you don’t the answer, simply just say you don’t know the answer. If you don’t remember the answer, say I don’t remember.  Make sure though not to confuse saying “I don’t know vs. I don’t remember”.  You can also qualify your answer, by saying something like “I don’t remember right now or I don’t remember without being able to look at this document.

          A CHINS stands for a Child In Need of Services and in Massachusetts there are 4 types of CHINS. Two types deal with home based issues.  One of them is a Stubborn child, which means that the child does not obey the lawful commands of the parent.  The second one is a CHINS Runaway, meaning that the child has run away. There other two types CHINS can be filed by the school. One of them is a Truancy CHINS meaning that the child is not going to school and a second is a Habitual School Offender meaning that the child is getting in significant trouble at school.

          As a parent filing the CHINS would be a last resort, usually in all cases.  My personal feeling is that you can get most of the services in place without having to have much of the parental authority taken away by either the DCF and/or the court and I would only recommend filing the CHINS in the last resort and the absolute last resort and/or in A typical situation.  As a parent you can potentially be the petitioner on both a Stubborn CHINS and a runaway and you have a certain amount of control about whether the case should get dismissed or not.

Many times cities have ordinances that become crimes and people; including juveniles can actually be committed on the City Ordinances.  A lot of the times they are written imperfectly or unconstitutionally with the US Constitution or the Massachusetts Constitution and there are ways that are overbroad or too far reaching and many times you can actually get the clauses found to be unconstitutional and explained why they are written poorly.  It is an important thing for your lawyer to do on a criminal case, with any City Ordinance is too make sure that it meets the Due Process in both state and constitutional protections.

           There is some controversy about whether prior to any involvement with the courts whether you should cooperate with DCF or formerly known as DSS.  It depends always on the situation.  Some attorneys would tell you never open the door for them, never cooperate with them at all, but you would have to understand that there are some risks that you would be taken by doing that; including maybe prematurely having the Department do a removal or filing a court action. Other times attorneys say to always cooperate with DCF, and again, you want to make sure that you protect yourself and your family and rights.  There questions about; should you sign releases or limited releases what you need to discuss or not discuss with the Department and generally it would be advisable to speak to an attorney or have an attorney present during the interviews or prior to the interviews if possible, so they can talk about it individually, rather than a blanket rule of always cooperating with DCF or always opposing what DCF states, it really comes down to the individual circumstances.

           My general philosophy is to cooperate somewhat with the Department, but it again depends on the situation would be not to generally sign general releases.  Some of the allegations you may not want to talk about, but it would generally be very important because it is a nightmarish experience anytime that the DCF are involved to make sure that your strategy makes sense for your specific situation, rather than following the blanket rule of never talking to DCF or always being completely cooperative with DCF.

Post Nuptial Agreements maybe enforced.  A good case is Ansin vs. Craben-Ansin 457 mass. 283 2010.  Where in this case, the Judge should determine the minimum; 1) each party has had an opportunity to obtain separate legal counsel with each party’s choosing; 2) prior to that there was fraud or coercion in obtaining the Agreement; 3) or hopefully disclosed by both party’s before the Agreement was executed; 4) each spouse knowingly and exclusively agreed in writing to waive the right to a judicial equitable division of assets and all marital rights in the event of a divorce; and 5) the terms of the Agreement are fair and reasonable at the time of execution and the time of the divorce.

In Massachusetts there is no certification for Mediators, but Mediators are supposed to meet certain training requirements in order to have the Mediation confidential.  Some important factors to ask would be:  If the initial meetings are free, meaning no charge for the initial consultation to see whether or not you get along with the Mediator.  To be able to get upfront an idea about what the Mediators charges are; including for the Mediation session and for drafting and/or working on out of mediation aspects of it.  To find out what the Mediators background is, if they are a lawyer or a therapist and what kind of understanding do they have with the courts.  How many agreements they have written as a Mediator or as a lawyer that has been approved by the courts if they are familiar with the judges in the county? How long they have been in practice both as a Mediator and an Attorney; and with what other experience do they have?

           I will tell you one of the reasons why you need an attorney in Massachusetts is that you never know what a court may do.  In Massachusetts a Probate Court Judge had ordered that a 32 year old Schizophrenic and Bi-polar woman under go an abortion and sterilization procedure.  The Probate Court Judge did the woman incompetent and she was asked by the parents counsel to have her abort the fetus. 

           The Judge in the case also ordered her to be sterilized, which according to the Appeals Court was produced out of thin air and that there was no request for sterilization.  Neither the Court Appointed Guardian nor the parents had requested this and there was no Finding of Fact.  It appeared to produce some inconsistencies and what it tells you is that the Appeals Court eventually over turned the Probate Court judge, but that it is important to have an attorney present; both at the trial level and the appeals level to make sure that some unconstitutional or due process violations occur.

           There are a variety of personal injury cases that you can file a law suit for where you might be entitled to damages and this is basically any time that you have been injured to someone else’s negligence. If you speak to a personal injury attorney, they can help you decide on whether you have a case, whether you can likely be able to win or not and what you can reasonably expect to get.

           Some of the time there are different reasons to file the personal injury case.  A common example is an automobile accident; where if you got hurt in an accident, that was not your fault and you can sue for damage. If the other driver was not insured and insurance company trivializes your damages or your claim there are a variety of options that you have.