April 18, 2018, Lora and Andrew Buck come to your law office for an initial cons
ID: 2392893 • Letter: A
Question
April 18, 2018, Lora and Andrew Buck come to your law office for an initial consultation because they are thinking of filing for bankruptcy. Lora tells you that the couple have 4 children and that her husband, Andrew has one step-child for which he pays $850 dollars per month in child support. For the last 5 years they have resided in Pittsburg, Kansas.
Andrew is a district manager for a mechanical parts distributor. He makes $85,000 per year in this capacity. Lora is an ultrasound technician at a local OB-GYN’s office. In 2005 she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. While she uses a wheelchair, she has been able to treat the symptoms well enough that she has been able to work until last year. She made $65,000 per year at her job. However, she had so many absences due to her inability to perform her job duties that she ultimately had to resign. She has filed for Social Security Disability and is currently awaiting the social security office’s determination that she is disabled. For the time being Andrew’s income is the sole income for the family.
Andrew tells you that they have had to upgrade their house substantially to allow Lora to have access. Because she is in a wheelchair, they had to install a ramp, purchase a handicapped equipped van, and install a chair lift on their stairway so that she can access their bedroom. They have had to purchase appliances that she can use, for example, an oven with the controls on the front so that she can reach them. They have also had substantial medical expenses over the last ten years including thousands of dollars in doctors’ and hospital bills, tests, labs and prescriptions. They also had to pay for the purchase of Lora’s wheelchair and other devices to assist her to complete everyday tasks which were not covered by their health insurance policy.
The purchases of equipment and improvements on their home were financed by a home equity loan on the Buck’s residence. They have some outstanding medical debt, but most other medical expenses that were not covered by insurance and that the Bucks have not already paid were charged on credit cards. Lora and Andrew tell you that they don’t want to declare bankruptcy, but that with their current debt levels, continued medical expenses and the loss of Lora’s job, they can no longer afford to make payments on their debt.
They come to you for advice in determining whether bankruptcy is a good option for them. They have provided you with the attached list of assets and liabilities. They have also provided you with a summary of monthly income and expenses.
Please answer the following questions for the Bucks:
Do the Bucks qualify to file for bankruptcy?
If so, which chapter of bankruptcy do they qualify for and is most beneficial for them? Please show any calculations you made to make this determination.
What if any tasks will the Buck’s need to complete after filing?
What of their belongings, if any, will they be able to keep after the bankruptcy is over?
They are particularly concerned about their home as it has now been equipped for Lora’s use and they do not want to have to move.
According to the information provided to you, which creditors will be paid and which will be discharged? Why?
Assets/Liabilities:
Residence located at 114 Sunrise Court, Pittsburg, Kansas 66762 325,000
Subject to:
Purchase Mortgage outstanding balance (115,000)
Home Equity Line of Credit (120,000)
2016 Ford Explorer 23,000
Subject to bank lien for purchase (15,000)
2017 Toyota Sienna retrofitted wheelchair van 80,000
(modifications paid for by credit card)
2013 GMC Canyon Truck 8,000
Lora’s 401(k) retirement account 250,000
Andrew’s 401(k) retirement account 460,000
Lora’s Roth IRA 45,000
Andrew’s Roth IRA 45,000
Security Bank Checking Account balance 560
Security Bank Savings Account 10,000
Lora’s diamond engagement ring/wedding ring, 1 carat diamond 8,000
Lora’s diamond and ruby necklace inherited from her Mother 1,000
Boston upright piano (used for children’s piano practice) 7,000
Andrew and Lora’s clothing and personal effects 600
Children’s clothing, personal effects, toys and equipment 600
Household furniture, pots, pans, dishes, home appliances 5,000
Desktop computer (used for Andrew’s work and kids’ homework) 750
Laptop computer (used for kids’ homework) 500
1 iPad Pro (used by oldest daughter for school art projects) 500
2 iPads 350
5 iPhones versions 6-7 600
1 Beagle named Snoopy, 4 years old 100
Medical Debts:
Ladies of Mercy Hospital 14,000
Dr. Sandtower 2,000
Homehealth Medical equipment 8,500
Credit Card Debt:
RunManhattan revolving account 25,000
