The first and most important fact about bankruptcy is that it should constitute the ultimate solution whenever you are in financial difficulties. When you are struggling with huge debts, even if you think it is impossible to get out of them, you must try several solutions before opting for the final decision of bankruptcy. If you feel yourself constrained, that debts are all around you, don’t postpone. The more you postpone the payments, and wait for something to happen, the worse it will get. You need to take action immediately, and start by being your own financial manager. Here are some steps you must take when you feel that you are heading slowly but surely towards bankruptcy:
- Take pen and paper, note down all of your outstanding debts (with interest rates)
- Sort things out. See whether you can afford at least to pay back those loans which have very high interest rates. The sooner you get rid of these, the better.
- You might have money stuck elsewhere, which you can use for paying off debts (stocks, jewelry, expensive equipments, even your car). Try to pay off from your debts as much as you can through own powers, and not by taking on another loan.
After these steps, and if you have found a way of paying off at least a small part of your debts, you can move on to the next solution. For example, say that you have an overall debt of $15,000. Now, by trying to cover even 10% of that debt by selling personal items is one step forward on your way of getting out of debt. If you manage to do so, that means you have by now a debt of only $13,500, which means that if you take on a loan for paying your debts off, you won’t be at least paying for the interests accruing on the sum of $1,500. Even if you sold personal items in order to make repayments, at least you didn’t have to make another loan in order to make payments. You managed to get rid of a small part of your debts, but you still have a great part left over which must be taken care of. To avoid bankruptcy a person has to use in a way or other a bankruptcy trustee. The following are some of tips you could implement in order to avoid filing for bankruptcy:
- Debt consolidation loans. Take out such a loan in order to pay off the remainder of your debts. This is a secured loan (collateralized), so it will definitely come under good terms: lower interest rates than an unsecured loan, higher loan to value, and sometimes there will be no late payment fees.
- Debt settlement. You could contact all of your lenders in order to settle your debt with them. This can happen over the phone, or by writing debt settlement letters, where you carefully will expose the reasons why you cannot continue the repayments (your financial status changed because you lost or changed your job for example). Lenders are generally flexible to work with in these matters, because they want to recuperate their loss even if at a smaller percentage. So, you might easily get your lender lower your interest payments or extending the term of you loan so that you will pay less on a monthly basis.
- HELOC – or home equity line of credit, is a secured type of loan and differs from a home equity loan which you receive as a lump sum, in that a HELOC works like credit card loan (only secured), so on much better terms. You will have access to a certain amount (settled by the lender, depending on the equity left in your home), where you can withdraw money from any time you need and as often as needed.
So, it is very important that you take the ruling into your hands and commit everything possible to get rid of that debt as soon as possible. It will take you some years until you can see that record clean, but with every repayment towards that debt you will feel more and more enlightened. If you consider that you need counseling because you cannot manage everything by yourself you can turn to a debt counseling agency in order to get the proper advice.
January 23rd, 2010
In recent years, Judges have been imposing alternative sentences for those who are found guilty of Drunk Driving. Perhaps one of the most popular sentences can be found in the imposition of Interlock Ignition Devices, which are devices created to make DWI offenders pass a breath test before they are allowed to turn their vehicle on.
Continue Reading October 27th, 2009
In recent months past, the automotive industry has been a part of one wild roller-coaster ride. With the struggling economy combined with the pending collapse of some of the nations leading auto producing giants, it would seem at face value that there is no hope for the industry recovering. However, things began to look up with the implementation of the CARS program, which helped not only resuscitate the industry a bit, it also helped take inefficient vehicles off the road, replacing them with more fuel efficient options. It would seem from there, the industry has only made improvements for the most part.
One concept which has recently seen a boost in support is the idea behind the Zipcar. The Zipcar company is leading a car-sharing campaign which seems to be spreading like wildfire across the nation. With a membership base of 325,000, Zipcar continues to expand its reach. It’s become such a popular concept that non-profit organizations have begun to organize similar programs around the country. Organizations such as I-Go out of Chicago, City CarShare in San Francisco, and Philly CarShare in Philadelphia offer similar services. Even car-rental heavyweights Enterprise and Hertz are hopping on the wagon.
