Title: September 28, 2005
Maxine de Villefranche is an attorney and civil general practitioner with 13 years of experience. She operates her law practice from her new office in town, as well her Lancaster satellite office. She will answer legal questions posed to her by the readers, to the best of her abilities. Please forward your questions to maxinedev@msn.com or fax them to (661)825-8880.
Q. I have heard that bankruptcy laws will change pretty soon, making it much more difficult to get rid of credit card debt. When will the new law be applicable and will someone making about $22,000 a year supporting a family of five be able to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?
A. The new law is called “The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005” and will be implemented starting Oct. 17, 2005. Every “would-be filer” will be required to undergo credit counseling. A certified a completion will need to be filed with the Bankruptcy Court. There will be a “means test” which each individual will have to meet in order to qualify for filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In California, the median income for a one-person family is $42,012, a two-person family $53,506, three-person family $59,633 and four-person family $68,310. Obviously with a yearly income of $22,000 for a family of five will qualify you. It is very likely that many Kern County residents will qualify as the income median in this county is lower than the median of the entire state of California. Nevertheless it may be dangerous to generalize as each case must go through the means test. An investigation needs to be conducted by the attorney willing take on the case with regards to the assets of the debtor to ensure that all such assets have been disclosed.
Q. My 87-year old mother was hospitalized for several days last year after suffering from congestive heart failure. She was injured when she attempted to go to the bathroom unescorted. She fell down and broke her hip. She has never recovered from this grave accident and is still, to this day, in a wheelchair. I want to know if I can sue the hospital for failing to provide sufficient supervision while she was a patient there.
A. This is a loaded question and I will not be able to provide an answer that will satisfy you. The answer is: it depends. Medical malpractice is an area of the law that is fraught with dangers and is very expensive to prosecute. Hence I have stayed away from it. Even if you could prove that the hospital itself or its staff are liable for your mother’s accident, the recovery can be severely limited due to certain quirks of the law. Moreover, damages incurred by an 87-year old are further limited by her failure to have much earning potential as well as many other factors. I really cannot expand on my answer as even I have limits in my legal knowledge of Med-mal.
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