EnTrust Credit 18,000
WellsFargo Personal Revolving Credit 4,500
Personal line of Credit
Security Bank 15,000
Judgment Liens:
Missouri Furniture Mart 4,500
Collection Recovery Services 8,000
Monthly Income and expenses
Andrew’s income:
Monthly gross pay 7,000
Federal withholding 1,000
State Withholding 250
Employee’s portion of health insurance 500
Contributions to retirement 700
Take home pay: 4,550
Lesser of Mortgage payment ($950) + housing expense or
Allowable housing expense (1,586) 1,586
Payment on Home Equity Line of Credit 650
Truck payment 350
Homeowner’s Insurance (3,000 annual/12) 250
Real Estate Taxes (2,800 annual/12) 235
Groceries and personal care expenses for 6 people 1,650
Child Support Obligation 850
Minimum payments on revolving accounts 950
Explanation / Answer
Someday this earlier fall on my morning go back and forth from D.C. To Virginia, I tuned the radio to 105.5 FM, expecting to listen to my average bluegrass. However alternatively of fiddles and guitar, I heard a voice in Russian-accented English announce: that is Radio Sputnik.
I had no suggestion then what Radio Sputnik was once. What got here to intellect used to be Sputnik 1, the primary artificial satellite tv for pc, which prompted the distance Race between the U.S. And Soviet Union throughout the cold battle. The seashore-ball sized satellite, once launched, didn't do so much apart from orbit the Earth beeping, but it performed on American fears and anxieties about being technologically at the back of, serving as robust Soviet propaganda.
Enter Radio Sputnik. Like its sister outlet RT, Sputnik is a Russian executive-funded media outlet, extensively visible by means of Russia experts as a automobile to disseminate disinformation for the Kremlin, and, like its space-residing namesake, to make the West seem bad. At the same time RT is tv, Sputnik lives on the radio, a wire provider and internet site. Each RT and Sputnik are below the banner of the news agency Rossiya Segodnya, this means that Russia at present,and which was created in December 2013 through presidential decree via Vladimir Putin.
Each shops, according to Ben Nimmo, an know-how defense fellow with the Atlantic Council, a Washington believe tank, put out propaganda supposed to polarize and confuse, and attack the info instead than document them.
When in comparison with the easier-known RT, Nimmo said, Sputnik is much more regressive and much more pernicious.
For a up to date instance, see Sputnik's insurance plan when you consider that the April 7 chemical attack in Douma, Syria. Whilst Western powers say Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's govt forces have been behind the assault, Sputnik has pushed a narrative that the assault was once faked, orchestrated by way of the humanitarian search-and-rescue group the White Helmets. In line with Sputnik, the White Helmets, which was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, is a Western-funded assemble, and had turned an traditional instance of dirt and smoke inhalation into a chemical assault. Sputnik's principal supply for this insurance policy was a 11th of September truther.
(Snopes, the very fact-checking website, said that pics being used to discredit the White Helmets are stills from a movie set. Consistent with the Washington publish, statements by using medics pronouncing that children in Douma suffered from bronchial asthma attacks alternatively of a chemical assault could have been coerced.)
The whole factor is to make you doubt, to result in paralysis, Nimmo mentioned. When compared to the easier-recognized RT, he said, Sputnik is much more regressive and way more pernicious.
at present, Sputnik operates in 34 countries in additional than 30 languages, together with, as of this previous summer, on an FM station (and now an AM) in Washington, D.C. When Sputnik launched stateside, the investigations into Russias supposed interference in the U.S. Election have been accelerating, and the media outlet was greeted with relevant protection. The Washington post editorial board accused Russia of weaponizing information.
by way of fall, the FBI used to be investigating claims from Sputnik's former White house reporter, Andrew Feinberg, that he used to be fired for not asking the White house questions about a Fox news story that stated Democratic countrywide Committee staffer Seth rich leaked information to Wikileaks earlier than he used to be killed. The story was once roundly debunked. (The FBI declined to comment to the NewsHour on Sputnik, and Sputnik stated Feinberg was fired for efficiency-associated disorders.) In February, Sputnik's U.S. Supplier was once pressured to register as a foreign agent with the U.S. Department of Justice.