“The future of transportation will be a blend of things like Zipcar, public transportation and private car ownership, Not only do I not fear that, but I think it’s a great opportunity for us to participate in the changing nature of car ownership.”said Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, who acknowledged that car-sharing is a definite sign of evolution within the auto industry.
In October of 2007, Zipcar – which is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass.- took over rival company Flexcar. With that addition, the company began to generate approximately $130 Million annually. Zipcar Chief Executive Officer Scott Griffith has estimated $5 Billion in annual revenue throughout the entire industry if these growth patterns continue on the path they are currently on.
In the past year, there has been a 78% increase in memberships in the Ann Arbor area alone. The fleet at University of Michigan has 15 vehicles- comprised of Toyota, Honda, Mini, and Ford , and is looking to continue to expand.
Another phenomenal quality of these programs is the fuel efficiency involved. CEO of Chicago-based I-GO Sharon Feigon has noted that half their vehicles are hybrids. She’s also been quoted as saying, “Remember: We pay for the gas, so we will always be partial to fuel-efficient and low-emission vehicles.” While the car-sharing industry has focused its attention primarily on college towns, much of its growth is expected to be found in larger cities such as Boston, New York, and Chicago,
Here are a few specifics for the Zipcar program:
-$25 Application fee / $50 annual membership fee ($35 for Univ. Michigan students,staff, faculty) gets a magnetized card that provides access to one of four cars in Ann Arbor.
-Hourly Rates: $8 Hour weekdays / $9 Hour Weekends
-Must have unblemished driving record due to insurance payments ( Zipcar will not hesitate to reject those drivers deemed high-risk.
-No smoking in the vehicle.
-Each vehicle has a gas card in the glove compartment, drivers must leave ¼ tank of gas when returning the vehicle.
-Drivers may not taxi people nor deliver any products (i.e. pizza)
For these nominal fees, you can save yourself thousands of dollars a year in insurance, gas, car payments, parking passes, and other areas associated with owning a vehicle. Its not only financially smart, its environmentally friendly. Joining the Zipcar family is a smart way to help improve your life while managing to save some extra change here and there. But you still have to obey the law, avoid having to call a Michigan DUI lawyer in a shared vehicle!
September 15th, 2009
Over the course of the past few months, there has been much attention directed towards the auto industry. Specifically towards the Detroit’s Big-Three, and whether or not there should be an extensive amount of money given to them to bail them out of the massive debt they were in, which was crippling the automotive industry. The common consensus seemed to be that they didn’t deserve the bail-out money due to a lack of quality production. People felt as if the vehicles being produced out of Detroit just weren’t up to par with other foreign auto makers.
While these Giants may have had their ups and downs, they have apparently picked up the slack in recent years, as they have topped the charts in terms of customer satisfaction according to one article which was posted on Forbes.com. According to a report released by University of Michigan, Detroit had some of the largest gains in customer satisfaction, with Ford at a 5 % increase from last year, Chrysler at a 4 %, and GM at 2%. GM’s Cadillac continues to top the charts for the second year straight, producing a 7.2 % increase in customer satisfaction. The American Consumer Satisfaction Index attributes this rise in consumer satisfaction to three primary factors:
1)Consumers more readily recognizing improvements in quality and service
2)Car prices have evened out, and even decreased with rebates and other incentives
3)The Automakers’ consumer base has shrunk
While it takes a long period of time for a consumer to change their perception from negative to positive regarding a company, the time in which it takes to lose that positive support is much less. It is for this reason that a smaller consumer base and increasing customer satisfaction can be seen as a good thing. With the consumer base decreasing, those who remain are becoming more and more satisfied, helping the percentage increase.
