Recently in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Category

In what must be getting hailed as great news all across the board, the U.S. unemployment rate is now the lowest since 2009, dropping below 9 percent, reports the Associated Press.

Is this a sign that the United States economy is back? No doubt President Obama will be happy.

The unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent, the lowest since March 2009, reports the AP. That was just two months after the current President took office. Since then, the rate stayed higher than 9 percent for all but two months.

T-Boz, or Tionne Watkins, formerly of the group, TLC, has filed for bankruptcy protection, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. T-Boz lives in Duluth, Georgia.

This is T-Boz's second attempt at a bankruptcy. She filed for bankruptcy earlier in the year but it was dismissed. Her problems have to do with a relative lack of income. She only makes $1,200 a month from her TLC royalties, her papers claim. She is also in arrears $105,000 on her primary mortgage. In addition, she claims to be owed $250,000 in child support arrears from former husband, the rapper Mack-10.

Bankruptcy filings in which an attorney was used have increased 98 percent over the last five years, reports The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Office of Public Affairs.

The study, which primarily focuses on “pro-se” bankruptcy filings — where a person doesn’t use an attorney to file — had a great deal to tell about other bankruptcy statistics as well.

Donald Trump, host of the TV show Apprentice, knows about overcoming bankruptcies. No surprise, then, that Trump will be bringing Teresa Giudice from Real Housewives of New Jersey to his show after she's overcome her own financial troubles, reports the NY Post.

Teresa Giudice, who has been on all four seasons of Real Housewives of New Jersey, previously faced bankruptcy with her husband Joe due to combined debts of nearly $11 million. The couple then decided to go on a repayment plan and addressed the claims of most of the creditors, reports People.

That the "housing bubble" is behind many of the financial woes facing Georgians these days has been pretty well-established. Yet, for the most part little has been done to tackle the problem head on. But now Atlanta area Wells Fargo branches are putting together an event at the Georgia World Congress Center aimed at keeping people in their homes, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The event at the Georgia World Congress Center, which will occur on Thursday and Friday of this week, is called the "home preservation workshop" and in it people can find out whether they are eligible for various modifications that might help them stay in their home.

You have to be a Wells Fargo customer, but there is still time to open up a simple account if you want to take advantage of this opportunity. Wells Fargo anticipates helping more than 2,000 people over the course of the two day period of the home preservation workshop.

Prominent Atlanta Businessman, William Johnson, the former owner of Ritz-Carlton, filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for a company through which he purchased a corporate jet, reports the Wall Street Journal.

A lawsuit by Amegy Bank filed in the U.S. District Court in Houston claims that William Johnson wrongly withheld money owed to the bank. Amegy Bank had put the money up for Johnson to buy his jet in exchange for what were supposed to be 825,427 shares in Host Hotels & Resorts, worth $9.7 mllion. But apparently, Johnson began missing payment deadlines.

Is it "ironic" if we say that our economy needs more bankruptcies?

Well, that's the message being delivered by some industry experts who say that the 8 percent decline in bankruptcies nationwide is just a sign that people can't afford to file and because there's little pressure from creditors to do so, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a detailed report.

Experts believe that we will know that the economy has turned for the good when the number of bankruptcy petitions increases. A good economy means more aggressive creditors and their aggression means more bankruptcies.

It's not often that issues of same-sex marriage are discussed in bankruptcy court, but a case in the Central District of California highlights just how there can be a need for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to recognize the gay marriages.

According to Wall Street Journal, a legally married same-sex couple in California filed a joint petition for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in February. The U.S. Bankruptcy Code allows for any individual and his or her spouse to file a joint application. Yet the U.S. trustee's office asked the court to dismiss this case, claiming that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the bankruptcy court from recognizing the same-sex couple's marriage.

In such tough economic times, the state of Georgia has seen a dramatic increase in both foreclosure and bankruptcy cases. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, foreclosures have increased by 67 percent in the state since 2006 and personal bankruptcies have increased by 93 percent.

And perhaps the foreclosure and bankruptcy cases go hand in hand. CredAbility, an Atlanta-based consumer credit counseling service, stated that 20 percent of their clients cited foreclosure as their primary reason for filing bankruptcy.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Elena Kagan delivered her first judicial opinion on Tuesday in a bankruptcy case. The Associated Press reported that the court ruled with an 8-1 decision that debtors that own their cars outright cannot claim a standard monthly payment as ownership costs of their vehicle.

The ruling stated that debtor Jason Ransom would not be able to claim a $471 monthly allowance for his car payments because this was reportedly the amount set by the Internal Revenue Service as a typical car payment. Kagan made a relatively non-controversial decision and said that the case is “about proper interpretation of the bankruptcy code.”