And but, by way of all the criticism, Sputnik has quietly persisted to place out the equal information or disinformation as it had earlier than. In view that its supplier is now a overseas agent, Sputnik is now required to reveal that it's funded by way of the Russian executive. But whilst it does this on air, I in no way noticed one of these disclosure on-line. And so Sputnik stories like the one alleging that the chemical attack in Syria was once a false can effortlessly spread, except they appear on the lips of a congressional candidate, are published on mainstream sites like Britain The unbiased, and get included by most important outlets, including CBS and Newsweek.
Sputnik, for its part, claims that it is telling the untold studies the Western and mainstream media ignores.
To better recognize the institution, I put myself on a weeklong Radio Sputnik-only food plan. I additionally spent a day in its newsroom, speaking with workers, together with one who was fired quickly after he began speakme with me. What I determined used to be a stranger photograph than I expected, one wherein i started to realize how persuasive disinformation could be.
Sputnik's Washington D.C. Place of work. Photo by Elizabeth Flock
inside of Radio Sputnik
Over the last month, questioning the chemical attack in Douma dominated the news at Sputnik. However after I visited the Sputnik places of work, in early April, the story in query was once the poisoning of the Skripals, an ex-Russian spy and his daughter who had been uncovered to a nerve agent, which the Western world stated used to be the work of the Kremlin.
Earlier than my talk over with, I known as Andrew Feinberg, the fired Sputnik White house reporter, to ask about probably the most claims he'd made in a Politico story about his former corporation. In the piece, he'd stated his editor asked him to question the White condo about alternate versions to who was once in the back of the sarin gasoline attack of April 2017. He also stated he was requested in his hiring interview what he would do if requested to put in writing something untrue. (That editor later told me the first allegation was true, the 2d false.) after I instructed Feinberg, who's now working as a reporter for a alternate e-newsletter, that I was once going to seek advice from Sputnik, he laughed bitterly and requested: Do you've a flask?
as soon as inside of Sputnik k road studio, I sat in on the taping of the fundamental morning show, Fault lines,which is something like a mix of the historical tv sequence Crossfire and the conspiracy theory site Infowars. The show is hosted by using Lee Stranahan, the former Breitbart reporter who the brand new York occasions mentioned had upended an Idaho town together with his exaggerated reporting on a juvenile intercourse crime, and Garland Nixon, a self-professed Bernie Sanders supporter, former cop and board member of the ACLU. (Stranahan instructed me he stands through his Idaho reporting.) They satisfaction themselves on coming from two one of a kind aspects of the aisle, although over a month of listening to them, I rarely heard them disagree.
After the exhibit ended, Nixon and Stranahan sidebarred with each other concerning the Skripals: how the father and daughter had lately woken up after the assault, how that wasn't viable after a nerve agent poisoning, and the way that have to imply the West was mendacity about what fairly occurred. Questioning the Wests Skripal narrative had been the point of interest of an prior part of their show that morning, earlier than they put on actor Danny Glover to speak about his activism, and a Howard school professor and political scientist to talk about demonstrations over housing issues on the tuition.
It's this mix of reliable information more often than not together with subject matters undercovered by using the mainstream media along with conspiracy theories and disinformation that makes propaganda so strong, stated Peter Pomerantsev, a Soviet-born British journalist who spent years working for Russian channels and makes a speciality of studying Russian propaganda. He wrote a book concerning the expertise known as Nothing is right and the whole lot is viable and is in these days a traveling senior fellow on the London institution of Economics. It's about embedding your self as much as viable in social media communities, Pomerantsev mentioned.after which it may unfold the story it wishes to unfold, whether or not it's about Ukraine or the White Helmets.