“For Detroit, serving a smaller, more satisfied customer base should be easier to manage and to build from compared to what they had before, which was a large diversified mass of customers that almost always had lower satisfaction than those who bought cars from foreign competitors.” says ACSI spokesperson Claes Fornell. These are only some of the improvements being made in Detroit since the bail-out.
This article has been brought to you by Attorney Joseph Awad, premier Michigan DUI attorney.
September 4th, 2009
The police officer who arrested you must justify why he did so in court. For this reason, the police will do everything they can to make observations about you that demonstrate your intoxication. When they observe symptoms they believe show your drunkenness, they will record those observations in the police report. A good attorney will immediately request a copy of the police report and carefully examine any claim that you appeared drunk. While there are many commons signs of intoxication, there are also many legitimate explanations for those very signs that have nothing to do with drinking alcohol. The officer, however, will usually pay no attention to the alternate explanations for your appearance and immediately conclude that drinking was the basis for what you look. Your lawyer must aggressively challenge the officer’s presumptions about your appearance and provide other explanations for the way you appeared when you were arrested. Providing other reasons for your appearance will downplay any claim that you committed a DUI. The following examples are some of the things an officer will routinely list in a police report as signs of your intoxication; the observations are then followed by other non-alcohol related reasons for the very same symptoms – reasons the officer arresting you conveniently fails to consider.
Bloodshot eyes: The officer will almost always claim that a driver arrested for DUI had red or “bloodshot eyes.” If the officer notices redness in your eyes, the observation will certainly find its way into the police report. Make sure your lawyer is familiar with various legitimate justifications for your alleged “red” eyes. While excessive drinking would produce red eyes, there are many other explanations to account for such redness.
Your bloodshot eyes may have nothing to do with drinking: Perhaps your eyes are always slightly red, to begin with. After all, if the officer is claiming that drinking caused your eyes to redden, he or she should also be able to determine what condition your eyes are normally, too. Since the officer is unable to tell the court what your eyes ordinarily look like, you may be able to play down the significance of his observation. Prolonged exposure to smoky areas, like restaurants and pool halls will create redness in the eyes and may have nothing to do with alcohol. Fatigue may also explain your red and bloodshot eyes. It is not uncommon for most folks to have red and tired eyes after a long day of work and/or play. Since most arrests for drunk driving occur in the evening or early morning, it is possible that the redness in your eyes just represents a long and hard day of honest work, or an early rise to the day. Allergies, colds, air pollution, and other airborne substances to which you were exposed are other good examples of alternate reasons for red and bloodshot eyes. It is highly unlikely that the officer even considered these other explanations before prematurely concluding that your red eyes were caused by consuming alcohol. Make sure your Michigan DUI lawyer exploits this bias in the police report and thoroughly investigates whether or not the officer’s observations of your eyes caused him to draw improper conclusions when arresting you for DUI.
May 19th, 2009
Too many people are pulled over for the silliest reasons, very few of which can be attributed to drunk driving. For example, if you are reaching for your cell phone or fiddling with the radio, you may have caused your vehicle to veer to one side. This does not mean that you are drunk. It certainly does not mean that your driving was affected by your drinking. If the officer is going to claim that your driving showed signs of your intoxication, an alternate explanation for your driving will come in very handy in demonstrating that the officer’s presumptions about your driving are wrong. A good Michigan OWI lawyer knows it’s important to aggressively defend the basis for stopping you, since an illegal stop of your vehicle often times means a dismissal of your case. After all, no evidence obtained against you on the basis of an illegal stop can be used against you in court. Your attorney must look for any and all reasons to challenge the reason the officer stopped you, since doing so will reveal many legal opportunities for your DUI defense in court.
May 19th, 2009
Many of the officer’s initial impressions of you will be made before he even pulls you over. If you are driving in what he believes to be an unsafe manner, his attitude of who he will encounter will be skewed. A good Michigan OWI attorney can use this bias to show that the officer was predisposed to arrest you.
Read more about getting your DUI case dismissed at Dui Charges in Michigan.
May 19th, 2009
