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What is the Difference Between Secured and Unsecured Debt?
If you’ve made the decision to file for bankruptcy, your first step in that direction will be filling out a lot of official paperwork that provides the details of your financial situation. As you can imagine, these forms will ask about your income, your assets, and your debts, and the information you provide will go far beyond simply how much you owe: the bankruptcy court will want to know whether a debt is secured or unsecured, and what the priority levels of unsecured claims are as well. This information is essential in helping to determine how your various debts will …Read More ➡
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What is a Prenup?
A prenup, or prenuptial agreement, is a contract that is drawn up before a couple marries, spelling out the details of how they will divide their assets and what financial obligations they will have to each other if their marriage ends in divorce. Though some people resist the idea of a prenup, considering even the discussion of a potential divorce off-putting and unromantic, a quick conversation with anybody who has been married and gone through a divorce will quickly disabuse them of that idea. Most people jump to the conclusion that a prenuptial agreement is only desirable for one prospective …Read More ➡
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Can You be Charged With Assault While Defending Yourself?
Pennsylvania’s laws define assault as inflicting or attempting to inflict bodily harm on another person. Though that seems fairly straightforward, what happens if you have purposely inflicted harm on somebody else while defending yourself? Though the state of Pennsylvania once had a law known as the Duty to Retreat, which meant that you had to take “reasonable steps” to avoid conflict instead of using force. Those laws were eliminated when it became clear that it put the victim in an untenable situation and unable to defend themselves. Now an individual can use self-defense as justification for inflicting bodily harm, but …Read More ➡
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What is a Contested Divorce?
In the state of Pennsylvania, there are several different types of divorce. The easiest and most straightforward is mutual no-fault divorce, in which neither side contests the divorce. There is fault divorce, where one spouse has to prove that the marriage is over as a result of some kind of wrongdoing by their spouse, and the state will grant a divorce to a person whose spouse has already been confined to a mental institution for 18 months and will be for another 18 months. Additionally, the state has rules for a contested divorce, which is also known as a unilateral …Read More ➡
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What Happens to Shared Debt When You Get a Divorce?
Shared debt for things like your mortgage, a car loan, and even credit card bills is a given during marriage but dividing that debt in a divorce can be remarkably challenging. Shared debt in a divorce is usually split in the same way that assets are — with an eye to divide them fairly between the two, giving consideration to each party’s economic standing. If this division is not pursued properly and with an eye to protecting both partners, the surrounding issues can follow you long after the marriage has been dissolved. This is because debt doesn’t involve just the …Read More ➡
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How Do I Have Conditions Removed From My Green Card Status
There are two circumstances under which the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issues conditional green cards. They are: When a foreign national marries a U.S. citizen and the marriage is less than two years since entry to the U.S. When a foreign investor wants to work with an American business or start-up Though conditional green cards provide the same rights as permanent green cards, there is one major difference: the conditional green card is only valid for two years while the permanent green card is valid for ten years, and the conditional green card cannot be renewed while the …Read More ➡
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Things to Consider Before Getting a Divorce
Every divorce is different, so providing advice on steps to take beforehand risks providing too much — or too little — information for a particular situation. The information that a spouse enduring domestic abuse needs is different from the information needed by a spouse who has learned that they’ve been cheated on. Still, there are some issues that will be true under almost all circumstances. Here are some of the most important steps you need to take and things you need to consider before moving forward with a divorce proceeding. Make sure that you have money available to you. This …Read More ➡
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What is Naturalization?
Naturalization is the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. While people who are born in the U.S. or who are born to U.S. citizens abroad are already citizens, those who come to the United States and who wish to become citizens do so through a legal process. In order to qualify for naturalization, a person must be at least 18 years old and must have been a permanent resident for at least 5 years (or have been married to a U.S. citizen for at least three years). Those who meet these qualifications need to follow several steps, including filling out …Read More ➡
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Wage Garnishment in NJ Compared to PA
Being in significant debt can wreak havoc on your life, but there are some types of debt that have a bigger impact than others. If you owe money for student loans, back taxes, for a court judgment or for child support, the courts generally do not leave your obligation to pay in your own hands: rather, they have the power to garner your wages. Wage garnishment is a term that describes a court order that gets sent to your employer and instructs them to hold back a certain amount of your pay to be sent to the person or entity …Read More ➡
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Does Divorce Mediation Ever Work?
Whether you’re the child of divorce yourself or have learned everything you know about splitting up from movies, television, and celebrity headlines, there’s a good chance that you think of the process as acrimonious, nasty, and expensive. That is often the case, and it is why divorce mediation has become increasingly popular. Divorce mediation represents a significant shift from the classic divorce scenario in which two attorneys go head-to-head, fighting over spousal support, equitable distribution, and child support and custody. It places a single mediator between both partners, helping them to reach an agreement in each aspect of the dissolution …Read More ➡
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