Or about the Skripals. Online, Sputnik raised a quantity of different theories about how the poisoning genuinely occurred. a few of these theories had been additionally raised to me even as within the newsroom, in particular the suggestion that if the Skripals particularly had been exposed to a nerve agent, they under no circumstances would have woken up. This was argued to me so persuasively that I discovered myself Googling it within the toilet.
Sputnik claims that it's telling the untold reviews the Western and mainstream media ignores.
Even as at Sputnik's workplaces, I additionally sat down with Mindia Gavasheli, a Russian country wide who runs Sputniks D.C. Newsroom. He instructed me he started out his career as a television correspondent at age 18, before RT hired him as a producer. Later, he used to be tapped to oversee Sputniks U.S. Challenge.
When asked about claims of propaganda, Gavasheli defended the media outlet as striking out a vital, alternate point of view.
I on the whole wouldn't hire anyone who's pronouncing the equal thing because the mainstream media. Seeing that Russia is a horrible situation is a mainstream factor, he mentioned.I don't see whatever fallacious with reflecting the interests of the Russia facet too.
Gavasheli denied to me that Feinberg was ever informed to ask the White apartment about Seth wealthy. He said that actually he'd banned his newsroom from protecting the Seth rich story, in view that he realized from the get-go that it gave the impression fishy. When presented with a conspiratorial Seth wealthy story that still lived on Sputnik's web page, Gavasheli stated op-eds like that piece have been written from Moscow, and that his crew didn't write or edit them.
He stated the identical for an editorial on Sputnik's web page that pushed a fake story about German chancellor Angela Merkel taking a selfie with a Brussels bomber. The man was once clearly a Syrian refugee.
A story Sputnik posted April 14, 2018 casting doubt on the chemical assault in Douma, Syria.
Gavasheli and other Sputnik journalists pointed me instead to their work on undercovered problems: inspecting police violence in the U.S., the thought of single-payer wellbeing care, and how issues with the U.S. Voting approach disproportionately influence poorer areas. They defended story after story that critiqued, mocked, or proffered unproven theories concerning the West, specifically on international policy, as greater than well-deserved. Russia watchers have a phrase for this: whataboutism, that means efforts to discredit the West commonly rather of refuting character arguments. Sputnik calls it telling the untold.
Between two angry elephants
when I sat down with Lee Stranahan, the former Breitbart reporter, who calls himself apolitical futurist, he shrugged off the notion that Sputnik used to be Russian propaganda with the aid of using some whataboutism of his possess.
whilst you work for Sputnik, you get referred to as a traitor and a Putin puppet however why does no person deliver up the coup we fomented? he mentioned, referring to Russian allegations that the U.S. Fomented a coup in Ukraine.
Stranahan additionally argued that Russia and Russian media is being unfairly vilified by means of the U.S. He brought up the July 2016 hacking of Democratic countrywide Committee emails, that have been released by means of Wikileaks and claimed by a persona known as Guccifer 2.0. U.S. Intelligence blamed the leaks on Russia, and the every day Beast mentioned that Guccifer used to be a Russian intelligence officer. However Stranahan mentioned that narrative didn't add up, and to prove it, showed me what he said were Twitter direct messages between himself and Guccifer.
If Guccifer was Russian, he said, What you wouldn't have got to do is create a false persona, do a Twitter web page, do a WordPress web page, which is infamously susceptible to hacking.
Russia has was a fake adversary, he said. I'm one hundred percent comfortable to be working right here.
What I discovered used to be a stranger picture than I predicted, one in which i started to comprehend how persuasive disinformation would be.
Quite often, the Sputnik newsroom is stuffed with journalists with politics external the mainstream. Sputnik has hired journalists of Stranahans correct-wing, and frequently conspiratorial, persuasion, as good as a quantity of journalists on the a long way left. One of Sputniks fundamental indicates, by any means fundamental,is hosted by using Eugene Puryear, a former green social gathering candidate for Washington D.C.'s city Council.
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