Hello all, I am a 45 year old man with early-onset Parkinson's, my wife is 50. We both have good incomes, for now, but I am coming up on the point of leaving work and going on LTD with a major company. The problem, as if that's not enough, is that I developed a gambling/compulsive behavior addiction from one of the drugs I was taking, Mirapex, and now have about $430k of unsecured debt on credit cards, and about $380k of secured debt on our house which we paid $385k for in 2003 and is probably worth about that now. I realize I have made some disasterous choices and done horrible things, but I have dragged my wife down with me, and for her sake, if not my own, I would like to recover something like a normal life. Our only real assets are our paid-for cars and about $400-450k in retirement accounts (401k, pretax). The sum of the minimum payments on the cards plus our mortgage is greater than the amount of our take home pay combined. All the teaser rates are expired and I'm getting charged anywhere from 10% to 29% interest. I realize we are like 100k over the ceiling for chapter 13, and even if we weren't a lawyer suggested I might have a problem with the issue of fraud if I were to file a 13. Obviously a 7 is not likely to be granted. The current strategy I have (the best I can come up with) is to pay for credit protector on most of the credit cards, so that if I go out on LTD in a few months I'd freeze about 1/2 to 2/3 of the debt for 18 months to 2 years and about 80k would be waived. In the meantime I would hope to pay down as much of the remainder as I could. If anyone can suggest ideas I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
You idea is the only one I could fathom but, even that may be construed as fraud given the facts. I've never seen such as case in all honesty. I think you may be forced into defending civil actions on the basis of capacity. That is the only true legal way I can see this turning in your favor.
After subtracting mortgage and heloc and the kind of basic expenses you'd have in a chapter 13 type scenario I might have about 5,000 a month of disposable income to pay creditors depending on whether we put anything away in a 401k. At the rates I'm paying that doesn't even cover the interest. If 13 was open to me then they could at least potentially get 300k over 5 years and I would be clear. That is probably the best outcome for everyone. So that leaves me with chapter 11 or judgement proofing. I believe in my state (NJ) my disability insurance payments (income) are exempt. If anyone knows a law firm that is still taking mirapex cases, I wold love to hear about it. Apparently they have all been moved to minnesota. I talked to one firm there but they weren't interested in representing me.
If I can find a lawyer to take the case I am definitely going to do that. Any lawyers who can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.
